New Splinterlands Update Basically Wrecked the Game .. FML

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(this post is full of swear words, so it's NSFW, don't fucking at me about it)

While it's common knowledge that majority of services on HIVE operate like businesses and thus need to make income in order to further their development.. But after playing some Splinterlands over the past day as something to do in the background while I code it was realized that I wasn't leveling up any further.. Now one of my favourite things to do was passively play the game in the background while trying to achieve the highest league ranking I can. With the latest update to the Splinterlands platform your league is now capped according to how much DEC your cards are worth.

Take Success and Fuck it for Perceived Profit...
That is EXACTLY What This Update is

Now the game has always been pay to win in a sense, with those able to afford to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on packs to get high tier cards and level up their low tier trash into something usable generally destroying those of us without frivolous amounts of expendable income. The way the game is now blocking progress and essentially demanding that you either buy packs or rent out cards in order to realize to the full potential of your existing deck is SHIT.. What the actual fuck?!

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This is an absolute deal breaker for me and while as an entrepreneur I'd like to see the flip side of this and say "I get it, Splinterlands needs to make money"... BUT the fact of the matter is that I'm capped in some shitty lower tier league that I once could easily get through due to not having hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend on cards is absolute fucking bullshit. It's been a long time since I found something that enthralled me or fucked me off enough to write a long format post about it.. So bravo, you guys inspired me by essentially fucking over my gaming experience for a perceived profit.

Now over the past year or so well over $150 was spent on card packs to fill my deck out, however even with such an investment (which face it, is a RIDICULOUS amount to spend on a game) into the platform with the newest update I'm capped around the silver II league. The new system in place that limits the league ceiling at which you can achieve without having more cards is a step in the wrong fucking direction if you want to attract your average gamer or maintain the player/customer base you've built already. Having spent 300% more on this game than I would have on basically any other video game out there, only to be cut off at the fucking knees and told that "You don't have enough power (money)" in order to try to advance further in the league standings is bad business & design.

Appalling Bait & Switch Tactics
Masqueraded as Progress

Now I'm not sure which out of the splinterlands creators @aggroed and @yabapmatt came up with this idea and signed off on it but without coming off as a complete dickhead asshole can I ask:

What the FUCK were ya'll thinking?!

I can understand releasing new booster packs, potions and that sort of shit in order to increase the projects profitability, but when you take a game that was already leaning heavily towards the pay to win model then ramp that monetization model up ten fold what you end up doing is driving away your casual players or those that don't have money to blow on fucking digital cards.

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Now not only have I spent a small fortune on digital cards that are basically for lack of a better term "gimped" due to the newly implemented power requirements to get into higher leagues.. but all of that capital I spent bolstering and upgrading my deck to reach higher leagues has basically amounted to me being fucked by you, the developers, in what I consider some form of bait and switch tactics..

Considering the Splinterlands franchise certainly isn't hurting for capital with their ability to create profit simply by printing out digital tokens in the form of booster packs and potions which are then sold to players the executive decision to add what is essentially a fucking paywall after users have already likely forked out fair sums of money is the sort of shit that destroys projects like this.

Why Did / Do You Play Splinterlands?

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The fun part of this game for me (and why I spent over $150 on the game) was because I liked trying to beat my previous season league record. That is what this game was about for me, and this last update took that away from me and put it behind a demand for more money.. After spending well over $150 already on the fucking game only to have some "update" come in and completely fucking destroy the aspect of the game I found most appealing is just fucking sad on the developers behalf..

Your greed disguised as an update basically took the reason I play splinterlands away from me then to top it all off basically told me I'm not wealthy enough to try and reach higher leagues anymore. So not only did you get my money, but to top it all off you had the fucking audacity to cripple players ability to advance in the game unless they fork out more cash into the system. That is fucked guys.

Shoot Yourself & Users in the Foot
( For Profit! )

Money makes the world go around, I understand that.. But at what point do you look up from your operation which is pretty damn successful which is basically printing money via the selling booster packs, potions and whatnot and go "Hey, You know what would be cool? Lets fucking design the ranked match system to make sure those who haven't spent thousands of dollars on the game can't advance past the pleb levels!" ... After spending $150+ on a game the absolute fucking least ya'll could do is make sure that your users have the ability to be able to compete if not against other players then against their own personal season best.. But no.. Because FUCK the casual player, right?.

Without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars buying packs or renting cards on the market the average player is left to get capped at some low bullshit level where they can't even see how their deck ranks up in comparison to others basically. Not only have you gimped your low / medium tier players but while doing so you've also gimped the whole fucking business you've been working on.

The mantra of "Profits over Everything" hangs heavy in the air surrounding the Splinterlands franchise right now. I'd expect some shit like this from wankstain development outfits like EA.. But didn't expect such a blatant cash grab from within our own community. The playerbase isn't happy with this update from what I am seeing, and ultimately if you piss off those who have supported your project by purchasing decks and gaming on the platform. You've betrayed your early low / medium tier players and blocked them out of functionality you sold them in the name of profit from where I'm sitting.

The Begginning of the End?

By setting up needless pay walls and cash grabs in order to advance in the game I'd bet having to cook and eat my own dick (McAfee Style) that within a short period of time you see that the playerbase moves onto something else and the revenue generated by Splinterlands falls off abruptly.
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( angel of death picture stolen off of google )

Unless you as developers have the intention of trying to squeeze the last little bit of cash you can out of your die hard players before they get fed up with having to dish out ridiculous amounts of cash simply to access functionality that was initially included in their purchase, then you are doing it wrong. These type of needless and greedy business decisions are the type of shit that ultimately leads to the death userbases and businesses. There has to be better ways to increase your revenue instead of this short sighted bullshit going on currently. Given the availability of MTG type games source code on the net which would provide a quick bootstrap to have a competitor come in and mop up your disenfranchised playerbase you all should probably seriously reconsider your latest update.

You're hurting your players, you're hurting your image and worst of all you're hurting the game you've spent this long building into something that was one of the worth while things to do within this blockchain ecosystem. If you're willing to, for lack of a better term, grenade your own creation in hopes of scraping out a bit more profit you need to take a step back and give your head a shake.

On the current course Splinterlands is on you're setting yourself up for a serious exodus of your playerbase and with them will go your revenue. If your plan is to run this bitch into the ground while trying to suck the last crumbs of cash out of your players on the way down, you're doing a great job. If your plan is to actually maintain a long term successful business and continue to make profit on existing and new users then you are fucking up royally.

Trying to Understand the Reasoning for All This
(...Besides a Fucking Lame Money Grab...)

It literally costs the developers next to nothing to give out end of league prizes be it DEC, potions or promo cards. Why in the fuck would they lock leagues and the rewards which essentially cost them nothing to make? The only explanation I can come up with is blatant profiteering at the expense of the userbase that has supported splinterlands financially to get it to where it is today. Sure a small percentage of players wealthy enough to have godly stacks of cards already may not even notice this update..

But for those of us who've not spent thousands of dollars on god tier decks the splinterlands game is effectively crippled as far as low to mid tier players are concerned. What the fuck is the point of playing a game that doesn't let you progress after a certain point unless you tithe more money to it? This deck power system would be cool for tournaments or something, I see some utility in that regards.. But slapping it over the entire ranked match system is probably the dumbest shit they could have done. If the splinterlands team has any intention of retaining their non-whale players and keeping their financial barrier to entry to a somewhat affordable level ya'll need to revert this shit.

Some play for the DEC and rewards, some play for the thrill of finally beating a certain level in a season and progressing to the next league. What it boils down to is the splinterlands development team choosing to pad their own pockets over providing the user experience we were sold initially.

I'm sad and tired.. Sad because splinterlands is limping around like a dog that needs to be put down after this latest update and tired of people fucking up good things in the name of trying to maximize profits. Going to sleep on this tonight and see if I still have the urge to firesale off my cards and say fuck this game when I wake up tomorrow. I don't like the direction it's been pointed and I sure as fuck am not the only one judging by the feedback I'm seeing elsewhere.

Doubt anyone will read this.. But if you agree or disagree leave a comment below. I'll try to reply to everyone as I can. What are your thoughts on this new update on splinterlands?


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31 comments
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Thinking about rebuying all the AD&D books and running weekend campaigns with my kids as subjects... MuaHaha!!!

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Might even be able to find them online somewhere!

Dungeon master trolling the crotch goblins could be fun parenting.

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I never did get into Splinterlands but my oldest kid always gets fired up about video games. They almost always pull some shit to try to make an extra buck. Sad to hear Splinter seems to be headed in the same direction. 👎

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I'm quite pissed. The game has a ton of potential for long term business but with this paywall cash grab bullshit I think it's popularity and days are numbered.

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Well it sucks but it's the nature of HIVE that there's nothing stopping someone else from building something else. We have the space game and d city? Maybe something better will come along. It's probably only a matter of time.

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I found source code for an open source magic the gathering game online.. With my current knowledge on running stuff on HIVE it wouldn't be a stretch to make a competitor..

I'd rather give them a chance to come to their senses though.. Plus I have an idea waaaaaay cooler than a card game that I'm designing.. But it'll be a few projects from now.

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Damn, epic rant dude. I tried this game a while back and could not get into it but it seems like everybody else plays so if it really is as you say that is a fucked up move (for the players, the owners are gonna rake it in imo).

Sorry you got fucked (in the NOT good way) but I did enjoy reading your rant.

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Of the hop I wasn't a fan of it to be honest.. But one week I set out to play the shit out of it and ended up pulling the trigger on buying some decks.

Honestly enjoyed it up until this last update which prevented me from advancing..

No need to be sorry.. It's the developers that need to address this skeezy shit. I hope they revert this change. If they don't the userbase on the low to mid tier will likely move on to something else.

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I completely agree with you.

There are people that argue: "If YoU dOnT hAvE tHe SuMmOnErS fOr ThE dIaMoNd LeAgUe YoU sHoUlDnT bE aBlE tO pLaY tHeRe". But, are they fucking retarded or something?! First, why does it matter what level my cards are if I obviously are skilled enough to be that high up. I regulary beat people with cards higher than my, so let me play in that stupid league. Honestly, they call it "Summoner level LIMIT" but then expect people to have this level AT LEAST. Second is, do they really expect people to invest thousands of dollars into a card game?! I mean, I have level 3/4 summoners and my deck is already worth over 500$, to get max level summoners you'd need to spend multiples of that. Why would anyone do that? Especially considering the that the goal is to get many small players and not a few big investors.

I noticed that the game was getting more p2w in the last time, but this is finally the point where there is no single bit of skill left. Like sure, if you suck at this game you won't be able to compete, but even if you are the best player of the world you will still be limited by your fucking cards.

I'm so fucking tired of them listening to big investors instead of doing one fucking thing that will help the game, which is fucking getting new players on board. No, they need to focus their whole work on the so called "mobile app" which is shit anyway and on updates like this.

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It's a textbook case of "haz" and "haz nots" it seems. They've set this up in a way that the majority of people will never be able to afford to play in higher ranked competitive leagues unless they have some incredible expendable income.

My deck isn't worth nearly what I paid for it at this point.. Card prices are taking a dump with this latest update.. So we're getting double fucked.

It's always been pay to win but this newest incarnation of that business model has been enough to fuck me right off.

They've got some decisions to make.. Carry on with nickel and dime'ing the low to medium tier users till they get fed up with not being able to progress leading to a large portion of their potential income being lost.. Or continue catering to their own capitilist desires while only the whale types can afford to fucking play the game as intended.

Hopefully enough people make noise about this that it gets reversed.. Although by time we know what is happening whatever cards I've got will be worth pennies on the dollar.. duck sakes.

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(Edited)

Oh, You finally caught up on why I'm so salty when it comes to aggy jones and his.... decisions....

Now over the past year or so well over $150 was spent on card packs to fill my deck out, however even with such an investment (which face it, is a RIDICULOUS amount to spend on a game) into the platform with the newest update I'm capped around the silver II league.

The only good thing about this is that you can sell your cards and be done with "the game." Maybe that's why we pay SO FUCKING MUCH compared to your average video game. (HA)

Remember when Aggy was explaining how Splinterlands didn't take $400 to be tournament ready, unlike Hearthstone? Well. How much do you have to spend to be "tournament ready" now? $800? $1,200? I'm so glad I dumped my cards when these points were first mentioned. I figured there was going to be a mass sell off. Hopefully Neil makes out like a bandit. Better him than aggy.

I look forward to watching the daily number dwindle down to a core of bots and idiots. Because I'm sadistic like that. A mass "exode!" XD

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I've got games that provide me way more entertainment and excitement that costed 1/20th of what I spent on cards.. Sure I can't resell the games but.. At the end of the day I have my main cards I play with and the rest are fluff basically.

I do remember aggy saying that.. Lord knows how many packs or how much luck needed opening them is needed to be able to hit the max level leagues.. Kind of a piss off.

If they don't address this massive lapse of judgement the SL game will dwindle down to bots and idiots like you said.. :/

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I get the feeling you are not happy about this ;) They had to do something about the bot accounts that were just selling on all the cards they won, but this may not have been the ideal solution. I have spent some money on cards, but I'm not going to pay the extra needed to play all the leagues now. I could get to Champion II before, but am now stuck in Gold. Despite that I still plan to keep playing. Maybe enough people will sell off their cards to bring the prices down and I can buy some up. It will be interesting to see how this affects the number of players. It was over 6000.

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Thank you for the share of your situation. Sucks that you have been impacted league wise as well. The botting should be expected on any online game but penalizing real players to spite botters is a hell of a shit move. :(

Not sure if I'll keep playing or if I'm going to firesale my cards.

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I am in far less stressful situation. Comparing your 150 USD to my 10 USD. In my Silver 3 I am getting 2 boxes for daily quest. Guess how many zero value potions? And I am hating my friend for talking me into giving money for this situation. Anybody thought of a value of having a friend?

All pointing to not possible to progress further. And Splintelands with every new invention to the game are ruining everything existed before. Namely your 150 USD and my 10 USD are turned into value of zero.

I am quitting with playing as before, only down to bare minimum, with plan to quit for good and talk out loud next to every Splinterlands ad about why people should not even try to play it. Also, I am not to please them by dumping my cards in the market. I would rather sell to them rich players 10x the DEC value or burn them into dust of DEC.

Anybody predicting future DEC value after predicted next Splinterlands inventions?

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Fuck I'm in silver 3 I think. The potions have some value as they increase the likelyhood of rare cards.. They are worth it in my opinion if you're opening up a bunch of packs.

Still trying to figure out my next move. Still waiting back to hear some official reasoning to this from aggy or matt.

DEC was set to rise a fair amount do to SL development and me including it in my site.. However not sure I want to support their ecosystem at this moment.

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Buying booster packs and than working on getting lucky with potions. That is what they see worth investing in. Luck investment!

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Some cynical shit right there.

I wonder if the profits were declining and this was bought in as an ill-advised solution.

Whatever way, it sucks ass

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Not sure what the root cause was behind this being implemented.. Money is the obvious one but perhaps some other things at play here.

Always good to see you in my comment section Meester!

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A pleasure to pop in!!

It's fucking money without a doubt!! :0D

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If you spent $150 on the game and are still capped at silver, there must be something wrong that you did with your money. Did you re-invest or just sell dec the moment you earned it? The league caps aren't difficult to hit at all, and I proposed a challenge to everyone in the discord who thinks they are worthy of going to the next league.

whoever wants extra power for the next league can challenge me using that league's cap and if they win, I will delegate them enough power to reach that league. DM me if interested. Will charge 10 DEC per try to prevent spam. Rules are

  1. Game is best 2 out of 3
  2. DEC must be sent prior to the matches
  3. You may have to wait as I am not always available
  4. You can try as many times as you want but cost is 10 DEC per try

If you are too afraid to take the challenge, don't complain about the league caps since you wouldn't have gotten there anyways.

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"If you are too afraid to take the challenge, don't complain about the league caps since you wouldn't have gotten there anyways."

lol, first off fuck you sir and your snooty typing on my screen. XD

I sold off most of the cards I wasn't using and focused on leveling up the main heavy hitters in my deck.. Had I known that this sort of gameplay mechanic was coming ahead of time I'd have horded my shittier cards.

I'll kick your ass 2/3 as long as I can use the white or green factions!

Now that you have offended me you must die. I accept your challenge.

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Who won?

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Not played him yet. too busy coding the new version of Hive-Roller.com

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Hey then challenge me! Go to the SL discord and ask for cornavirus, I will be waiting.

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You mean you've spent $150 and have only 22K power? That sounds like the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals lol 😀😁😂

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I have a few nice cards worth over a dollar but majority of what I have is trash cards. :/

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Probably you've made the mistake of buying packs instead of using the market directly.

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Initially yes until I saw a discount existed on Hive-Engine.

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I think buying packs is like betting on a 99x multiplier ;) You need thousands to break even.

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Yeah. I'm not a big fan although I have a lot of my crappy cards left, so I could probably get somewhere. I don't really bother to play any more so it's not too bad for me. Most of my cards are rented out anyway.

It's funny you mention splinterlands, as I saw this on Rishi556's Post Earlier:

From The Post:
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A Comment Left on said post:
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