Henlo again, Splinterlands

I haven't played in a while, but since I'm blogging on HIVE I might as well play a bit. Gave a go at 5 games on Modern league. (lol, i'm not buying a wild pass for a while)

I've been a Splinterlands collector for years. My collection metric is to attempt to have 1 of each card from every core set. I like collecting golds as well, but it's not high on my list of completionist goals. I got in at the early onset of untamed. I thought it was really cool, so I remember buying Alpha and Beta cards around then for pennies. Neat, so I completed my Alpha collection and BAM, it blew up. Then I watched over the past few years as theyve continued to decrease into a slow crab valley.

But throughout the years, I completed many sets. I have a full set of Alpha, Beta, all the way through current Rebellion. There are certain cards I don't have (for example, any of the 4star default legendary summoners) but I'm happy with my collection.

My History with Magic the Gathering

I got into Magic: The Gathering when I was a young lad. They had just released 4th edition (1995), so this wasn't too many steps removed from the early Alpha/Beta sets (1993). I remember digging through the pricing magazine at the time Scrye to make sure the cards I traded to my friend for his were equal in value. This was our only guide, we didn't have anything like @peak-monsters lol.

I also remember the rules being a bit loose when he and I played. We weren't "stack wizards" in 1995, we were pre-teens playing a card game with loosely interpreted rules. So some of the valuation of the cards were based on how we, between ourselves, argued over the interpretation of the rules.

I noticed a parallel

As I was stacking Splinterlands cards throughout the past few years, completing sets, getting cards I think would help me, (and, tbqh, losing money) I couldn't help but notice a parallel between my fascination with digging through magazines like Scrye and looking at pricing indexes on peak-monsters over cards. The market is so much easier and accessible. I just wish it was more...how to explain it....I can remember enjoying digging through the 'zine and reading it and then looking at the index and pricing the boosters i just unpacked.

There's something to be said about flipping through a real piece of print. Magazine, book, etc. Nothing quite like it.

But not to detract from what the online digital marketplace offers. Splinterlands cards have such a vast economy of scaled utility. Its a fun market to run through. I just wish people enjoyed it more instead of chasing some wealth metric. Speaking of...

I've always viewed Splinterlands as a box of Magic cards left in the attic.

Man I wish I still had some of them 4th edition Savannah Lions or Birds of Paradise. I remember rocking a 4 stack of Lotus Vale's from the Weatherlight expansion in my deck which seem to go for about $100-$500 a piece mint nowadays. I dunno prices. Mint...lol. Luckily for me, NFT Splinterlands cards don't degrade with time physically.

So I got a shoved box of cards in my attic that I can sometime's dip into the Splinterlands ecosystem and just play a few games. That's pretty neat. I'm not going to like, dedicate a ton of time to it, but a couple games here and there is fun. I will say it is a drag that I can't just play in wild with my mostly complete collection. I guess I get the need for drawing in more money into the economy, but eh. I'm not that hype innit. I'm a casual collector.

What I wish would happen

What's interesting about this new-age decentralized economy is its accessibility, not only with players but with devs. I see Splinterlands as an economy at large. I have no idea the legalese but I'm pretty sure nothing is preventing another team of devs from starting a project which allows users owning Splinterlands assets to utilize them in their vision.

Here's an example: Ever heard of POGS? Milk Caps? You stack your pogs along with your opponent, you take your slammer, you slam them, some flip, some don't. What if someone took Splinterlands cards and turned them into a POGS game? Take the modern rebellion set, recodify the rules, and anyone owning keys proving they own cards in Rebellion also now own Pogs in your new game.

Instead of building a game and then chasing a playerbase, you can build a game with a build in playerbase. Anyone owning Splinterlands cards also can play in your game. There are decentralized economies that do this to an extent. Since the ownership of keys is public, I'm not entirely sure what's stopping anyone from doing this. Except maybe...

The fractionization of everyone chasing their own pools of liquidity. It's sort of obscene in a way. It's also understandable. Anyways. This is long enough lol.