10 Reasons I Love Splinterlands

With the energy we have in Splinterlands these days, and with new players coming on board and asking me how I feel about Splinterlands and SPS, I felt it was a good time to write a post going over the top 10 things that make me excited and bullish about Splinterlands today. There's a lot to cover, so I'll jump right in!

#1: Game & Gameplay

This is a big one. Lots to cover just in this #1.

At the core of what I love about Splinterlands is the game itself. At first glance, Splinterlands seems simple, and the new player experience still has a long way to go before it really gives a full view of what the game has to offer and gets people hooked.

At higher levels, the game is highly complex and highly addictive. The fast-paced battles last 3-5 minutes which means you don't need to commit to hours of gaming at any given time, and the ruleset and card variety ensures it's not repetitive.

At the moment there are >50 rulesets, >100 abilities, and >700 cards in the game. Of course there are meta cards that get played more often, but even when the same cards are played the different rulesets make it so that each battle is different. I've been playing for 4 years now and still play daily. New cards and rulesets keep the game fresh for me, and I still get a lot of satisfaction from playing.

Then there's Survival Mode. This new mode turns cards into "energy", and any cards lost during a battle go on cooldown (i.e. are unavailable to be played in any mode for a number of days, which depends on their level, foil, and rarity). I didn't initially realize how fun this mode would be, but it comes down to the fact that it adds STAKES into each battle. The adrenaline I'm getting from seeing my top cards go into battle and hoping they stay alive just takes the gameplay to another level.

In addition to the gameplay, there are the collectibles. At the core of Splinterlands are the cards, which are NFTs owned by the players. I own many cards that I've accumulated over the years, and even had the opportunity to co-create a card with the company as part of the Rebellion pre-sale. I'm incredibly attached to my cards, and the more utility they get, the more attached I become.

Here are a few of my personal favorite cards in Splinterlands...

#2: Community

The Splinterlands Community could and probably should be #1 on the list. We have something really special in Splinterlands, with hardcore fans being around for years. We may not currently have tens or hundreds of thousands of players (yet), but we DO have a cult-like following that reminds me of early-day communities for the likes of MTG, Warhammer, or Dungeons and Dragons. Some of these are brand names now and it's hard to remember that D&G initially began in the early 70s, struggled through the 80s and 90s, and finally started becoming a household name in the late 90s after getting acquired by WotC.

I could write an entire article just on the characters and personalities in the Splinterlands community. It's full of high-caliber individuals. People who in many cases have seen the game from its inception and through many ups and downs. We have intelligent people who show up every day to talk gameplay, tokenomics, roadmap, marketing, community engagement, new player experience... The team (which I'll get to next) may be small & mighty, but the community very much feels like an extended team.

Another point to touch on under Community is the DAO. Now this one can be a bit controversial, and in a lot of ways our DAO has been a source of drama. BUT one thing is absolutely certain, and that is that as a decentralized Web3 project we have one of the most active governance platforms in any game (or even any Web3 project) I've seen. Sure, many projects have DAO proposals, but they're often things that are pushed by, and voted on, by small groups of people within those communities. At Splinterlands we've had >200 proposals that have touched on everything from gameplay to tokenomics to marketing to fiat onramps, and we have heavy community participation on all proposals, including some often heated pre-proposal debates... It absolutely CAN be a pain in the ass sometimes, and we've had discussions that have lasted weeks on topics that haven't yet gotten resolved. Sometimes I DO wish the team would just step in and say "alright guys, we've heard both sides and we're just going to make a decision." But on the other hand, the DAO is one of the things that makes us unique and truly decentralized. The community, with its SPS stake, gets to actually influence the shape of the game and economy. It's a little terrifying, and also quite exciting.

#3: Team & Leadership

I wouldn't be here, writing this post, and wouldn't have bought nearly as much SPS as I did if it wasn't for the trust I have in the Splinterlands team.

The team's gone through a lot in the 7 years they've been working on this game. Ups and downs the entire way - not a dull moment to be found. And through it all, our current CEO Matt has kept his poise, his intellect, and his creativity to keep the ship afloat. Today I feel we're more than just afloat, we're preparing for lift-off. Matt took the CEO reins a few years ago and made significant changes to how the team operates. He looked tired at times, but you wouldn't know it if you paid attention to the latest Town Hall, where he's upbeat and as bullish on Splinterlands as he's ever been.

Besides Matt, we have an awesome creative lead in Nate Aguila, who also brings unmatched passion and energy. We have a hardworking, and reliable dev team who makes sure to keep the game evolving and bug-free, with awesome guys like Investygator and Cryptomancer. We have folks like RoyalEagle and lilyfire who hold down the fort and seem to be jacks of all trades, which is essential in a small company. And we FINALLY have a marketing team worth talking about, but I'll get to that in a later point.

The regular Town Halls (though I wish they were more frequent than just monthly) offer insights into what's going on in the game, and the team's highly active on Discord, answering every question that comes their way.

Most importantly, the team is honest and transparent, communicative, and passionate about what they're building. They're part of the community, and they're as invested in we are in the success of Splinterlands.

#4: Tokenomics

We're a Web3 project, so obviously having sound tokenomics is important. And here again we've been through a rollercoaster. Ensuring assets retain (and accrue) value requires thoughtful design in any system, and it can be particularly difficult in a game where players expect to "earn".

Certainly we look back and see some things that shouldn't have happened. Too much DEC (our marketplace currency) was minted as part of the SPS airdrop (seems so long ago!). Too many Chaos Legion packs were sold (or were they?) and too many reward cards were awarded, creating a glut of cards in the market, some of which are getting burned for DEC.

A big part of SPS's economic success depends on activating our "flywheel", whereby SPS gets burned for DEC, which players would do only if they need DEC and if DEC is at "peg" (~1000 DEC for $1). To ensure DEC is at peg, there can't be too much of it in circulation. And to ensure there's demand, there must be products people want to buy with DEC.

Over the last few years the team has been working hard to remove DEC faucets (i.e. less DEC entering circulation) and increase DEC sinks (i.e. more DEC burned). Some of these have smaller impacts that can compound over time (e.g. market fees and Wild season passes) and others have spurts of impact that are seasonal (e.g. burning DEC to unbind soulbound reward cards). Those alone won't take billions of DEC out of circulation, but with a growing player base they'll ensure sustainability. What WILL take billions of DEC our of circulation are systems like Land and releases like Conclave Arcana however. With projects like these just around the corner, I'm feeling as excited as I ever have about our tokenomics.

#5: Conclave Arcana

Ok so my #5 is the upcoming card set: Conclave Arcana (CA for short). We still don't know all the juicy details about CA, but we have gotten a few glimpses of what it'll be like and of course some eye candy. CA is currently slated to go live in April/May this year.

The MOST exciting thing about CA, however, is that it'll usher in the rotation of Chaos Legion out of Modern. This means that in order to play in Modern a few months from now, players will need either Rebellion (which is extremely scarce) or CA. And that likely means a much bigger demand for CA than we saw for Rebellion (given people could previously continue playing with their thousands of CL cards).

CA will also bring a slew of new pack options (from legendary to starter packs), new onboarding campaigns, and will also renew the "conflicts" mechanic that was introduced in Rebellion, where players compete for airdrops. It'll likely introduce some new battle mechanics as part of a whole new set of cards, as well as potentially new rulesets. The team has hinted at other interesting mechanics such as having "chase cards" (ultra-rare cards) available in some form, but haven't yet given more details on this. We'll likely be hearing soon about what else they have in store, and I can tell you I am as excited as they come. I will absolutely be going BIG on Conclave Arcana.

#6: Marketing

Years ago, the team did marketing, but it seems none of it worked. There were big expenditures on things like billboards and odd partnerships (Waka, Imagine Dragons). Meanwhile our new player experience in the game was lacking, and many people who came aboard didn't stick around.

Fast forward to today, and we have a much better game experience and a much more conservative and thoughtful team at the helm.

Most importantly though, we have a marketing team who actually seems to know what they're doing. Blaze came on board and has been managing overall marketing operations, and recently the team showed off the group from "Not Corrupt Media", a marketing group who has worked on massive campaigns with big names like Blizzard and the NBA and has tons of experience in web3 (including, but not limited to, Illuvium, which certainly was not lacking on the marketing side of things). In the latest Town Hall, Andrew from Not Corrupt Media came on and was extremely transparent and detailed about what they plan to do - and what they plan NOT to do. He was honest and direct about what's realistic, showed passion, and shared extensive examples of how his team has gotten it done over many years, and across many subject matters and types of media and channels.

I'm not typically one to get excited about marketing, but in this case, count me a believer. The timing couldn't be better with Conclave Arcana around the corner and the new player experience having significantly improved in the last 12 months.

For more details on the latest marketing plans, check out the Town Hall (Andrew goes into lots of details in the first half):

#7: Land

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the ultimate expert on Land, the core resource-management game in Splinterlands. There are many in Splinterlands who are way more knowledgeable and invested than I am. However, I do own a tract and have diligently been farming Grain and Research since the early days of Land. Soon, we'll be embarking on the next chapter of Land (aka Land 1.75), which will introduce new resources (Stone, Wood, and Ore) in addition to Grain. We'll get new pools enabling trade between all these resources, and we'll get a glimpse at what the multi-resource economy will look like once we get further into its development.

Currently there is nearly 1.5 billion DEC staked on Land, and there's a likelihood this will increase for 1.75, though it's hard to say how much as many big landowners are already staked. However, the increased demand for more powerful cards to stake on land and the potential rewards to be obtained from farming new resources should bring some new energy to Land and give us more to be excited about as we anxiously wait for Land 2.0.

I'm hopeful that in Land 1.75 we'll have some other delighters - perhaps an item to craft with our newfound resources. That would add fun utility that starts to connect Land with the core card game, as well as help give a look into what the future of item crafting could look like.

#8: 3rd party Ecosystem

I've consistently been impressed by the 3rd party ecosystem that surrounds Splinterlands. Many apps have come and gone, but some of the mainstays continue holding strong and are integral parts of what makes Splinterlands great.

Here are just a few callouts:
🐉 PeakMonsters (@peakmonsters) (http://peakmonsters.com) deserves the utmost shoutout with what I would argue is the absolute best user interface for managing cards, buying/selling/renting, deck-building, and more. With bids, automatic rentals, lots of different views of data & dashboards, and even upcoming services to support Validator Node operations, there just isn't enough
🃏 SplinterCards @splintercards (http://splintercards.com) is THE source for SPL token and game information, and while there have recently been some issues tracking a few of the datapoints (partly related to the changes with Validators), @tehox does an incredible job keeping us informed
🤖 Xbot (http://xbot.app) provides a fantastic user-friendly bot service (only to be used in Wild!), SPS rentals, and more
🧙‍♂️ Archmage (@archmage.app) (http://archmage.app) is another terrific bot service and one of the OGs (also only to be used in Wild!)
🦮 SplinterGuide (http://splinterguide.com): Card stats & tiers, provided by yours truly :)

In an ideal world I would also call out games like Soulkeep, as well as what's going on over in Arcade Colony. However at the moment I have mixed feelings (and incomplete information) about how those games are doing, but they may speculatively add value to Splinterlands in the future.

#9: Validator Nodes

Validator Nodes have been a difficult multi-year project for Splinterlands, and they're finally live! As of now, anybody can go to the Github repo (https://github.com/TheSPSDAO/SPS-Validator) and get everything they need to set up a Validator. Licenses to earn rewards as a Validator, meanwhile, can be purchased in the secondary market.

With Validator Nodes being operated by the community, we go a step further into becoming a fully decentralized game.

#10: The Rental System

Alright so I wanted to end on something that I think is contentious. There are several in the community (including some very big stakeholders) who feel the rental system discourages ownership and therefore diminishes asset values. I vehemently disagree with this notion. While I don't think our rental system is perfect (and ultimately I agreed that moving to season-only rentals was better, though primarily for user experience reasons), I DO maintain that rentals are an essential and awesome feature in Splinterlands.

There are VERY few games, digital or otherwise, where you can pay to borrow an asset that you can then use in a game, in tournaments, and to play & earn. In Splinterlands, this is risk-free for the asset owner and affordable and flexible for the renter. Imagine "renting" out a card in MTG? Obviously you wouldn't, as you'd worry about the card getting torn or lost. What about other digital games? Parallel's an awesome web3 TCG, and there is a form of renting but it's not NEARLY as easy to use.

I'll add that card rentals, giving additional utility to cards, give another "resource-management" aspect to the game that, for some of us (e.g. me) is FUN. It's yet another way I can get value from my cards and try to optimize my collection.

And of course, rentals are a terrific user experience for new players who aren't necessarily ready to buy cards out of the gate.

Needless to say, I'm a big fan of rentals and will defend it vehemently.

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When I started the article, I told myself I'd keep it under 2000 words. It's nearly at 3000, and there are still lots of things I didn't mention or just skirted over, but it's time to wrap up otherwise I don't know who's going to make it to the bottom of this article! What do you feel I missed? Let me know in the comments :)