A Bit of Soul Searching on Splinterlands
A Bit of Soul Searching on Splinterlands
It is a Sunday Morning. I just returned home after a week in Colorado. It was a late flight last night, and in summer time if you fly out of Denver you probably know how notorious Denver is for late afternoon and evening thunderstorms. While the airport is situated in flat country, it is probably the worst run major airports in the US when in comes to inclement weather. It doesn't take much to create a flight delays in Denver. Anyways, I digress! I arrived home at 1:20 AM last night, and we had a 8am signing ceremony in-game :) So clearly I was grumpy.
Then I open discord and see bunch of complaints about:
Whale = BAD and common player = Good
They made more than me, must be evil people
So this required some ass whipping! I was happy to do it. I grew up at a time when there was a saying
spare the rod, spoil the child
I did get my fair share of spanking from my teachers when I was kid. Those days are long gone, teachers will now go to jail if they do that! That said, I had excellent teachers who helped me to become who I am today, and I am deeply thankful to them. I am in fact still in touch with a few over phone till date! How many of today's youngsters can say that about their teacher?! Anyways, I digress again. Enough drifting from todays topic!
After that drama in discord, I went to web and X profiles of a few complainers and made a list of their complains. I also made a list of positive things about Splinterlands. Mind you, these are not my opinions. I am simply listing what people have said positively and negatively amount Splinterlands.
I made this plot in Napkin with some edits in Slides. I am really beginning to like this tool to summarize text visually.
Summarized Positive Aspects of Splinterlands
- Strategic Gameplay: Deep, tactical card battles with varied rulesets and mana caps offer engaging, replayable gameplay akin to Magic: The Gathering.
- NFT Ownership: Hive blockchain enables true ownership of cards as NFTs, tradable on marketplaces like MonsterMarket and OpenSea.
- Play-to-Earn Model: Players earn DEC and SPS through battles and tournaments, appealing to those seeking crypto rewards.
- Supportive Community: Active Discord and X communities foster camaraderie, with veterans aiding newcomers and hosting events.
- Low Entry Cost: $10 Spellbook unlocks full features; free-to-play options make the game accessible.
- Frequent Updates: New card sets, modes, and guild features keep gameplay fresh and responsive to feedback.
- Mobile/Web Access: Lightweight mobile app and browser support enable quick, accessible battles.
- Card Renting: Renting cards allows affordable access to competitive decks without large purchases.
- Guild Benefits: Guilds offer merits, SPS rewards, and shop discounts, enhancing social and cooperative play.
- Quality Graphics: Vibrant, anime-style card designs and sleek UI enhance the visual experience.
- Fast Transactions: Hive blockchain ensures quick, gas-free transactions for smooth trading and gameplay.
- Diverse Modes: Modern/Wild formats, ranked battles, and quests cater to varied playstyles with rewarding opportunities.
Summarized Negative Aspects of Splinterlands
- Pay-to-Win Model: Heavy financial investment required for competitive play excludes casual gamers.
- Declining Card Values: Older cards (Alpha, Beta) lose value due to new releases and format changes.
- Profit-Driven Focus: Monetization prioritizes revenue over gameplay, alienating non-investor players.
- Technical Issues: Server lag, transaction errors, and mobile app bugs disrupt gameplay.
- Bot Activity: Bots in ranked battles reduce fairness and skew outcomes.
- Poor Support: Slow or unresponsive customer support frustrates players with unresolved issues.
- Steep Learning Curve: Complex mechanics overwhelm newcomers unfamiliar with blockchain or card games.
- Reward System Change: Updates to the reward system, like Glint and soulbound NFTs, devalue tradable rewards, frustrating players.
- High Competitive Costs: Expensive card rentals or purchases create barriers for budget players.
- Limited Non-Crypto Appeal: Blockchain focus alienates traditional gamers not interested in NFTs.
- Volatile Earnings: DEC and SPS value fluctuations reduce play-to-earn profitability.
- Delayed Roadmap: Slow progress on features like Land Expansion creates uncertainty for players.
My Personal View
The search and summary above is NOT my personal view, so it is only apt that I share my current personal view of the game. I have been a long term supporter of the game and I will continue to be. I have mentioned one thing multiple times publicly, if there is a requirement of a single person to turn off the lights, I will be that person. That is the downside. On the upside, if the game is successful, I will be successful beyond my own imagination, and that is all that I care for.
That said, if I want to make a bulleted list
- Gameplay Engagement: I love the strategic depth of Splinterlands’ card battles, enjoying how rulesets and land-based gameplay (which in still in infancy) allows many tactical and analytical challenges.
- Economic Interest: I am fascinated by the play-to-earn model. If this game can make even one person financially free, I think I have spent my time here wisely. The fact that this game can support numerous players in places of the world where there are limited financial opportunities swells my heart with pride.
- Lore Curiosity: I am drawn to the rich lore, particularly Praetoria and factions like the League of Verico (I do like a good Cabal!), appreciating how the narrative enhances the game’s immersive experience.
- Community Feedback: I actively explore player sentiment, valuing both the positive aspects, like strategic gameplay and NFT ownership, and negatives, such as pay-to-win issues and failed to slow roadmap issues, to form a balanced view.
- Visual and Creative Appeal: I enjoy envisioning Splinterlands’ world through custom imagery, like landscapes and characters, which fuels my appreciation for its aesthetic and creative potential.
I hope this helps the community and the team to explore the positives and negatives together to make a better game. I am here to help both with my time and money.
Hehe, love it 😀😀
Without a good Cabal, the world is boring Boomy! :)
I completely agree!! 🤠🤠
Lovely!
What a thoughtful dive into the heart of Splinterlands! Your reflections resonate, especially about how meaningful progress isn’t always measured in cards or ranks but in how the game shapes us and our communities. You nailed it. It’s not just a battle; it’s a journey of growth, strategy, and camaraderie. Thanks for sharing this soulful perspective. It’s the kind of insight our guild and beyond needs more of. Keep stirring those thoughts!
Let me ask you this:
At what position do you play Halving Alchemist in a Melee Mayhem ruleset?
I find the game complicated
in that case choose one of the two options
DO NOT make a random comment, because we can understand that you are clueless on what you are talking about
Consider learning to play to the game, if you want to interact
I find the game complicated. I don't play it that much
Then go play checkers.
Posted using Splintertalk
Nice post, miss the salt mines in the charts 🤣.
That this is in the list 🤯... they probably have not find discord yet.
I like a mix of positive items also its a nice learning environment for gamers to introduce into crypto and its mechanisms.
I forwarded that bit to Royal. I strongly disagree with that obviously. But I don't know peoples personal experiences, so I can't judge.
Oh. I have that plot based on the discussion between quasar and Olaf.gui
There you go :)
Also totally not my experience i have used the discord and ticket system a few time always, decent response time with good answers.
I absolutely agree. I have had more success talking to the support than talking to some of my extended family! Lol!😂
I also agree. I've had several issues and the team was helping me almost immediately. One time it only took 5 minutes.
Posted using Splintertalk
Why I lost interest was the rising costs of new sets plus the introductions of the vouchers. Combine that with the power creep of the new sets it just was a bit much for me. I had to resort to buying packs though hive engine to get a slight discount. Just staying in a tier where I could still earn was getting to be a grind, battling what seemed to be endless bots.
Then I was just only fighting brawls for my guild. Which was still fun. But now my guild is pretty much dead at this point with fellow members not even brawling anymore.
I'm not complaining , just stating what I went through for all that's worth. I love the game but when you step away from it for a period of time it's hard to get back into it, like most things in life.lol
I understand.
We have lost a lot of players that way. The loss of individual leagues in ranked battle is the one that hurt personally the most. And yet, I couldn't stop that, and also I couldn't bring it back. I tried though, but failed.
I did the same. Stepped away, and when I came back, everything had changed. I did take the time to learn again, though, and after a short time with many lost battles, I started to figure out strategies - and that's where the fun started.
The guild problem is something many guilds are facing. Especially now, with a new modern. Of the 8 possible battles I get, only 2 or 3 enemies have a sufficient summoner, and most don't even show up. If you ever consider coming back and are looking for a guild, let me know - we're always looking for active players ;-)
I don't know anything about Splinterlands. As a matter of fact, I know little about gaming in general. However, I can relate to human behavior :)
Yes!! A teacher taught me to read (late, oh so late), and literacy became the backbone of my academic and even professional life.
It's interesting that we can't objectively appreciate what we have, but must value it in relation to what others have.
Hey. Nothing wrong in not knowing Splinterlands, it’s just another facet of our social construct ;)
I have strong opinions about teaching and how to teach, and I am in the minority. That is alright. I am glad you found something interesting into this nonsense that is my post :)
Rich lore: How about a Splinterlands short stories or Manga? This would further expand the lore.
I think it has been suggested. Comic books series was suggested too. @bravetofu even did one.
For me Splinterlands is like the Great Library of Blockchain Games. It is not about being right or wrong, pros and cons anymore. This is the reference of what a blockchain game should be, how it started in the past, how it was during the golden age, and how it is right now...
salty people and those complains... those happen everywhere, I have seen a lot worse than in Splinterlands discord, such as in my ETH blockchain game I have invested a lot, when it closed down, some people (maybe some brats) asking an appointment to have a slugfest due to some silly disagreement lol. well that's life anyway
That is a good way of putting it.
Yes, salt exists. We can create a salt mine out of it :)
Which is in the white paper for land if I remember correctly 😅
I earn less than $1 a day on Splinterlands. This is not enough money for me to spend my time on the game. But I play every day :) So I am attracted to the game itself and not the money.
I appreciate you!
I am attracted to the game similarly. That’s the way a community is made.
I could write a response to each negative part with counter arguments... SPL has come a long way, and the progress is made on each level. The community is key here, as I mentioned several times, it's important to get new players in touch with this, HIVE and Discord. The rest is a downhill battle.
Especially for new players it's becoming better, with the new challenges and new cards that are usable. Even with only investing the 10$, one can have a lot of fun - and sure, if you want to make money, you have to invest money. What kind of game let's you make 10$ a day by spending only 100$? I think the spending-earning is quite balanced, as I recently calculated, the current ROI is still attractive, though SPS has fallen a lot again (time to buy!). And there are SO many ways to make a few DEC on the side, it's amazing. It just seems expensive if you only look at ranked battles, and not at all the other ways to make money.
And if anyone complains about low Alpha/Beta values... The buying pressure is still huge on those, due to land.
Okay, now I am contesting all the points. Dang. Anyway, thanks for the post! Interesting to see what the "negative" arguments are. In fact, they make me even more bullish about the game.
Maybe you should write a response to each negative part and that will be a post.
You're late. Already working on it 😝
Then I am early :)
Done. Took longer than expected. More words than expected. But hey, it was fun to re-assure myself on why I like this game so much. https://peakd.com/@beelzael/splinterlands-is-awful
Are they still doing all the construction on the terminals at the Denver airport? My nieces flew in there last year and they were telling us how horrible it was. It made my wife and I glad we drove out from Michigan instead of flying. I've heard there are some conspiracy theories about the airport out there as well.
Yes, the construction is still ongoing.
The trouble is, if there is one lightning strike, they make all ground crew to go inside!
Well that is a bit of a problem in the middle of summer thunderstorm season! You can't shutdown the 6th largest airport of the country and expect everything will be fine!
Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem. Those storms come down out of the mountains really suddenly and really fast. It has to be havoc when the weather is right.
I enjoy the game and the economy in Splinterlands. My investment in the game is something I can afford to loose in it's entirety, so I will be the other person with you turning off the lights. I continue to slowly add to my investment in the game and will only increase it with time, this is a long game for me. And if one day we see something crazy like 50 cent + SPS I will take some profits but will likely stay for another bear market anyways. Between all my accounts I already have over a million staked SPS so if I see my accounts value going over half a million dollars in the game it would seem like prudent thing to do to take half of the table, but we might be years away from it if ever.
There are options for various outcomes. I have written off this investments. It is not a small one. If I consider my time and emotional attachment, it is rather huge. It would rival my investment towards my family and that is saying a lot.
So in other words, I do not have a choice. Success or failure, I will be here, both for SL and Hive.
Insightful and honest reflectionsyour balanced take helps highlight both the game’s strengths and the challenges it still faces.
Do you play this game?
i have tried playing it but since im new to it i still don't know how, been looking for tutorials tho haahahah it's kinda confusing😭
spend $10 and buy a spellbook
The new campaign mode is really helpful with that :-) Nothing is earned without putting in any work, though. I learned by playing, without any tutorials besides the basic mechanics. It's a strategy game, and a good strategy takes time to be understood :-)
$WINE
that's a balanced assessment, as portraits both the negative and positive points
Having recently gotten back into paper... (MTG, for Final Fantasy, because I love the franchise) - people may have a limited idea how expensive paper (or other digital versions, of paper games) are so expensive. They are awful pretty, though.
For instance, to play a sealed event in Magic: Arena, it costs about the same as going to your local game store and having a few hours with people in physical meat space.
I feel like SPL would benefit from more of those types of events. Not to the extent of splintercon or splinter(whatever it was called) in Vegas, but some online events where people crack packs, and play with the cards in those packs, draft style, or in a sealed format.
While at the time I made my decision to divest myself of Splinterlands, I saw the decisions that the DAO were making as being poor (At the time) - but everything can turn around, and the DAO seems to be doing a much better job now.
The DAO is another positive element of the game, because if something is not liked, it can be changed, through the means of consensus. Or, as I did, people can choose to walk away.
But, people can choose to come back at anytime.
It was Splinterfest.
I remember paying $5000 for the venue ticket alone. Plus $550 for air-ticket, $350/night hotel room for 2 nights, $700. Not including the food :)
I loved it.
Do the DAO have that kind of money today? I am in the treasury, so I know the answer.
No.
There is nothing better than spending time with people who share the same passions as you, though. Can't really put a price on that, unless we want to measure the number of serotonin molecules generated and do a dollars to serotonin ratio.
What about sealed or draft?
It would have development costs, but also design costs, because designing a set for that format would be very different to the current balancing and design methodology.
Yes possible. It has been suggested.
Trouble is the find a critical mass. I am ready to organize. It can be done locally as well. We have to do it all from our own pocket money though. I will not be authorizing any funding from the DAO.
I mean, anyone can access the API and build it themselves. :)
absolutely.
Just require willingness and time commitment.
TeamPH used to hold Sealed Tournaments a while ago. Way before Survival Mode was a thing. This was also when daily rentals still existed and CL cards were cheaper to rent. This was an invitation-only event as we were still testing things out.
We would setup accounts with no cards except the rented starter set (maxed), randomize the cards a player would get as part of their sealed pool (kind of emulating MTG's 6-pack setup), and then rent max levels of each card pulled per the randomizer.
We then would send challenges to the other player who you're paired up against.
Recording the rounds was done manually, but overall, we had fun doing that. I mean, at least I think we did.
It just took too much effort and we eventually discontinued the experiment. Timing the event was an issue too as most players would be in PH time zone while I'm in the US, Pacific time.
Lack of interest also killed the project. Most players would want a decent amount of rewards for their time and effort, which was understandable. We didn't have much to offer.
Right now the main problem is the price. Price is the reason rewards are low. As rewards are low it is hard to organize anything that gives people the incentive. It is a circular problem.
And if we increase the price, more players might leave....
I myself am on the fence whether or not I still want to play Modern. Starting to struggle to keep up.
With Land, though, I have no problems. I want more progress into Land. 😀
By price I mean SPS price. That is our reward currency. If we can’t reward people it is hard for them to get excited.
Pay-to-Win Model: Heavy financial investment required for competitive play excludes casual gamers.
Declining Card Values: Older cards (Alpha, Beta) lose value due to new releases and format changes.
Profit-Driven Focus: Monetization prioritizes revenue over gameplay, alienating non-investor players.
Technical Issues: Server lag, transaction errors, and mobile app bugs disrupt gameplay.
Bot Activity: Bots in ranked battles reduce fairness and skew outcomes.
Poor Support: Slow or unresponsive customer support frustrates players with unresolved issues.
Steep Learning Curve: Complex mechanics overwhelm newcomers unfamiliar with blockchain or card games.
Reward System Change: Updates to the reward system, like Glint and soulbound NFTs, devalue tradable rewards, frustrating players.
High Competitive Costs: Expensive card rentals or purchases create barriers for budget players.
Limited Non-Crypto Appeal: Blockchain focus alienates traditional gamers not interested in NFTs.
Volatile Earnings: DEC and SPS value fluctuations reduce play-to-earn profitability.
Delayed Roadmap: Slow progress on features like Land Expansion creates uncertainty for players.
I was simply tried listing all the complaints in one place in an organized way :)
Obviously a lot of them are completely over the top :)
Used to play Splinterlands for 3 years, then quit the last couple years. I have a nice collection of cards, thousands of battles and even though I was such an active player, I returned back to the game a few days ago and it was indeed overwhelming!
It's amazing that Splinterlands has developed that many features, but maybe the UI could be cleaner. Not sure how, I'm not a UI desinger, just sharing some feedback!
Whales are obviously great, massively funding the game and keeping it alive.
With that said, the game has done everything in it's power to appease whales while a LOT of changes have negatively impacted the little guy such as removing leagues.
I think that's where the angst comes from. It's a bit misplaced but I also can't blame them for feeling that way.
You know I would disagree with that. :)
I don't even like this distinction between whale and minnow or whatever you like to call it. You can look at any parameters of stake weighted systems and it will be lopsided towards stake. That is the way hive (a stake weighted blockchain) is designed. SL runs on hive and powered by hive, so it runs the same way.
I don't find any surprise here, neither should you.