Splinterlands - Rebellion is coming and might do more damage than good

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Splinterlands rushes to launch a new card edition entitled Rebellion and in my opinion this might do more damage than good. There was a lot of talking about change and a better and healthier way moving forward in the last AMA, but with this announcement it seems that the game is doomed to repeat the past mistakes. I agree that they need an infusion of money to keep things going, but seeing how fast they've moved with a new card edition launch simply proves that they cannot source funds from other places. Thus, they get back to the players and try to squeeze them for some more, but I am not sure that it will work like intended. Why? Simply because overflowing the Splinterlands game market with a plethora of NFTs will have adverse effects on the game's tokenomics, touching every corner of it.

Market Saturation

The first thing that will happen as many NFTs are ready to flood the market, it will lead to oversaturation. This will dilute the value of individual NFTs, making it challenging for players and collectors to distinguish between assets value, sending them to Oblivion. As a result, the scarcity and uniqueness of valuable NFTs will be compromised, undermining the core concept of NFT-based collectibles and utilities.

Inflation of In-Game Currency

Game economies often rely on a native currency or tokens that hold value within the game and in case of Splinterlands that would be either Splintershards (governance token) or Dark Energy Crystals (the stablecoin that was never stable and de-pegged itself drastically). Introducing an excessive number of NFTs can lead to players accumulating vast amounts of in-game currency through the sale of NFTs, resulting in high inflation. Inflation can disrupt the balance of the in-game economy which is already poor, making it difficult for new players to participate. I wonder about what will come and I see new All Time Lows all over the Splinterlands assets unfortunately.

Power Creep

If we are thinking about the competitive aspects of the assets, certain NFTs can confer advantages to players, such as improved stats or abilities. When an abundance of NFTs is introduced, it can lead to power creep, where newer NFTs outclass the older ones, making the game less enjoyable for those who don't own the latest, most powerful NFTs. This will create an imbalance in gameplay and frustrate players. I am a Splinterlands investor before the game saw the light of day, I am holding Beta cards and I look to the new ones and cannot but wonder how those will compete. Overwhelming cards coming from everywhere and flooding the game might end up to its peril.

Lack of Scarcity and Value

One of the key attractions of NFTs is their scarcity and value. Excessive NFTs as Rebellion will bring to Splinterlands will only diminish this scarcity, resulting in a loss of perceived value. When players feel that NFTs are no longer unique or rare, they may lose interest in collecting or trading them. I have over 700 Chaos Legion packs standing idle and losing value, so I will not invest a penny more while this strategy and vision is in place. Survival at players cost is not the answer, but I feel that the game founders simply don't know to do good business and keep this ecosystem balanced.

Complexity in Game Design and Strategy

A game like Splinterlands with too many NFTs will become overly complex and challenging to manage. Developers may struggle to balance the gameplay, leading to issues related to fairness, rewards, and game progression. This complexity can deter new players and reduce overall engagement. I have friends loving to strategize, but when you throws millions after millions of NFTs on the market, they will simply not be able to do that anymore and will not enjoy the game as before.

These are just some of the example on how a new Edition of millions of NFTs at this point in time can do more damage than good for Splinterlands and the players. Promises of a new vision and that things are going to change seem to have vanished in just two weeks as the Splinterlands team is hungry for money from wherever they can get it. And instead finding investors, they've turned around to the players to once again put their investments on the line while seeing value diminishing each passing day. This will not last long and while with the Land and current cards supply, I would have still see a light of the end of the tunnel, with the new cards thrown on the market feels more like sending us into the Oblivion. Dark days are coming and I still try to find a bit of hope to keep on going...

Splinterlands link

Posted Using InLeo Alpha



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23 comments
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I tend to agree with you. The prices are kind of down and chaos legion cards are available for anyone getting into the game. The prices aren't very high either for those chaos legion cards. At the same time, I think people are just a little tapped out due to land and everyone collecting DEC/cards for when that goes lives. I don't really have the funds to really go into Rebellion so I might just go at it slowly.

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I've started to get tired of pouring money into the game, while the tokenomics go down the drain. They need to attend better the tokenomics if they want for the players to stay around.

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The root cause is the bear market, I believe. NFT prices had fallen dramatically in the whole industry. Splinterlands NFTs were resisting. Untamed NFT card prices had fallen fast last month. Chaos legion cards also lost value.

I agree with the opinion that NFT inflation should be lower. The ultimate solution would be fresh money flowing into the ecosystem.

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Beer market keeps new players away, but breaking the tokenomics with such moves makes current players go away as well.

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I also agree with you, they could have waited perhaps the second quarter of 2024 to release this one, it's insane though, but I guess it's the need to get money to fund the game.

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They should be able to get money externally, not by braking even more the tokenomics. This way it is hard for me to see this game sustainable going forward.

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I hope they find a way to maintain sustainability.. I don't know why they choose to release it now, maybe they could have done otherwise, maybe, but for our sake, maybe they should have done better.

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It might not be that bad.... Need to break down in order for us to build up right!!

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Once tokenomics get broken, it is hard to make them right back again.

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Adding a new edition of cards in the game is good but I think that this is no the right time as people are struggling in bear market. I doubt many players won't be able to buy the new edition and that too we already have riftwatcher packs available in market.

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True and while I have invested in Chaos Legion packs and now seeing them trade under $1, how can I invest in Rebellion. The math simple doesn't add up and it is hard to just substract and substract...

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I felt exactly the same when CL packs were introduced. It was good for the new players because it was released during a bull market.

Today the value of the collection is getting lower and lower. The value of existing cards itself is very poor in the market and new cards will continue to reduce the value of the existing assets further.

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While Matt promises new strategy going further, the actions speak otherwise. I am trying hard to keep the faith and hope of the project. But it still hangs there.. hopefully a new bull market will improve that.

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Yeah let's hope. If we share our honest opinion, sometimes they also think that we are against the project. 🥲

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If they add new edition of cards, people may be struggling to buy since they have not recovered from the bear market
I'm just guessing

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It's just like new things are coming in the game and the damage will be more, so this kind of things makes people more interested in the projects and new people are definitely coming in.

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I agree that prices are going to dip. It happens at the start of every new set. Players selling "old" cards to purchase the new. I feel as we had a chance to turn things around a little during the last XX months when there was no sets for sale on the official site but unfortunately stuff got introduced during that time that required players to spend if they wanted to participate. I think the game will be fine over-all but we are going to need a bull run if we want to see asset prices recovering. I also think the affordability of CHAOS packs is going to hurt sales of future packs. I'm holding a nice chunk of CHAOS packs as well. I still can't believe CHAOS is selling for 90 cents (the last time I checked some days ago). Its hard to believe but they might dip further.

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It is painful to watch the market for packs and the team wants to release Rebellion in these times... wrong at it can be in my opinion. They need a true financial officer (CFO) who knows to bring money from outside investors and not turn at each corner to players.

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