I know! I know! Thousands of people are playing already and I'm late to the game. Actually, I don't even know if I can consider myself IN the game. I started playing a week before it migrated over to Hive, and three weeks in, I still don't have much idea what I'm doing.
My account says I've been battling since September 2018, 
Not being a gamer - I can't even manage Super Mario, though I do play 2048 and Jewel Quest 😄 - I took one look at it, had absolutely no freakin idea what I was supposed to do, and logged out as quick as I could. If I had a spade, I probably would have buried it six foot under for good!
Fast forward 21 months, and I blame it on Covid lockdown. BOREDOM!!!!!!
This time it was a tad better than last time. A few months ago I had a go at playing Holybread. Someone had written a really detailed guide about it, so I had an idea how these games work. It was totally different from 2048 and Jewel Quest!!!! I played religiously for about a week and battled up to 600+ without investing any fiat into it. Then I can't remember what happened. Might have been Covid again, as it was the beginning of February. Covid had hit Taiwan already. That was the end of my gaming journey.
Anyway, with a bit of Holybread experience under my belt, this time Splinterlands seemed a bit less alien. I mean it was still scarey, having to choose all the right cards within the time limit. All I did was to make sure I maximised the mana count. I won some battles but I think only because I was up against a lot of crappy bots. All my cards were pretty weak, as expected when one doesn't invest in the game.
Help from friends
Then my friends came to help!!! Don't you just love it when you have powerful friends!!!! 
On top of these two legendary summoners, 
Another card I got was from 
End of my second season
You know before I started to play, I thought a season lasted like at least a few months, like the TV programs! I didn't realise they lasted two weeks only. No wonder I seem to see end of season reports cropping up on my feed all the time, which of course I used to ignore!
With my lovely friends' help, I managed to finish in Silver II in my first season. I consider that an achievement, yeah I have low expectations of my gaming abilities, no point stressing myself. For my second season, I finished in Silver II again, just. I forgot what time the season ends today, and when I logged on I only had 21 minutes left. I needed about 100 points to edge up to Silver II, so quickly played a few games and got there with 12 minutes to spare. Phew!!! I didn't even watch the battles to save time.
In fact, I've stopped watching the battles now as it's too stressful. Sometimes, if I win, I will watch the replay to satisfy my ego. 😄
My three-week thoughts
I don't know if I'm going to be sticking around Splinterlands. So far I'm not bored with it yet as there is a lot I don't know
- I don't know how to tell the difference between all the cards. I mean there must be hundreds, if not thousands of them
- I don't know how you can tell if a card is a monster or a summoner
- I don't know how to identify an edition or rarity on a card
- I don't know about all the abilities
- I don't know why some cards are in cooldown
- I don't know why Splinterlands is sometimes called Steemmonsters as well
- I don't know why my account shows 297 all cards, but I have 80 playable cards, and only own 51 of them
- and most important of all, I don't know why people spend thousands of $$$$$$ on the game!!! Are they crazy??!!!
Maybe I'm missing out on something...... only time will tell.
See you all around in Splinterlands!!
