My Jouney into the Splinterlands #1

I am lost.

It has been a bit over a week now since a cryptofiend friend of mine recommended I check out Splinterlands. I have always been into collectible card games and a bit crypto-curious since the recent surge in cryptocurrency mainstreaming so I needed little convincing to dive into a brave new world, and boy...

I think I'm heading for the deep end now.

Whenever I start a new game, I usually try to ride the discovery high without diving too deep into game research, So I dove in mostly blind with what Splinterlands provided to new players. To be honest, I was at first put off by the battle system. I was mostly used to MTG, Hearthstone and Pokemon TCG style of gameplay. It became quickly apparent that Splinterlands was a game of planning and guessing what your opponent would field and countering and not so much of continuously reactive or interactive gameplay. By my second game, I realized that the mana total was randomized and that really was an enjoyable discovery. I spent most of my time battling bronze players who had access to the same cards I did, sometime stumbling on the odd non-starter cards or summoner. At that point, I decided to dive a little deeper.

I wanted to expand my card choices, but found myself in a very precarious time to be a new player. No packs seemingly available for purchase due to limited supply and an economy that was inflated by the end of season rush and the new player influx. I come from a strong F2P background, so when I heard this concept of Play 2 Earn I was intrigued. I played my games, kept my DEC Capture rate high but always sub 100%, and completed my quests with diligence. I might have come into the game at the wrong time; at the end of a season, just fresh off an explosion of players.

The earning part left to be desired compared to the state of the economy and the price of the cards on the primary and secondary markets. Maybe it was because of the recent large influx of players, but the meager earnings gave little leeway to further progress into the game without injecting hard money or other cryptos into it. I understand that rewards are finite, and that a larger player base meant rewards were more scarce, but it certainly felt limiting in terms of options to convince players to stick around without trusting it enough to throw significant money at it.

I'm looking forward to the new expansion, Chaos Legion, and the changes the devs will bring to accommodate the larger, newer player base, if any.

For now I am lost, but I'll happily lose myself deeper into the Splinterlands, and delve deeper.