Fake Champ

As I have said recently, I am a Champion 2 player, but this season, for the first in a while, I am faking it as a Champ 1 player - albeit, only just. I am currently hovering around the 30th position, but with only 12 points over the threshold, I don't expect to stay in the T50, as based on last season's results, that is enough to get me into the 57th slot.

Still, that is better than the 185th slot that I took last season, with over see points less at 4010. Which is a little bit of a worry, that even with such a margin, there is only 184 accounts that finished above me. Several of them are owned by the same people, which means that there is less actual players than that there.

Is it reason to worry?

Probably.

At some point, there has to be a higher amount of players coming in, which probably means that they need to have the potential to earn on what they buy, from actually playing. The potential changes going through the proposal system for changing tournament formats and reward distribution, is a part of the start of that. And of course, the "no bots in modern" is another part, as it means that the SPS rewards go to players, not farmers. As a result, the SPS rewards in Modern Gold, can be better than the SPS rewards in Wild Champion.

For instance, while there is currently only 35 players that have made it into C1 in Modern, every player in the T100 is there in Wild, and there is still room for more. I am not sure how many all up will finish in C1 Wild in total, but it is probably 3 or 4 times more than in Modern. I have a feeling that Modern isn't completely "bot-free" but it is better than it was, making it far more fun to play. The people I know who are playing wild, are just setting and forgetting their bot - which makes it just another farming practice, not a game.

I think for the game to really succeed long-term, the farming return on early adoption will need to be continuously declined, so that more value can be pushed into the new investors, to encourage investments. As painful as it seems to be for some, buying into new investment opportunities with external resources is required, otherwise it just doesn't generate enough value. This means that value needs to be traded, there needs to be the offer of a return on investment for new money coming in, whether that be on financial value, or gameplay value. People seem to underestimate the potential value of gameplay value, but forget that most games don't offer anything at all in return potential.

Total value of US video game sales in 2023 was $57,000,000,000

Not much of that had any possibility to attract a return for the extreme majority of gamers. Yet, they are happy to spend, and that is just in the US. Globally, another 51 billion was spent on digital adult entertainment content. "Digital" probably has two meanings in this regard, since there is likely a lot of hand usage going on.

Ultimately, there has to be more than "money" (in whatever form) as an engagement factor, and that means there has to be a compelling reason to participate. The game has to be good, the community has to be healthy, the willingness to add value has to be in more forms than just buying some packs, staking Land, waiting for airdrops and the like. People have to want to be willing to work "for free" in the sense that they participate in the community, build the hype, develop sub-communities and build a part of their lives, into the game to the point that when people ask, what is your hobby, they say,

I play Splinterlands.

No one is ashamed of saying they play CS:GO, or CoD, which is probably because there is very little economic incentive involved. When it comes to something that has earning potential though, many people become far shyer, probably because it leaves them feeling more exposed. This creates a bit of a problem for generating mass awareness and followings, because so many people just don't want to be known.

This is a crypto-wide issue.

The adoption of crypto is partially hamstrung by the people in crypto, because often, those who are willing to talk about it, are largely the crazies, which turns people away. The people who are invested but don't talk about it, are probably people who could be influential, but want to remain more hidden. This is changing over time of course, but it does slow down the process, when the only thing the uninitiated see, are the overly-enthusiastic.

I don't qualify as the overly enthusiastic, but perhaps the quietly optimistic.

But with 17 hours to go, I am not confident that I will stay in the T50 and earn a little DEC to cover some of my tokens bought, ,but at least I made it up for a taste of C1 again, because it feel it has been so long since the last time, my mother would have to have "the talk" with me again.

See you tomorrow afternoon for the final results.
Fake it til you get found out.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]