RE: Season End, Hive Hard Fork, & Other Updates

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Thank you for your comment and I agree with your statement regarding value. You're right there. However I don't game for monetary value, I game for fun. Many others do as well. I've been buying and selling cryptocurrency since around 2010, and I can think of better places to put my money for investment purposes than a high risk game studios NFT's. A game that has been seeing a steady decline in players, and continues to bumble its changes. For instance in February I had the option of placing 10k into SL or the defi sector. I went in on chainlink rather than SL and dumped at the last peak. In short I made far more out of investing somewhere sensible. The game is meant to draw gamer's as well as investors. It's also meant to be fun. Running on pay to win as well as a gotcha game model (player continues to dump money in for limited in game reward, or is capped until they pay more) is not sensible nor is it fun. Thus the drop off in player numbers. The approach should be balanced which currently it's not. It also should appeal to new gamer's and focus on on boarding and KEEPING them. I have no doubt that SL will have a peak, do well off of hype around partnership announcements, and the new "Lands" they bring into the game. Our next bull cycle will bring euphoria all around, and SL will ride this like other games did in 2016/2017. People will buy in and believe the hype. I've seen this before with other games. In the end though user retention becomes an issue, and the game flops leaving those who approached it for investment purposes losing their shirts. Basically the game needs to offer fun and balance first. Not a bot ridden system, not a system tilted against the newbie who doesn't want to invest thousands. Atm the changes make the game feel and play like a gotcha shovel game. Again and I can't state this strongly enough, I game for fun. If I gamed for investment I'd have to reevaluate how I'm living. If I invest time into a game I want it to grow. I've sold loads of cards below market value (including two prince J's) because I just don't care about the money I'm spending if I gain enjoyment for time spent. Splinterlands is something I throw spare change around with in the same way one would an old .25 cent arcade machine. Atm it's no longer worth my quarter.



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We're not really adding players over the last 3 months, but I don't see a decline here. The devs have found advertising on the Brave browser to have a high success rate, and with accounts which tend to stick around a while.
They're just refining the new player tutorial before pulling the trigger on a larger campaign.

Glad to hear you made the right call on Chainlink.
I look at the Dark energy crystals I've stacked, ready for the land expansion, and although they've certainly appreciated since I bought them, they can only go a little higher.
In hindsight I should've bought LEOM at a discount, and then paid full price for DEC just before the land presale, but Splinterlands is how I take wins off the table.
I muck around speculating on other stuff, hoping for a moonshot; but of all the projects out there, I think this one has the best chance of scaling well, and going mainstream.

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I do often wonder about the accuracy of the figures presented there and whether or not they are actually representing real players or bots honestly. I also find it curious that state of the dapp stats haven't been updated in a very long time. Strikes me as odd for a dapp holding a top ranking. ...Lacks transparency. Aside from that, I appreciate your belief that SL has a good shot at going mainstream. I used to feel the same. At the moment it's easy to see a euphoria around the game in the crypto community buoying its progress. However a TCG going mainstream that presents capped leagues where less skilled players can't develop or move up the ranking on skill as well as investment is beyond problematic. Add the bots and the whole thing begins to become unrealistic as a mainstream product long term. Granted they are on top of issues like scaling, promotion, and partnerships, but the game itself has basically taken away any incentive for a new player to get in and build.. or further more enjoy the process of building. Now there will be suckers who buy in, newbie players who feel cheated, large transaction volume due to bots, and a whole bunch of hype. Every market up cycle has its hype and flavours of the month, and defi and gaming may be the same as ICO's were last time around. Who knows? But atm Splinterlands focus on balancing rewards and failing, along side appeasing higher ranked players and keeping bots in the ecosystem has failed. The league caps were a huge mistake as lower players should be able to out skill stronger opponents. If a weaker player beats a much larger opponent on skill and deck arrangement then it just means they are better at the game. Creating safe spaces for less skilled but heavier invested players just goes to show where the priorities are placed. If leagues are to be capped there must be a stronger incentive for the new player to game past daily quests and tournaments. But this isn't the first time devs in the gaming world have been outta touch or dismissive of what makes a game appealing. I know a lot of devs and a dismissive posture rooted in a type of arrogance regarding what works usually is their overall down fall. Selective listening to their base players rather than listening to them as much as high dollar players is a slippery slope. Long term it won't be the first time a game fails to gain a permanent foot hold either. There will be money to be made from it the same as there's money to be made out of any hyped product that fails to deliver on it's core purpose. There is a sucker born every minute after all. With gaming the core purpose should be fun and a sense of achievement for conquering challenges. SL now offers none of that imo. All other TCG's at least offer sustainable models for being entertained and limited to no ceiling to climb and challenge others. Investment matters of course, but skill comes out as a more dominant factor in the end. I'm not disputing there's money to be made. I rode the hype around Pivx at the last cycle and dumped at near peak at 9 usd after buying at 0.15 usd. I did the same with Spells of Genesis as a game. I dumped all my cards at peak and left... Though I still occasionally play with a limited deck when I'm bored on a train. It's still sorta fun. Imo SL will ride a big wave of hype for being what it is and jumping off to a running start as it arrived with an inbuilt community, good hype around partnerships, and offering a reasonably built inbuilt market place. They also have scaling more or less sorted. But I won't be surprised when it becomes a dump and jump product which is what it's shaping up to be. It's no longer a fun game, it has effectively taken away incentive's for the new gamer on the platform, it's bot ridden. The game can be on top of issues that have been problematic in block chain gaming, but if the product sucks and can't hold new users I think it will be a fad. I hope I'm wrong here btw. I mean that. I hope the game succeeds in doing what no other dapp has which is going and staying mainstream based strictly on bot traffic, high dollar investors, and newbies who show up and can't be retained. But in the mean time I can think of more promising places to invest in than SL. I don't bet on moonshots as it allows bias and emotion to creep in which skews my perception. I'd rather be realistic. Being realistic means having no bias, which I could easily develop for SL as it's in the Hive space which is a place I'm fond of. I like the people, I like their content, I like reading their interactions in comments. We have some great folks here. But if a product has grown to suck then it sucks. If SL becomes a huge mainstream gaming sensation in its current form then great and I'm happy for anyone who benefits. I have a very good friend who is heavy heavy into SL recently state he wouldn't recommend investing in the game to a family member which was telling. He's still pro game, but there's powerful doubts. I'll name no names but suffice to say I have a deep and abiding respect for a lot of other top tier players. I hope they know when to jump ship here. It is a product starting to look like that will be required. But despite the super optimism the devs are plugging and what's being rolled out.. overall I don't see it living past fad grade life expectancy.

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Appreciate your candour. I guess we'll find out together.

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