My opinion about the recent Splinterlands changes
Bad Match Making
Well I guess this season is done for me now, so may as well start writing this. Lets Discuss the state of Play2Earn this season. The first few days started out great, it seemed like the match liquidity bots were almost a non issue after they changed the timer to 45 seconds. Then they decided to remove level caps based on what Tier Rating you were in so we got games like this one on another account of mine in bronze vs a level 8 summoner.
Feeling Blue
I have been trying to stay positive about playing Splinterlands, but now it just seems like a chore. I do not have the money to spend on cards since I care more about building up my Hive Power, and HBD savings. Yes I am on Hive to try and make money, and no I am not an investor. My goal has always been to learn about crypto, get some gains, and just let it sit for years to reap some of that juicy compound interest. I can tell you that everywhere I have asked about peoples feelings on this update people are not very happy about the direction of pay to win instead of play 2 earn. Well except on chain, maybe that is because stuff posted here is here forever who knows. My last post had some engagement at least, but didn't seem to get anyone to give feedback in the Splinterlands Discord If you want just the code of the invite link here it is. "EvdHWEUV"
We know who controls the DAO
There was a recent DAO vote to add Liquidity bot so whatever, the community chose to have them and you are not forced to fight them. It was stated that they thought people that have not invested in the game should not reap the benefits of higher ranks so I take that as time invested in playing doesn't mean much to them and they would rather play against bots. So why do we have no bots allowed in modern? Oh ya because they did not want people to use bots to win cards with the starter deck. Well now we have bots in modern again, but they take nothing from the reward pool. Was this idea tested in any meaningful way? I don't know but it sure didn't seem like it at the end of last season.
Update Timing
Updates at the end of the season seems like a bad idea to me and now it has happened 2 seasons in a row. Someone puts in 2 weeks of playing to see their rating tank at the end makes it seem like the goal is to make sure that who ever has the best maxed out set no matter the tier they are in have an unfair advantage. Sure with the current rental market this means that it would be cheaper to rent the best cards you can for the last 2 days and push upward. Yep here is my energy now!
Trying Bronze
Bringing a second account online to try and pick up a few more reward cards and set of gladiators for low tier brawls in NFG Club. I have been hanging out a bunch in the owner of @witness4all's discord and figured I could fill an extra slot in their brawls because I really enjoy that kind of fight. I don't know if a spell book is required to gain SPS from brawls or not, but I will find out in a day or 2 lol. The other goal of playing around on this account was just to see what the new player experience was, and the above picture shows an extreme example of what a new player would run into.
Solutions
Some random ideas to help cultivate people to play would be actual mediocre summoners available through reward cards so you can at least play with cards over level 1. Not reducing the card pool to 1 set of rewards cards at a time. Bring back level caps or better match making based on card power available in the current league. Use cards played in the current season to pick cards to use for liquidity bots, or at least use some kind of average of the levels of cards played.
But am I wrong?
I have been told that I am being too negative and that will drive people away, well why is one of the best advertising tricks creating a controversy so more people get in on the conversation and then more people see it. If I am being too negative call me out in the comments and tell me how dumb and wrong I am. Yes I am baiting for engagement, new ideas and overall just wanting to see Splinterlands be the best game it can be.
Nerf earnings not GAMEPLAY!
After talking with some people in Discord I think this header is the perfect TLDR of the point I am trying to make. We need more players not less.
I've been playing splinterlands for a few seasons and this one was by FAR the least enjoyable. The level caps or something that fills a similar role need to make a come back.
!PIZZA
Thanks for the reply, I have to agree the level gap for new players is hard to enjoy.
Yes!!! Why the hell is it a good idea to allow a max level summoner to be used against people in bronze. Everything else in the games is in a decent, if not great, state right now but this crap NEEDS to go away for Splinterlands to be taken seriously.
Fully agree! i've been playing for a few months and last season SUCKED I had gotten into high silver and even peaked into gold, and then I was struggling to even get to bronze 1.
There's been gatekeepers at the high end of all the leagues for a long time now. It's awful..
But it's not always been like this. Before Rebellion there were very precise lvl restrictions no matter which league you were in. What we have now it's a disgrace.
It's truly the only thing I dislike about an otherwise exciting project.
The problem changed a bit over time after they introduced survival mode and season rentals.. I think the expectation from a lot of people will now be that since Rebellion and Conclave cards are high in price and there's lots of demand for them people will be incentivized to play in the proper leagues.. we'll see how that plays out but it's not just a matter of ratings and earnings, you know? It's a matter of principle.
Money should never fully replace skill and what we had before with the "league" system was a much better compromise! #bringleaguesback
I even talked about this a bit in an old post of mine
What can I say? Let's hope that eventually they'll change this back
Also, if you want to onbaord new people, it still needs to be enjoyable to play at low levels of investment(like just a spellbook)
Either change it back or implement something else that does the same thing. I am tired of being matched with max/high lvl summoners in silver 1/bronze 3
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Come get MOONed!
I mean you know where I stand already :)
I played Splinterlands for years, stopped because it just felt like a grind with no upside. Took a 2 year break and came back and it was fun again because I was collecting new cards and playing with new abilities and such.
Then the last 2 seasons before Conclave Arcana... sucked. I just honestly stopped playing Modern games because what was the point? A Win ratio of like 30%? yeah that's not worth it. Could I play better and more strategically? sure. But when I have only level 1 and maybe a couple lvl 2 summoners and I go up against fully maxed out decks.. it's pointless.
So yes I think drastic changes should be made for AT LEAST the Modern format because if I was a brand new player who started last season.. I doubt I would stay around and keep playing because there would be no point.
!PIZZA