Good morning friends, Hivers and Praetorians - WELCOME to the World of Splinterlands!!!
It's CaptainDingus here and I want to share with you my story on how I found Splinterlands - but first a brief intro about me 😁
I've been in the Crypto space for a little over 10 years, I've played TCG's like Magic: the Gathering since I was younger and I've played video games since the daaaaaaaaaawn of tiiiiiiiime!!
One of the things traditional gaming (#web2) was missing, in my opinion, was this:
I can put $$$ INTO the games ecosystem... Like buying Gems for Clash of Clans... but I can't turn around and sell those Gems or other Gems I earned while playing the game... to other players and redeem it back for $$$ 🤔
Other games have tried this in the past but the Mafia - aka the Federal Reserve and their cronies in the SEC have crushed attempts to do this in the past...
So I thought: "Crypto could solve this... I can't wait for a Crypto based game like that!"
Naturally I tried the earlier web2/web3 games but after MtG:Online went south and Diablo 3 had their $$$ Auction House taken...
I looked to Crypto to find a way to "#play2earn"... I first found a game in 2015 called Spells of Genesis...
It was built on the Bitcoin sidechain: Counterparty $XCP and it had promise!! It was a pioneer in the #play2earn field, the cards were a great concept... but the gameplay... sucked.
After the Bear started in 2018 I remember seeing a Kickstarter for "Steem Monsters" in 2018 or 2019 and thought "Oh look, another stupid NFT 'card' game that is just going to suck, fail and lose me money 😒 - PASS"...
I was very salty and very wrong on BOTH counts lol (my original SoG NFTs are worth quite a bit right now)
Several years later in the Bull Market of '21, 
Lo and behold: Splinterlands
He showed me the cards, the gameplay and the "deflationary mechanics" behind Leveling Cards, the Rewards, the Airdrop, #play2earn, etc - I WAS IMMEDIATELY HOOKED!!!
Splinterlands was EVERYTHING I had been searching for and more importantly - they have a great Team to lead them!!
So what did I do - did I follow my Bull Market plan from before... did I keep emotion in check:
Nope - something I had searched for my entire life had arrived... so this was me:
Unfortunately... My brain was right and my emotions wrong... I took a lot of profits from the Bull two years ago and shoved them right into Splinterlands in the Fall of 2021...
Boy oh boy did I pick the wrong time to do that lol 😐
I'll spare you new players the gory details... but I'm so underwater on some of the older cards I bought back when I started... the Titanic would be a staging point on the way back to the surface so I don't get "the bends"...
Tip for beginners:
- ASK THE VETS STUFF - WE WILL TELL YOU (they told me about card prices)
- SET A GOAL FOR YOUR "Experience": Play? Investment? Land Owner?
- DO. NOT. CHASE. A. PUMP.
- This game is constantly evolving so your strategy today may be kaput tomorrow
CP Rental Income Cards for my fellow Vets - amirite 😏
As for my time spent here daily, that depends on how we define: "time in Splinterlands"
I spend some time playing: trying to get in 10-20 good battles per day
I spend some time writing articles: Land Update Episode 5
I spend some time managing Assets and tracking prices
I spend some time in the Discord with the lads
All in all - I probably dedicate around an hour and a half to Splinterlands and its ecosystem in total :)
As far as personal accomplishments and something unique in my journey... well... I think my name says it all...
Back when I started, I tried a few different levels of play but ultimately stuck with Bronze League while investing in a "Post Rebellion" Max Deck for the future (which is now)...
Early in the seasons, I would fight to the top of the Leaderboard in Bronze but never managed to place in the top 20 - sometimes missing by just a spot or three 😖
I either missed a few days of play or lost some key battles and dropped a ton of points so I said "next week"... or whatever... always in the Top 50 though...
I even played a Max Deck for a few seasons and at my highest found my way up to 46th in Champion League!! This meant "Point Wise" I was the 46th Highest Rated player in the entire game 😮
So I thought those were pretty cool accomplishments:
Top 50 in Bronze League consistently and Top 50 in Championship League
When Splinterfest 2022 was announced... I knew what I wanted to do 😏
The thought process was simple:
I already have multiple tattoos
I want something UNIQUE that NO ONE else has
I loved the art in Splinterlands
I loved the dynamic duo of Untamed: Scarred Llama Mage & Kron the Undying:
So how does one combine those??? In a "Constantine" inspired Tattoo of course!!
For those of you who don't know or remember Constantine - it was a great movie starring Keanu Reeves as a "Priest" who Battles Demons, the Devil and Cancer...
Great frickin' movie and is still pretty decent for today's insanely good CGI/Effects standards!
This led to me getting a set of tattoos on my forearms, like Constantine and a TERRIBLE photo of myself with Aggy 😅
Thus "The Man with the Llama Kron Tattoos" was born 😅
It's unique - no one else on EARTH has this tattoo (to my knowledge)
It's beautiful 😍
It's a conversation starter and I get to tell people about Splinterlands a lot!
When Splinterfest rolled around - I really enjoyed meeting the players, the Devs, the Team and the founders Yaba and Aggy!!
They got a kick out of the tattoos and we had a great time in Vegas - what a cool experience!!
I do hope there is a Splinterfest 2 planned for the upcoming Bull - Crypto cycles and since we endured the Bear... as Salty as things were... we should definitely celebrate the Bull!
To sum it up: I love this game. I love the community. I love the Team.
Splinterlands represents the culmination of what I have believed gaming COULD be... It is the fulfillment of a lifelong quest... So I am not going ANYWHERE
Bull or Bear: I shall continue to support, play and invest in Splinterlands!!
I do hope the next few years reward that... although I will most certainly still be here long after the next Bull cycle wraps up and things get salty again 😉
That's all I have today folks and I hope you enjoyed it!!
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Cheers 🍻,
- CaptainDingus
