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

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.