Splinterlands is on fire. The top DApp on Steem keeps taking things to a new level. This should be exciting for everyone involved in the Steem ecosystem. At the same time, it is really going to change things for the players.
Yesterday there was a great deal of activity concerning this game. We had some big announcements that I will delve into. But first, let us look at the publicity.
Cointelegraph did an article about the state of crypto games in 2020. Naturally, Splinterlands made the list.
Here is what was said about it:
Any Game of Thrones fan will find it easy to fall in love with Splinterlands. This crypto game is set in a fantasy world made up of six kingdoms that battle for control of Splinterland. And just like Games of Thrones, there is a prophecy that predicts the coming of a common enemy that will force the Splinters to unite and fight.
Players get to use in-game collectibles to defeat enemies in battle. Thanks to its use of blockchain technology, each card is unique, and the results of every battle can be verified easily. The game is built with an algorithm that prevents tampering with the results of battles. Even game creators cannot manipulate or change them.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/overview-and-market-trends-of-crypto-games-in-2020
This is pretty good publicity. As most of us who are involved in cryptocurrency, Cointelegraph is considered one of the "mainstream" crypto news sites. Being featured on there is sure to get in front of some eyes.
Here we see the type of publicity that a lot of other blockchains get. It is one thing to market and advertise but the best is publicity that comes from someone else talking about you. This does not happen often with Steem since it flies under the radar. However, Splinterlands is starting to gain the recognition as being one of the leading blockchain based games.
A couple other pieces of interesting news came out regarding the game. 
The first is one everyone will agree upon. Splinterlands' mobile application will be out on Monday. This is something that was discussed. What was revealed though, for the firs time, is that it will be integrated within the Samsung wallet. This means that any one with a Samsung phone could potentially get involved in the game. Unlike being on the Android store, this is a special place since Samsung has certain DApps listed that are tied to the wallet. This takes things to another level.
Players who use the DApp on their Samsung phones will be able to store the cards in their mobile wallets. This can make things a lot easier, especially if playing games while on the go.
Obviously, opening up the mobile market is huge. More people access the internet via mobile than they do using desktops or pcs. In fact, there are large segments of the user population that only uses mobile for their access.
Here is the interview:
https://steempeak.com/hive-100421/@coruscate/evzsqmcq
Another piece that was mentioned in the interview that is enormous, in my opinion, is the plan to add virtual real estate to Splinterlands. This once again takes things to an entirely new level.
For a long time, I felt one of the most valuable aspects of blockchain is the ability to show ownership of virtual real estate. As we shift to a world where more of our lives are digital, we are going to see the concentration of wealth start to pile up in this realm. This is something that we saw for the past two decades yet the majority of the ownership was by mega-corporations.
With blockchain, individuals can now own digital assets. This can be a token, a card, or a "deed" to a piece of virtual properly. Being in a game means that location, location, location still rules. The value of the "neighborhood" is going to be dependent, a great deal, on the popularity of the game. This is only going to expand once we start to apply the user of virtual reality devices.
To me, this will be an enormous opportunity for anyone involved with the Steem platform. As the ecosystem grows, the value of assets that are on here will also increase. While gaming is very popular, not everyone is a gamer. However, much of what we see taking place is truly the "gameficiation of everything". Thus, the same skills that apply to real estate in the physical world apply here.
A lot of this is virgin waters. We are literally creating the models for people to follow. The decentralized nature of things means that ideas can spring forth from many areas. People are experimenting, developing, and pondering on many different levels.
Through it all, the ways to benefit are only growing. Throughout the life of the internet, developers focused upon the user experience by adding more to their offerings. By adding in cryptocurrency and other digital assets, the enhancing of the user experience is actually presenting more opportunity to financially benefit.
It is exciting to see the opportunities that are unfolding before all of us. In the past, there was only a couple ways to get rewarded on the Steem blockchain. Today, we see that number into the dozens. By the end of next year, I will not be surprised if that number is in the thousands.
By the way, at the end of the interview, aggroed discussed the marketplace with Steem-Engine and how that could offer people a few more ways to financially benefit from the Steem platform.
This is all very exciting.
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Posted via Steemleo