I'm not gonna lie, I was a cautious and even sceptical initial investor into Splinterlands, starting off with a $200 dollar purchase of Beta packs back in the autumn of 2018 (just before SF3, I remember playing a few matches there).
However, despite my initial scepticism, and the fact that I wouldn't really classify myself as a gamer, I have somehow managed to find the time over the past three years to play my daily Splinterlands quests on most days.
And I've made a few gradual purchases along the way, gradually levelling up some regular summoners and mainly common/ rare/ and epic monsters to Max level with mainly the DEC I've earned from playing.
My biggest period of buying in was during the Steem Power Down after the creation of Hive in Spring 2020 - which coincided with a couple of upset larger account holders (I can't remember what they were upset about now, I'm not even sure I knew back then) 'rage-selling' (as I call it) lots of legendaries for bargain prices.
Honestly, I picked up a Spirit of the Forest , maxed for around $60, a Lord of Darkness for around $40 I think, and several more.
By this time I'd become less of a sceptic and more of a fan - I bought a total of 450 Untamed packs along the way and have a full set of those 7 mana legendary summoners, except Lir, I bought a cheap Valnamor instead.
And sorry Lions, but I think I must have spent some of my LEO on Splinterlands cards, I sold some when it was nearer $1.
And then Land - I was originally upset enough to not spend the 750K DEC I'd stacked on the first sale, or the second, but eventually caved in took advantage of the BAT offer - which wasn't so bad - I sold my DEC at the previous peak and shoved a load of the proceeds into DEFI and made quite a lot more money than I would have sitting on a land TRACT for two months or so.
And I've also been stacking SPT along the way, I had a feeling that was going under the radar. Almost got my million before the price went NUTS like the price of everything else in the build up to the SPS drop.
Probably my Favourite card!
SPS in a nutshell
SPS (Splintershards) are the governance token of Splinterlands game - the more tokens you stake the more say you have in proposals for future game developments - which could influence things like future card releases, league management and tournament details.
This level of player control has never been seen before in any online gaming system, ever.
And there are bonuses available for those who stake their SPS - there will be discount opportunities on future card pack releases, for example, and possibly exclusive offers available only to SPS holders of a certain level.
You can find out more in the SPS Whitepaper here.
It's just great to be part of this MASSIVE crypto success story...
Now I'm assuming here that the recent increase in Splinterlands assets isn't just due to a pump and dump for SPS tokens (although I am expecting something of a sell off and reduction in the SPS price in the short term at least, it is the 'farming token' after all, at a very crude level).
But the fact that the SPS drop is gradual, over the course of a year, and during that year there are further MASSIVE developments planned for the game, it's rational to keep yer assets staked for the SPS drop, so I think a significant sell-off is unlikely, so most of the recent gains should stick.
And the asset-value increase has been impressive, to put it mildly...
The Total Market Cap of Splinterlands
$54 million at the moment, and look at that recent spike in the run up the start of the SPS drop....
(People keep on calling it in the Discord!)
Backed by a solid influx of new active users.....
This is VERY encouraging, and the combination of high prices and the new rental system should encourage a decent retention rate and hopefully even more users!
Land prices are through the roof....
Individual plots selling for nearly $100, when their original sale price was just $10.
And there are zero sale offers for tracts or regions.
And the increase in the card prices has been insane
Currently selling for $150 per individual card.
I remember picking some up at around $15.
NB - if you play the game you know why this particular card is valued so highly!
The SPS drop was a great success...
I think the gradual-drop over a year mechanism is a great idea (more like this please) as it encourages asset-lock up for a decent period of time.
And there's going to bonuses for people who stake their SPS which should keep the price of this token up too - details are yet to be released, but there will be purchasing opportunities for people depending on the value of the SPS they have staked.
I love the syrup pool - Cake for SPS simultaneous launch on Pancake too, along with the BNB-SPS pool - nice to get a bit of diversity for rewards and liquidity, not to mention free press from Pancake.
And talking of Press, there have been some really positive write ups today (maybe yesterday by the time this posts!...)
Solid Foundations
The last three years have seen a nice steady stream of developments - I think the development of rentals has been especially important, even if this is a bit clunky still, and of course tournaments, brawls, a wider range of cards and rule sets, a mobile app (although I've never played on the mobile).
This combined with the SPS and land pre-sale being used to capture a lot of investment positions the game very nicely indeed going forwards!
And of course great marketing, from the ground up, incentivised with rewards, and I think that really came through with the whole Twitter ban debacle, since resolved!
The crazy thing is that this is just the beginning
AMAZING though SPS is LAND I think is going to be the real game changer.
One phrase sums up what I think LAND is going to be about:
Gamified NFT yield farming generating useable in-game assets.
I mean talk about a game-changer, excuse the pun: you stake various assets to LAND plots and they give you a certain yield of several different items - potions, weapons, spells, even monsters.
Which can then be sold or used in game.
The potential for this getting BIG is just mind-boggling.
$54 Million Market Cap now... $500 Million here we come?!?