Image above edited from something I made on Night Cafe

Homesteading or Bagholding?

Greeting folks and welcome to another SplinterLANDS post (yup I'm not above puns), today I'm going to talk about my thoughts on land overall. Spoiler alert: it's a mixed bag, but probably not what the game should prioritize (WHAT?!?!?! HOW DARE YOU?!!?!). Before everyone get's their pitchforks hear me out, I'm not saying it shouldn't be prioritized merely that it should not take lead priority (or maybe even the top 10 slots of priority for SPL/HIVE realistically). So first, let's give you some context on my opinion by detailing my personal journey with land etc. (For a short summary of previous things on bots and my stance click here)

Homesteading or Bagholding?: A good question indeed

At this point the various iterations of land, the "which bag is the bag holders bag" old lady swallowed a fly token games that keep going on, the continued moving target of "what is a valuable asset to hold in SPL, has left me with the thorough conclusion that it may in fact not be valuable to hold ANYTHING in this ecosystem. A lot of talk of "if it's on this listing that'll solve it", it won't. Glints are caused due to the fact the devs knew they were transparently handing over half of the SPS pool to botters for ages, now due to bots becoming such an issue the devs have had to essentially mitigate all earning to merely in game currencies. And in many senses defeating the purpose of why this game was/is played instead of others in the first place. This direction combined with the continued allowance for bots, disregard for smaller players, and rampant overall greed this company has exhibited since it's inception. This game was pitched as a PvP "Esport" in which players battled each other for crypto currency and the ability to trade their collection to one another as NFTs. Due to bots effecting the economy so much you now no longer earn NFTs or cryptocurrency in ranked battles period. This is the equivalent of when the WoW gold economy tanked when Blizzard similarly did nothing about bots, and it was no one's surprise when the economy went into the dirt. These were not "hidden tea leaves" to decipher, but more comparable to being beaten over the head with a shovel repeatedly and still wondering why your head hurts. This game has treated all the gamers who held in game assets as bagholders and exit liquidity, this rubs me the wrong way and is why I cannot endorse this game. At no point was the gameplay experience ever prioritized until the ship was already sinking. There may be opportunities to make money here, but it will usually be at the expense of gamers or whales who believe the game will turn it around. It's one of the reasons I have never sold any cards/land/in game items, because I know ANY profit I gain there will be at the expense of some naïve gamer someplace or will just be my cards falling into the bot churn further inf/vestig this game. It's why for full transparency if I ever were to sell there would definitely be a "why I'm selling" post beforehand addressing why I am selling and warning those buying what they are getting into I can link to. It wouldn't feel right just handing this off to dump my bag knowing someone else might not be aware of what they are getting into (as of this date). This is a lot harder than just "dumping", but allows for me to sell with the person buying at least knowing where I am coming from and what they are getting/why. I also would do my best to not sell to a botter and someone who plays the game and enjoys it, my cards have always been meant to be played by human hands and I would like for them to continue being used as such.

I genuinely wish that we weren't in this scenario, you folks have no idea. It is unlikely this in game economy will ever recover, nor will I be pursuing any project associated or developed by said team beyond holding my SPL bag and maybe eeking what can be eeked out of it. It is unlikely I will sell, but I could shed some assets and still be "set" with my land etc. I don't think I will be playing ranked at this point, the casual enjoyment isn't great enough for me to be worth the budget to participate. I'm at most just brawling, this game has lost my interest as a competitive card player. Maybe if cards were pennies the "for fun casual factor" would be more inviting, but that would be overall terrible for the economy and not something I wish upon it. Just the game's direction, balance, ranked updates, earning updates, are all leading into one direction. And that direction isn't meant to have players like me (or beneath whale/shark spending quite frankly) interested in spending time or money in this economy. It's essentially a Diablo Immortal but they toss no bones to the free2players to keep them interested (PvE etc.) and is also in a MUCH more niche genre than Diablo Immortal or other similar gacha p2w games. Splinterlands at this point appears and essentially IS just another web2 gacha mobile app game, it doesn't even allow you to exchange what you earn in game (post Glint update). Even Pokemon GO is more "play to earn" and has more "Player freedom" at this point in many inventory aspects, think about that. This has all been done to cater to bots (which at this point feels more like collusion than turning the other cheek given the timeframe has been ACTUALLY YEARS).

The thing people forget is what was promised with land at the start, and it's a thing I care about more than silly token drips etc. Where is the extra layer of gameplay that was implied to exist and be craftable via land by now? Spells, Where are they? Or any of the actual "things" promised with land? Of course I agree that land isn't the priority SPL should be pushing to improve, but they aren't fixing elephant in the room issues they actually NEED to fix, so why not bell and whistle us with some vague land hype or idle sword animations? AGAIN. I'm at this point tired of the song and dance SPL always does, it's gotten to the point where they switch the bag and generate new tokens to skirt around the same issue "We allow bots to completely drain the economy transparently, nor can we genuinely be trusted that we aren't also in on it at this point". Keep in mind folks before the mass layoffs there were members of the official team with bots in the TENS OF THOUSANDS, I find it highly unlikely that it is no longer the case. Nor can I or anyone else genuinely completely trust when anyone on the team says "the team isn't botting", that was the stance before and members of the team WERE in fact botting (they just weren't the ones that spoke at every AMA). That could still be the case and would not be some sort of "tin foil hat conspiracy" considering members of the team WERE botting before the massive layoffs ages ago.

The Glint Update: Talking Tidbits

The "whitepaper" rug has been pulled, there is no OFFICIALLY no earning for ranked of any cryptocurrency whatsoever. They already pulled the "bait and switch" changing the currency to SPS to reduce the INSANE self-inflicted inflation DEC had (not implementing SPS earning alongside deck but in fact replacing it and thus "rugging" that initial whitepaper promise), now they are doing it again but with an in game currency that is only earnable and is nontradable etc in game (nor is usable on tradable NFTs etc). This is actually just a web2 gaming move and in fact removes one of the major reasons many chose to play SPL in the first place, what you earned you owned and could do what you will with. Now that the game is in the web2 zone with lesser and lesser player freedom day by day (while simultaneously not solving the real issue of botting and instead punishing anyone who bought cards and actually played the game). I'm genuinely tired of gamers being exploited into bag holders so "early holders" can have exit liquidity here (all while those playing desperately hope the game itself becomes made for the people playing instead of those exploiting the ecosystem). The gameplay loop of this game is fine, the botting and poor practices they have performed have at this point been too repeated and with zero regard for those playing the game beyond "throwing money at it". Those are the prominent issues. There was a time before the massive layoffs various members of the team even had legions of 10s of thousands of bots while simultaneously being "objective about the issue". Overall I'm tired of it, but ranting about the Glint update and the overall SPL direction is honestly another post. This was meant to just highlight my experience (and disappointment with) Splinterlands and the land experience thus far and the fact that the user experience was scuttled to delivery (quite frankly) a shitty excuse for not focusing on the playerbase instead this WHOLE TIME. This Glint update is the final nail in the coffin and we will slowly watch this game suffocate over time unless some serious (and very unlikely) changes are made to address the player experience AND distance themselves from the image they have established for themselves in the gaming space. I personally don't see this happening, but I suppose anything can happen I guess. Aggy is abandoning Splinterlands just like he abandoned GETSOME after it served it's purpose of acquiring capital, and the same will likely happen to Moonkarts once the hype fades or similar "delivery" needs to happen on said hype. I will not be trusting anything developed by Aggy in the future, as every previous project he has been involved in "miraculously fails" once actual delivery on promises is required. Too tired of only talking a good talk, all my future HIVE gaming journies will be done allocating ZERO TRUST to anyone involved. Sorry HIVE, SPL Chifibots and BANG! have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I no longer trust words, only actions.

This Week's Giveaway: Not Much, but Something

Congragulations to last weeks winner @takuri get in touch with me to receive your prize!

This week's giveaway is a delegation of any card in my collection for a whole season! (I know there is no way to earn 99 percent of cards playing this game anymore buy hey, it's something). To participate you merely have to comment for a chance to win this giveaway! That's it, truly. Thanks for the continued support everyone. Another more in depth ranty post with statistics is inbound soon (and I wish it wasn't), I wish we were in a place where I was just relaying "good news" but it hasn't been that way for years. So here we are. I hope everyone is genuinely having an amazing week, thanks for stopping by and I wish it was under better circumstances.