I'm getting closer and closer to fully giving up on Splinterland after being part of it for nearly 7 years as I just don't see any of the core issues being solved properly. Here is a detailed argumented case of what I believe is needed to actually make this game a success...
The State Of Splinterlands
Many would argue that Splinterlands is in a better stats than ever with Frontiers Format that was realeased allowing an easier way for new players to be onboarded. However, for me personally, I have been the least engaged since years.
- Archmage bot just automates Wild Mode
- I still Do Brawls but the Guild feels dead and at times I was too late to enter my battles and nobody really cares anymore.
- I stopped playing Survival Mode as it's just not fun and the rewards are not worth the time. Why does this mode even exist especially now that it isn't putting cards on cooldown anymore outside of this mode. It would be better to just have players stake cards on land and give them the rewards.
- While Blogging is still rewarding, I can't keep up the 2 Posts a Week routine since I'm not willing to pretend, which makes all my content either bashing on what's bad or with suggestions (like this one) that have close to zero chance to ever insipring the team to change their approach.
- Land just sits Idle as I don't even care to claim the 5 active plots I have.
- Frontiers mode was fun for a day, but quickly got old, and I'm not looking to grind it.
- I'm not selling assets at current values but also completely stopped buying anything.
- ...
The main thing that really kept me going with Splinterlands for this long was the potential I saw in this game and this ecosystem. However, years of efforts to save the game economy, which each time came at the cost of fun and gameplay, have just put this potential further and further out of reach.
The way I see things is that there are 4 main things that bring people into Splinterlands willing to throw some money at it.
These are the Potential Earnings (returns), the Value Expectation of Asset Prices, The Community Sentiment and engagement, and most importantly Fun & Addictive Gameplay.
Right now, I would argue that Splinterlands has none of these. The economy continues to be in a very bad state with lots of bag holders who are looking to dump in case the price goes up. The only thing everyone is counting on is 'Alt Season' and Splinterlands being part of it. However, that once again would be a temporary thing, and I don't think I would be willing to buy more assets in case I made a ton of money in crypto while I would get out in case Splinterlands asset prices pumped. The game itself is also just nowhere near the fun it potentially could be, and the community feels more like people who value the friends they made over the year than the actual game itself.
The Core Splinterlands Problems!!!
There are many fundamental things that make it near impossible for Splinterlands to actually get some widespread adoption. To be honest, everything kind of feels like it's done with the main purpose of keeping the Google-level salaries going for just a bit longer while the real issues are never solved.
👎Ridiculous Time Requirements: There is simply no way whatsoever to put some money in Splinterlands to have some short-term fun with this game. The time investement needed from a manual player who doesn't want to lose out on rewards is just insane which makes botting your account near obligated. This creates a massive barrier of entry and eventually a situation where players don't care anymore since the bot does all the work. If you want to be a Splinterlands player, it needs to be a full-time occupation which nobody in the real world has time for. Because of this, it cuts out 99% of the potential playerbase.
👎Extreme Pay2Win: To say that Splinterlands is a Pay2Win game is a huge understatement. In most cases, if you win a game you feel like you just had stronger cards and if you lose that was the case for your opponent. There is also no end to the pay2win since the way things are set up is that sooner than later you will be faced with a wall where opponents are just too strong and the only way to overcome this is to level up your cards even more. One of the reasons why Frontier Mode was actually more fun for a couple of days because everything was reset and all players were on a level playing field. If you win a match it felt like an accomplishment and if you lost it was a learning opportunity. Max level in the past used to be something only the biggest whales could achieve, right now it has become the norm for everyone.
👎Unaffordable Costs: While you can argue that there is an option now to play for free while it's also possible to rent cards. The reality about Splinterlands is that your need to be shitting gold bricks to actually play this game at the fun levels. Even whales like
got to the point where after putting in 10k+ they did no longer get to a point where they could be competitive. While I don't think is a bad thing that players who want and are capable can unload their wallet, if it's a Pay-To-Have-Fun situation it just cuts out 99% of the players who are left frustrating. (See Ridiculous Costs that Kill New Player Adoption)
👎Devaluating Assests: The setup right now is that players need to pay a lot for the Modern Cards to hopefully earn enough to somewhat offset the sure asset devaluation as they are getting closer and closer to getting dumped in Wild. This model simply doesn't work as people only really are willing to invest if they have the belief that they assets will hold their value over time. It is the main reason why there was such a massive onboarding at the start of Chaos Legion because everyone saw that Untamed cards were way more expensive compared to what players paid for them thinking they could achieve the same by getting in.
We all know how that played out and right now the thing people see is 4$ packs that include 5 cards of the new set, while old cards at max level and 400 cards combined go for half that price.
👎Extreme Complexity: One of the reasons why people, including myself, enjoyed Frontiers Format is that it brought back simplicity. Splinterlands over the years printed so many new cards and they continued to get more complex with Abilities that give you a headache. Add to this more and more game rules that are very confusing and it quickly became a situation with a cards and abilities fatigue.
👎Power Creep: This is part of the asset devaluation as new cards that are printed are just made more and more powerful which helps to move sales to the point where it becomes utterly ridiculous.
👎Investor Unfriendly: As someone who wants to invest passively into Splinterlands there pretty much is just 1 option which is to buy and stake SPS. The entire concept of owning scarce cards and renting them out or putting them on land just one giant hassle that is very time-intensive and complicated. This combined with the inflationary nature of cards makes it rather foolish.
👎Viewing Audience Unfriendly: One of the big things that makes certain games popular is if they are easy to watch someone else play. Splinterlands simply doesn't have this at the moment. I can say that as someone who knows the game I can never follow or relate when I see someone else play and there also isn't really a biginning or an end with certain goals to reach.
👎...
The Everything Solution !!!
So what it all comes down to is that Splinterlands needs something where new players can come in spending a bit of money and in return get a fun addictive game experience that is not too complex and puts them on a level playing field while allowing them to play at times they actually want to. All this in a way that helps the economy and assets hold their value also solving Power Creep.
So far, Splinterlands only really has 1 game mode as Modern Ranked, Wild, Survival, Frontiers, Brawls, Tournaments are all exactly the same concept with a slightly different twist. To me, this is just lazy programming, opting for the easy route instead of actually creating a solution and something that brings out the maximum potential fun.
Welcome Draft Mode....
What I believe could potentially do this is something like Draft Mode. Let me explain how and why...
--> Anyone can come in and pay a 2$-5$ entry fee (The First entry for new accounts might cost a bit more and include a spellbook) which gives them a 20-Minute to 1-Hour gameplay experience with some reward chests in the end based on how they performed.
--> The game mode itself gives or lets you draft a limited amount of Max Level Cards that you are able to use in a specific run (Somewhat similar to Arena in Heathstone). This puts everyone on a level playing field with both luck and skill as key factors. The most important when actually desiging this is to put 100% focus on actually making it fun and making people want to play another run.
--> The Entry Fees that are paid I would say, mostly go to players who provide the cards with a mechanic that locks them on land. The Earnings also should depend on the scarcity of the individual card and possibly on how much it is used. I guess a part of the entry fee can be burned to make DEC deflationary which gets SPS closer to the Flywheel. Maybe a part can go to the Team or the DAO.
--> Players should also be matched with someone of their level (winrate) and it is possible to give some loyalty discount based on the number of runs that has been played. I would even go as far as giving players in a poor streak a slight subtle advantage in the draws to make sure they don't get discouraged while this increases the challenge a bit for the best players.
--> Rewards can be done with chests that can be opened. Some things they should always include are different kinds of shards that fill up meters and for example give pack rewards when you get them filled. This way, more chests can be given and players have a big incentive to play another run since there will be always at least 1 meter which is close to unlocking a bigger reward.
Jackpot lottery prizes should also be a thing to add to the excitement as there is always a chance and it makes for great content and a selling point for those who feel (hope) they might get lucky. Aside from this, other rewards can be SPS Delegation (which give players incentive to also try ranked), SPS, Soulbound Cards, Cosmethics, Draft Mode Discounts or Free Entry Tickets, Glints, ...
What This Solves !!!
👍The Time Requirements: A Game mode like this would allow anyone who has 30 Minutes to 1 Hour to come in and have fun playing a run. No crazy investment requirements, no obligated hours of grinding daily, no feelings of missing out on rewards, only fun at times someone actually can and wants to play. 99% of the potential audience for the game who are now locked out get unlocked this way!
👍No Pay2Win & Maximum Fun: A Game mode like this puts everyone on a level playing field also matching players against similar level players. It also allows players to play with Max Level cards which generally are the most fun to play with!
👍Very Affordable Entry Level: Players don't have to buy thousands of packs and stake a ton of SPS to get to the fun levels. It's as easy as paying an entry fee to have fun and afterward get rewards in a way that at times might be worth more compared to what it cost to enter.
👍Reduced Complexity: Players will be presented with only a number of cards that they mentally can handle instead of being overwhelmed with choices. This is a way that it's fun and challenging to make the right choices. Since there are so many different cards, each game run will also be completely different to keep in interesting for a long time. Both new and existing players should enjoy this.
👍Power Creep is a Non-Issue : Right now, because of power creep, there are a ton of cards nobody ever uses even in Survival Mode as they are only really good enough for Land. This game mode would make these cards actually playable again, allowing everyone to actually have some fun with them.
👍Increased Asset Utility and Valuation: Of course, this depends on how popular the mode actually is, but generally, cards would get a massive utility boost. There is also an incentive for people to level cards to Max Level, which unlocks a 1-click passive rental income.
👍Investor Friendly & Land Utility: Land would actually get a massive utility boost and it would allow investors to hold cards and get some real passive returns on them without any of the hastle of actually having to find renters and constantly repricing.
👍More Streamer Friendly: The entire 30-60 Minute Process of Picking cards, playing the battles to get as far as possible in the run afterward opening the rewards should be quite friendly to stream and for viewers to watch. It should also make viewers go like 'I want to try this' which boosts the onboarding.
👍Boost Sales: As payouts for those who provide the cards are based on how many of each card are on land, the new cards will have higher earnings which might boost sales. This game mode should also remove a ton of cards in the current game modes.
Other Solutions...
There are 2 other solutions I have that could make things much better in Splinterlands.
An Achievements System: I wrote a separate post on this one some time ago. (Link Why Achievements Should Be Added). This is an easy way that doesn't need major rewards to make players play Splinterlands more and also add an enjoyable aspect to it.
Burn Card to Unlock Soulbound Card: There is the fact that we still have a massive oversupply in cards. Instead of 10x the burn value in DEC that needs to be burned to unock a Soulbound card, It should be maximum 2x or 3x along with 1 Similar Type cards that needs to be burned. So if you want to unlock a rare soulbound life summoner, you will need to burn another rare life summoner. Soulbound cards should also get restricted earnings as they now can be used freely by bots. The fact that if they are unlocked they can be provided to something like draft mode should be a nice incentive.
Conclusion!
I simply don't see a world in which Splinterlands ever succeeds as long as the norm is Hours of daily grinding, an extreme Pay2Win game that is super expensive to play, and where old asset values trade at a fraction of the new ones. None of these factors are ever addressed and only more an more assests seem to be printed in the hope to solve the mess the game has been in for some time. Something Like Draft mode when done right could potentially bring a fun accessible entry for new and existing players, allowing them to play at the time they want without a massive investment in a way that still very much benefits the entire ecosystem. As a games who loves card games, I would love to play Draft mode while just putting my entire collection on land to earn some passive returns on them.
However, I have lost hope, and most likely the next thing that comes up will be more cards that are even stronger or something else where the extreme pay2win mechanics kill all the fun while the time requirement become even more insane. Shoultout to 
Feel Free To Give Some Feedback on these Ideas in the comments below!