Trying To Stay Positive While Talking About Proposals

Hello Splinterlands fam,

I honestly did not really know how to start this post. Normally when I write here it is because I am excited about something I want to share. Most of the time I try to keep things positive because blogging and gaming are part of my hobby time.

During my day job it is actually the opposite. As a software tester I often have to be the pessimist in the room. My job is literally to find risks and point out what could go wrong. I end up being the bearer of bad news quite often. The funny thing is that I actually do not mind that role because even critical feedback can be shared in a constructive and neutral way.

Lately (sometimes) though I have been feeling something in the community that I do not really like.

With many of the recent proposals it feels like we are slowly creating (increasing) camps inside the community. Small players versus whales. Highly active players versus casual players. That is just my personal feeling of course but I do not enjoy seeing those lines appear.
And at the same time it is fascinating to see how differently people play the game. Some see it purely as a game, others as a collecting hobby, and some approach it more like asset management. Splinterlands supports many different playstyles, which also means many different opinions.

Here in the Netherlands there is currently a government commercial going around with a message that really stuck with me.

“Are you winning the discussion or losing a friend?”

That sentence kind of summarizes the feeling I sometimes get when reading proposal discussions.

So I wanted to share my thoughts on the current proposal and on the proposal system in general. This is just my opinion. There are many voices in the community and they all deserve to be heard.

This is the proposal we are talking about:
@sps.dao/sps-governance-proposal-bring-brackets-to-modern

Experimentation Is Good

One thing I think many people agree on is that some form of bracket system could benefit the game and the community.

At the same time the implementation is not simple at all.

Because of that I am actually in favor of experimenting. Even if something is not perfect at first it can still teach us something. Survival mode is a good example. It was just introduced and we can already see some interesting effects like players spreading too thin or clustering in one place.

Then again survival is a completely different game mode so the same rules will not necessarily apply to ranked play.

And to be completely honest my bot plays survival and I barely look at it. It is not really the mode I personally care about.

Ranked Mode Is What I Care About

Ranked mode is where I would actually like to play manually again.

Right now that is simply not happening. My bot performs about ten times better than I do when it comes to earnings, win rate, and climbing leagues. That is just the cold hard truth.

If the game developers manage to lure me back into playing modern ranked manually then that would be a big win in my eyes.

One thing I do like in the proposed system is the return of level caps. In bronze it should not be possible to run into someone with a full champion level deck. That kind of protection for new players makes sense.

At the same time if a champion player is just returning to the game and climbing the ladder again that is also fine. They will move up quickly anyway.

Choosing Your Bracket

One part of the proposal I am not fully convinced about is the idea that players have to choose their bracket.

For experienced players that might be fine, but for new players it can easily become confusing. They are still building their deck and learning the game. Another important question is how this system prevents too much multi accounting instead of encouraging players to combine their cards into one stronger deck.

Personally I would prefer something like a “suggest my bracket” system. Let the game analyze your collection and performance and give you a recommended league.

I also believe that players should earn their position in a league by playing. Some players are incredibly good even with lower level cards.

For me that is definitely not the case. I often just need higher level cards to keep up.

We will figure this out eventually. Maybe through this proposal or maybe through the next one. In the end I believe this is something the team should guide strongly rather than leaving to the DAO.

The Eternal Topic Of Rewards

Of course we cannot talk about proposals without talking about rewards.

One thing I immediately noticed is that I did not see the double GLINT option anymore. I am not sure how that would work with a payment structure like survival mode. So big question mark as i enjoy the double glint, for the a long while again i have the sense that i can earn the soulbound rewards again (hope i have enough time for it).

Another topic that always returns is whales protecting their earnings.

Personally I think players who invest heavily in the ecosystem should receive benefits. They are taking larger financial risks and supporting the game.

At the same time it is also important that smaller players feel they can progress and grow.

Balancing that is incredibly difficult.

The DAO is clearly trying to balance the payout structure but shifting rewards toward smaller players is not easy when large stakeholders hold most of the voting power (and should it shift).

One idea I personally like is keeping SPS rewards similar but increasing GLINT bonuses in the lower leagues. That way newer or smaller players can progress their collection faster and feel like they are getting closer to the bigger players.

Maybe there are downsides to that idea that I am not seeing yet. That is exactly why these discussions exist.

The Current Reality For Me

For now my personal reality is simple.

As long as my bot earns significantly more in wild ranked than I can earn manually in modern silver or gold, the bot will keep playing. To clearify for me this means glint earnings 😁.

Meanwhile I spend most of my manual playtime in Frontier.

Even there I am starting to feel the grind a bit. Sometimes I make more mistakes because it becomes repetitive. Or maybe other players are just getting better at rock paper scissors strategy.

Probably a bit of both.

But I still need those extra foundation cards so the grind continues. Right now I only have a handful and that is not nearly enough to complete even one account let alone three.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. A bit of a rant but hopefully also a constructive one.

This is just my opinion and one perspective among many. The community is large and full of different types of players with different experiences and expectations.

My biggest hope is that while we debate proposals we remember that we are all here because we enjoy the same game.

Winning an argument is nice. Keeping the community strong is better.

Thanks for reading and as always happy battling.

Beaker signing off 👋

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