But that's my point. What's to separate SPL from MTG, HS or even WoW or FN... thousands of other traditional and P2W games if they continue down this path? As a BCG, they have dominated, gaining first mover status in the card arena and shown that they have not only a viable game, but a viable blockchain game. Yes, the bear market was hard, but they've weathered the worst of it and shown that they're here to stay.

They pulled wealth from the literal ether, for both themselves and the investors/players, when they drew a crowd and said hey, you can can both have fun playing a card game AND make money while doing so... the essence of a BCG.

Soulbound cards aren't the first step in this direction that I've seen, just the first that can't be mistaken for hunkering down in the winter. They don't just add no fiduciary value, they actually subtract. As you said, whole accounts can be sold, but to no benefit of the chain or project. Similar nfts already in play and those that will be sold in the future will be worth less because the "supply" will already exist and/or be that much larger and many will say good enough is good enough. I can go on, but that's not the question I originally posed here and am just digressing beyond showing that the concept is harmful to themselves and the chain as you will be hard pressed to find a block that doesn't contain a transaction of some relevance to spl.

To put it plainly and a bit more harshly than what I intended as I didn't realize reverio was a post instead of merely a question that the devs could answer or ignore at their leisure, if Splinterlands is effectively removing part of the game from the blockchain that gave it a well-baited hook, where does that stop? Is it a test to gauge the community reaction to removing the game from the chain entirely? Is it merely a shift to keep reward cards in the accounts that received them to the detriment of the game and wider economy? Are they just trying something new to see what sticks? Where?

Apologies for the novel, but since this is a comment and likely to be overlooked anyway, here's to hoping that a bug finds its way into your ear and you do what you do best and see the mistakes made, learn from them, and do it better. There's a way.