Soulkeep: Pay more, not less! A counter suggestion to staking.

I'm not sure how many people who commented &/or voted in clayboyn's current Soulkeep poll tuned in for his last DAO hall AMA with Double Coconut. In that AMA, DC outlined a longer term vision for Soulkeep that could potentially be of significant benefit to Splinterlands. I strongly feel adding staking requirements to Soulkeep's tournament system will severely hamper the growth potential for both Soulkeep and by extension Splinterlands as well.

DC said they plan on releasing a mobile phone app non-crypto version of the game. They have the tools to be able to expand the maps, creatures and the leagues out further past the current 10. Those of us playing it atm are effectively beta testing the game if we are honest here. There are still bugs and issues being worked out. That said the game is fun and very well could be a hugely popular mobile game. Some percentage of these players will decide to take the plunge into crypto and come try their hand at making a little something in the Soulkeep Tournaments we currently play.

Every player Soulkeep adds helps out the SPL ecosystem. Soulkeep cards are bought/sold/rented in DEC. Tickets cost DEC. Soul Boxes cost DEC. More players buying/selling/renting/playing directly = more DEC being bought/spent/burnt. I'd argue that Soulkeep not having stake requirements could possibly equate to more players who are new to the crypto sphere jumping over to try out Splinterlands. Soulkeep pays out SPS rewards that are staked already just like Splinterlands. Since their staked SPS is utilized in Splinterlands, some of these new players will then be drawn over there to check it out and start growing their assets there.

Soulkeep's current anti-inflation system is to burn 50% of their in game sales and the other 50% goes to DC. For this system to work though the game needs thousands if not hundreds of thousands of players not the less than 250 we currently have. However with enough players this could end up being a lot of DEC.

In order to attract more players and make the game more rewarding to all who play I'd like to flesh out an idea costanza had in clayboyn's thread. To flatten out the payments a bit more and possibly even boost replays I think we should add 2 new categories to the current system. Currently in each league the top 10 players all get rewards. If there are 20+ players per league the top 50% get something and if there are 40+ players the top 25% get something. It can be demoralizing for players to constantly not get any rewards at all if they are not a top player. Even a little reward for lesser achievements can be encouraging. Constanza suggested players all share a portion of that league's reward poll for completing the first map. I'd like to take that a step further and suggest breaking it down for both maps as 2 additional payout categories.

5% of each league's reward pool is split between everyone who completes the first map.
15% of each league's reward pool is split between everyone who completes the 2nd map.
80% of each league's reward pool is payed out based off overall score as is currently setup for players 1-10, top 25% and top 50%. We do want to drive tournament score replays so the bulk of the league's reward pool should still go to the tournament winners. The specific percentages for completing the maps can be adjusted if needed. The ticket costs might need to be adjusted a bit if the replay costs are now to much compared to the diminished ranking rewards.

I think the above system could lead to more replays which cost tickets and therefore DEC. I personally mostly only bothered to play more than just the 1 free time when actively trying to farm maps with a lot of a needed mob type when I was close to advancing leagues. I'd be more inclined to try again on maps with rules like tower freezer or where I just play poorly if I knew I could make at least a little something if I can just beat the maps.

Would these changes interest any of you not currently playing to come join us?

If you are currently a top scoring player for your league does the above seem fair at all?

While proofreading the above and almost ready to hit Publish, I had an additional idea which may or may not be of interest...
What if instead of burning half DC's sales, the DAO partnered with them and took the burn 50%? So 50% to DC & 50% to the DAO. The DAO could vote to burn it...or maybe vote to pay it towards a Splinterland's expansion or development costs or whatever. The more popular Soulkeep becomes the more money the DAO stands to make.

Thoughts on both ideas?

Edit: Admittedly this doesn't do anything on the issue of huge multi-accounting farms. Stake requirements will not stop them, they will just swamp the lower leagues where their distributed SPS makes the most. Nothing short of strict per player account limits(of however many is deemed fair) is going to change things for real.