I believe that their decision not to continue using the Steem blockchain to contain the basic dynamics of the game was completely necessary because, although STEEM blockchain is one of the fastest in this technology, it is not enough fast to contain such instant processes.
What are you referring to here? It’s still on the Steem blockchain. You cannot interact with the sidechain without going through Steem.
Yes, I know but, as far as I remember, before implementing the current solution, the use of the Steem blockchain was much more required by the game and, as a result, it was extremely slow.
Some operations are currently performed out of the blockchain and that's why some say that @drugwars is not anymore a DApp built on top of the Steem Blockchain.
The latest hardfork relaxed some of the restrictions on custom json operations. If they take advantage of this potential expansion, it could translate to better performance.