Splinterlands - Playerbase marketing level 0

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(Edited)

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Shame on you, SPT marketing

"Hey guys, look at my game, it's on a blockchain! You can see it's alive so stick your money into it!"

The phrase above is enough to attract investors. But would it attract gamers, who are the core of any, well, game? Uh, no. It wouldn't. Almost nobody knows Splinterlands is a good game with great strategic and fun gameplay. What's worse, the team doesn't seem to care about it.

But it gets worse. Would you invest in a new brand with a lot of hype in it and a product showing great potential? Maybe, yes. Splinterlands is more than 2 years old but it gets the treatment as a new product. It's too old for that strategy. You would consider a successful product with an ever growing or at least a stable and large enough database instead, which hopefully will be the case again at some point.

Wasted potential

Splinterlands should have an ever growing playerbase. It has good gameplay. It has frequent enough updates. It's still adding great features over time. Things almost never break, but if they do, they're quickly fixed. I personally own maxed cards that are not that strong, and they don't fit my collection focus but I won't sell them because I like the way they play.

The problem is how nobody outside the community knows about any of these great points. When a player like me wants to keep some of their cards even though those specific monsters don't make him a lot of money, you can be 100% certain you've got a game people can grow passionate about! But they won't even try it if the game has never been advertised to them.

Getting things right 101

Here are some major features that would resonate with the right kind of crowd - gamers and anyone who wants an extra source of income:

  • Good, fun, varied emergent gameplay - Each battle will make players eager for the results!
  • Guaranteed income just for playing the game - More income if you get better cards and/or get better at the game!
  • What you earn can be instantly withdrawn at any time - There's no minimum threshold!
  • Both regular play and tournaments award cash and asset prizes every day - You can earn a lot over time, even if you don't invest a lot!
  • Expanding features and collection - Keep up with the updates, because the game is here for the long run!
  • Combine multiples of the same card to make them stronger, then take them to the appropriate competition - Tournaments offer different max card levels, so there is the right event for all collection sizes

I would have started playing Splinterlands even sooner if those points were explicit. The SPT marketing team should expose them. But they don't. They should! So it's up to the community to push some buttons, make them go into the right direction.

Everyone involved in the game will appreciate the end result, including investors. An interested playerbase means an active market. Hey, just look at the image at the top of this post. It's very attractive, isn't it? Too bad only people who are players already would pay it any attention since it has no outside exposure.

Anyone can get into the game with paypal so there's no reason to put so much weight into the fact it runs on a blockchain. Because even if it didn't, those features stand on their own with excellence.



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(Edited)

Hey @felipejoys, first I completely understand your frustration. We've never spoke, but I've seen you around since the beginning, so its nice to hear your thoughts. I have had these exact issues over the years and I agree it can be very frustrating. The game has so much potential and at times the players like us get emotional because we think they are missing an opportunity. Please see my post (bottom arrow): If You Expect Splinterlands To Go Higher This Year... Don't Count On It

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While you are right that the game is not "new" anymore, the flip side is they aren't old either. Because they started as just an idea, they have had to build everything from scratch. And with growth comes issues they never dreamed of (like re-working their servers and programming to be more efficient as they try to scale), so while 2 years seems like a lot, it is minuscule compared to what they've achieved. HINT: just think of all the turmoil they've encountered, addressed, and became stronger as a result.

In that post I linked above, I was very frustrated at what I saw as mistakes. And guess what, some of my points were correct and the game has suffered as a result. But, and this is important, I also realized a few months later (top arrow) that while I saw the flaws, I was also missing some of the great things too. In other words, I didn't put things into proper perspective (for me). I wasn't looking at the many right decisions, but instead focusing on the thing I saw as wrong. When I stopped and saw it from their eyes, then I realized this:

Splinterlands developers will make mistakes as they continue to grow. They will miss some obvious opportunities, but at the same time I have faith in their abilities overcome those mistakes. When you add that to the fact that they know how to make a solid game, then I think its still an awesome situation. Nobody's perfect, and their good traits far outweigh their negatives.

Regarding marketing, I completely agree and disagree at the same time. I agree that they should focus more on getting mass adoption, and doing the things necessary to make that happen. I disagree in that I don't want them to "spend money" to market until they fix the biggest issue in my eyes. And that is figuring out how to onboard and retain the new users once they arrive. In other words, it doesn't do any good to spend a lot of money, get a lot of people to the site, then have them leave when they feel like a) they don't want to spend $10 to try it or b) they don't have the patience to learn a very complicated process (ie.. its cool, but not easy to learn). But overall I definitely agree with the #1 need is to find the right solutions to make the game grow. While it has grown, they have underwhelmed for sure in this area.

Specifically, I'd also like to say that your marketing points are great!

1. Good, fun, varied emergent gameplay - Each battle will make players eager for the results!  

2.Guaranteed income just for playing the game - More income if you get better cards and/or get better at the game! 

3. What you earn can be instantly withdrawn at any time - There's no minimum threshold!
 
4. Both regular play and tournaments award cash and asset prizes every day - You can earn a lot over time, even if you don't invest a lot!

5. Expanding features and collection - Keep up with the updates, because the game is here for the long run!

6. Combine multiples of the same card to make them stronger, then take them to the appropriate competition - Tournaments offer different max card levels, so there is the right event for all collection sizes

Very well said and a good extraction of the key selling points.

So to sum up my thoughts, I can see the frustration and I've been there many times over the years. I also think the SPL team continues to listen (even though it might not appear they do). The community is strong and getting stronger with each setback and subsequent growth spurt. They game is great. And finally, they will eventually get each issues addressed, even if its longer than we hope for, they always manage to make the necessary changes when enough people bring it to their attention.

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It has good gameplay. It has frequent enough updates. It's still adding great features over time. Things almost never break, but if they do, they're quickly fixed.

As far as game design and coding development go, I think the SPT team is doing much better than the average small/medium-sized company. I have nothing bad to say about these. My rant has always been about marketing. Sure, I might point out a pet peeve once in a while, but they're very small in comparison.

a) they don't want to spend $10 to try it or b) they don't have the patience to learn a very complicated process

I've thought about A. The paywall is important but there should be a way to experience what is like being a player. Perhaps twitch or youtube streaming live non-player events could fix this. I.e.: a community leader delegating / gifting cards for viewers, coordinating matches between them and maybe hosting a viewer-only tournament. The streamer would also talk about what to expect according to various investment sizes. This would get players excited. If they buy the game, they will join with the right mindset. They will stick around. Small prizes during each stream would motivate viewer retention and a sense of community.

As far as B) goes, I've just heard the team is working on onboarding video tutorials. Hopefully they will get everything right.

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Very good idea on a way to view matches and immerse people in the game in various ways... I want to think some more about your suggestions, but I like them... I also have some ideas about

The paywall is important but there should be a way to experience what is like being a player.

That hits the nail on the head and has to be thought through.

I personally think the tutorials will be a help, but I have been after them to do "missions", like they do in other games. Give the new players missions to accomplish (so they make learning fun and rewarding), and they can work their way through the process in a much more fun way.

I'm talking to you on discord now, but I'm happy to share this part publicly so that others can join in too :D

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(Edited)

Give the new players missions to accomplish (so they make learning fun and rewarding)

Giving out normal-foil reward rares for these seem very fitting. Not too much, not too little, exciting nonetheless.

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I agree... its not the value of the reward for a mission as much as it is something fun. :)

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Well, I think it would be pretty valuable for total newbies.

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Not to toot my own horn, but I am a pretty radical gamer and I like Splinterlands

The deep truth is that I like Splinterlands because its a pretty cool money making system

But still Im a gamer and money attracts my attention :D

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I like it a lot for the gameplay. I think it's very fun.

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For me to like Splinterlands for the gameplay it should at least have different gamemodes.

For a while I have been suggesting in discord 2 v 2 battling ideas
or "Gungame" gamemode idea (Each player chooses 5 cards in a team, but only 1 card at a time is on the field)

I just would like some variety in what we can do, just doing the same battles over and over has ruined the fun of the game for me.

My stats say that ONLY on my main account already I have done over 12561 battles and I have 3 alt accounts aswell.

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Hi @felipejoys, I totally agree with you.

I think blockchain and decentralization is a core value of the game, but new non-crypto users do not need to know anything about it. Moreover, a lot of people gets scared by the term "blockchain"... Just think "I don't know anything about it, but heard about lot of scams... they are promising me money... too nice to be true"

Looking at Splinterlands homepage only a little mention is done of the blockchain, so thumbs up for the homepage! I think it is really nice and attractive also for non-crypto users. Pain comes later.

If you login and enter the site, it is soon clear that crypto users are advantaged. "They can earn more money from writing posts and trading, then invest them into crazyly expensive cards.. Instead I have to pay "real" money. This is unfair!" (I'm just reproducing thoughts of a potential new user not willing to enter the crypto sphere. Of course to me crypto are real money!)

At the moment we are in the situation:

BOTS > CRYPTO USER > NORMAL USER

But the aim remains the following one:

BOTS = CRYPTO USER = NORMAL USER

I see the devs moving in the right direction. This is enough to me at the moment, because I also really enjoy playing

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They can earn more money from writing posts and trading, then invest them into crazyly expensive cards

Tell them we are simply using the money we are paid for our work, though...

I see the devs moving in the right direction

The only problem I have with them is at the marketing division!

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(Edited)

Shame on you, SPT marketing (you do know SPT has nothing to do with splinterlands currently)

As far as this statement -- Guaranteed income just for playing the game - More income if you get better cards and/or get better at the game!

You can't say "guaranteed income." You can offer prizes and let players decided how competitive they want to be (ie: what prize level they want to shoot for)

I don't agree with some of the decisions they have made lately BUT they are doing a great job AND bringing in NON crypto players to the game is a HUGE challenge/opportunity.

Disclaimer: I haven't had my coffee yet this morning.

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SPT

I don't think anyone has had trouble understanding how I'm using SPT for a shortened version of the name "Splinterlands", though. Typing out "Splinterlands" a dozen times in the same post makes it look horrible.

You can't say "guaranteed income."

Yes, I can. Income is guaranteed. Even if you only drop $10 for the spellbook and play without buying anything else, you get income. I never said anything about how long it takes to meet ROI. Even not meeting ROI is acceptable since getting crypto income is very useful in general.

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I use SL for splinterlands, SPT is usually a reference to a token aggroed made to be splinterlands blog site.

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(Edited)

There is in fact a whole new push for marketing happening this year. Aggroed has discussed the reasoning for not doing this in any big way in one of the AMA's, I think a month ago? in case you missed them.

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