25 May 2022. Following up on the huge update Splinterlands dropped on us recently.

Out of all the changes introduced, this particular update on Rshares is the most interesting change to us players - at least from my point of view.

This is half the reason we are able to “earn significantly more rewards across all levels of play” starting next season on 1st June 2022.

The other half of the reason being starter cards, which will be covered in Part 3 of this series.

Now let’s get into it.

Introducing Reward Shares (aka Rshares)

We may have realised our DEC per win is affected by our Energy Capture Rate (ECR) and the various bonuses such as win streaks and using gold foil cards.

If this is the first time you are hearing about Rshares, here’s the formula:

The only notable change to the formula itself is the inclusion of reducing rewards by the percentage of starter cards used in the battle.

BUT! The kicker here is that Rshares will not just be used to calculate our DEC per win, it will be used to calculate our daily rewards and season rewards as well.

This basically means that Rshares will be the foundation of all our earnings in Splinterslands, period.

Elegant yet simple

Connecting ECR to daily and season rewards is genius.

Since most human players have their ECR hover around 60-100%, we should be able to continue earning a substantial number of loot chests.

Bots, on the other hand, depend on spamming an insane number of games to clear their daily quest and maintain a decent rating (*cough Silver 3) to claim season rewards.

The idea is so simple and elegant that we wonder why we haven’t done this in the first place.

Killing off spambots

Bots in Splinterlands have been abusing the previous system by spamming tons of games every day.

ECR may have reduced their DEC earnings to <2% of their base rate, but that’s not their primary source of income.

Every loot chest they gain from daily quest and season reward will probably cover the cost of running the bots, especially if they are win trading.

However, with the new changes, there is a good chance that spambots will be greatly punished if they continue their old ways of grinding their ECR to dust.

An Economist dream

The Splinterlands team is banking on the age-old economist idea of a free market to work its magic.

They prefer to create a world where players figure out how they want to approach the game, rather than outright banning accounts and serving them the ultimate life sentence.

It’s like a sandbox game within a trading card game.

The magic trick here is to generate a world where the actions of individual actors, motivated by self-interest, contribute positively to the foundation of the Splinterlands economy.

Yes to players who trade, compete, discuss, create, and innovate.

No to bot farms who win trades (a form of cheating) and only sell cards (draining the economy).

Ambitious dream

Creating a game where Adam Smith’s invisible hand is the major market factor is ambitious, to say the least.

It’s theoretically the most efficient market - when it works.

Chances are, sooner or later, the free market seems to run itself to the ground.

The free market gave rise to the bot farms win trading in the first place.

The free market, coupled with a few bad actors and/or coincidences (still waiting for more evidence to confirm), crashed Luna/Terra/UST.

Gamers being gamers will find every nook and cranny to maximise their own gains at the expense of the game itself.

Step in the right direction

This major update is definitely pushing Splinterlands in the right direction.

Credits to the Splinterlands team for identifying the core issues and implementing solutions with such speed and conviction.

This gives us average everyday players, battling out on the front lines and fighting bots that are winning close to 0 DEC, hope.

We can only hope that this continues far into the future...

Posted using Splintertalk