Splinterlands needs to look after the players
Another season ends on Splinterlands with me again reaching the highest level I can. My card power limits me to Gold I, so I get 30 chests. I got more potions that do not do me much good as I rarely buy packs. I am selling some of the cards as I have gold versions that win me more DEC in battles. I got some DEC too. Some will go to my guild Splinter Elites and the rest will get saved up. I got into the top fifty of the Gold league at times, but not high enough to win any card packs. Those tend to go to players who have enough power to play higher leagues.
The big news in the game has been the land sale. The first batch was released last week. This came in two forms. There were bulk lots of 1000 plots that went via a lottery. I was not going to buy one of those, but via the game Discord a pool was organised and I put in for three plots at the discounted rate. Unfortunately our pool did not get anything and I was swiftly refunded. I had bought the DEC for this using other Hive Engine tokens I had earned as I am not keen to spend more fiat on games for now.
10% of the first land sale was available as individual plots, so I prepared to get some that way. When the time came the site promptly crashed. It just kept refreshing and I was unable to do anything. When I did get on it was all gone. It seems some people had faster connections or just got lucky in buying some. I hear talk that others used direct transactions on the blockchain to get theirs.
There were a lot of disgruntled people on the Discord afterwards. Apparently demand was far higher than the team expected, but I think this shows that doing a bulk sale at a given time is a flawed method for various reasons. Some people will just not be available then and if there are technical issues like I saw then many will just not have a chance.
I think there is too much emphasis on attracting big investors to the game. The players who have invested money and lots of time in actually playing the game should have more of a chance to be able to benefit from new features. They are the ones who actually make the game a success. With 30,000 plots available it would have been possible to allow all players to apply to buy a few and still leave some large parts for the big spenders. There could be conditions based on how much someone had played and what cards they hold.
I hear there will be a lottery for all buyers next time, which may work better. The prices are higher then than before. They claim this is still a discount, but we have no idea how valuable owning land will be. I am not totally sure what the benefits will be for me if I get some, but I was willing to give them a chance. I have seen several people say they are disillusioned with the game and are selling up. I appreciate that the teams behind the various games want to make something for their efforts, but if they alienate the players then they lose out.
There has to be some balance between fun and profit in all games. I play a few battles of Splinterlands each day as I enjoy the challenge.
Other games I am playing on Hive are:
- Rising Star - Rise through the music industry. This has got more strategic lately.
- dCity - Build a sustainable city. A fairly hands-off game as you can just buy items and let them get on with it.
- CryptoBrewMaster - Brew beers. There are more types of beer possible now and you can buy different items.
- Farm Farmer - Buy and stake cards to earn. I have a few cards, but not much happening yet.
Hive five!
https://twitter.com/steevc/status/1327925454221750273
It was more than a 50% chance to get in. We were unlucky, that's all. I can't blame them for it.. not on that that count. Too much land and it won't hold any value.
We were unlucky, but not all could get in on the pools as you needed to make up to 1000 plots. Having 90% in the big lots seems too much. Most are playing for fun and maybe a small profit, but give them a chance to be part of it.
Pay 2 Play more and more and more. I am out, as you already know.
I've seen others say the same. To me it's just a game. I have put some money into it, but for the amount I play it's not over the top. I know others treat it more as an investment. Do what is fun for you.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Offer enough land to satisfy demand, and you risk stalling. Offer a little less and you stimulate a heap of demand, as FOMO reaches its icey fingers into the community.
With 30k plots in each release even offering a couple to each player would spread the benefits and leave some for 'investors'. A game is nothing if there are no players.
That seems to be a common theme around Hive. They seem to think there's more value in one consumer willing to spend a million dollars than there is in thousands of consumers willing to spend a million. Thousands of consumers will spend a million more, while the one consumer spending a million is maxed out. We have the same problem with content and consumers on Hive. They want that big investor to come in from the crypto exchange, and see nearly no value in thousands/millions of consumers out there who will gladly spend the money.
I'd rather see a thousand more active people here than one big 'investor'. The community is barely big enough to sustain itself. We need a variety of content to suit all tastes and not just the crypto stuff some love. That is a minority interest.
You know I agree, and we both know this has all been pointed out on numerous occasions. It typically falls upon deaf ears. Crypto crowd is too busy congratulating themselves, somehow unaware of how things are slowly slipping away.
They keep making it worse and worse.
After the players' money.
lately I find SPLINTERLANDS less compelling
I'm convinced anyone that's bought a region is going to get burnt - they're anticipating making massive profits out of either selling land on or crafting and selling stuff that's created, but there's already so many people with spare land, already, compared to demand for it - that unless we get a huge influx of new players keen on the game, there won't be demand for either land or crafted items - ESPECIALLY since people like me have got say 10-20 plots which is going to go some way to crafting what we want anyway.
As we both know the problem with new players is the game down at the bottom end is a bit crap, not good enough to keep people onboard.
The profitability of land is totally dependent on a BTC moon - to bring more money into the game, of course that could happen!
But I agree 100% there is too much focus on the rich.
They seem to be losing players who had a big investment in the game. That can't be good for them. Screwing the loyal players is how you mess things up. There is so much potential, but it can be ruined by greed. I know they had to do something about bot accounts, but those are still around as there is money to be made. It's not an easy problem to solve.
They have also lost me with the way they handled that land sale and I won't be getting any. It's such a shame to see how the game has gone full pay2win taking all the fun out of it with the matching system being completely broken. They did get what they want in the short turn though, prices of cards & DEC are higher than ever and the land sold out instanly. In the long run if they keep this up the game will have no chance to actually get wide adoption.
They should have gone with a system where all loyal players could at least reserve 5-10 plots, that would have made a lot more sense compared to their approach. Just imagine playing the game for over a year, saving and buying DEC in anticipation for the land sale, putting that in the liquidity pool paying high fees, getting it out paying fees again to be ready for the clock to go to zero to have no chance getting any plots. You would rage quit on them for less.
Exactly. I bet there are kids in places like Nigeria playing the game after saving up for cards. They might make enough to be able to sell some for things they cannot afford otherwise. For those of us who are well off anyway it is just a little diversion. I always saw Hive as giving opportunities to those who struggle generally. Just enriching those who already have enough is not good.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.I quit before I got to the rage part :)
The last change of the league system was my cue for a graceful exit.
I have cooled down a bit by now, but I still think it was an epic fail on their part. I think the pools are guaranteed land in the next sale, so I will probably get some that way, but I am not going above and beyond for anything at this point.
I will see what I can afford in the next one. I am not going to throw money at the game when it is so unclear what I stand to gain from it.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.