I haven't done a Splinterlands post for a very long time, so let me batch a few of my thoughts together on a couple things and go from there. As always there is a lot happening, but there is also "nothing happening" in many respects. I think that given a decent run on the markets, things will turn around on the value of assets, but it should be remembered that it is a game first. If the only attractor is the potential to earn, like all crypto projects, it will eventually fail, because there will be another product that can offer higher potential earnings.
So... Game first.
I am no expert.
(At anything)
There are a couple things on my mind today regarding Splinterlands.
Validator Nodes
Brawls
Reward Cards
1. Validator Nodes
This is not for the game itself, but more for @peakmonsters. To be honest, I have very little understanding of what is going on with these currently, but essentially the Splinterlands Validators are processing the transactions of the game. People bought licences (many years ago) in order to be able to run a node and get rewards for processing, like a Hive witness. Fair enough. There are Full nodes where people are running them independently, and then there are hosted nodes, like mine, which I did through @PeakMonsters. Since I am a technical klutz, having it hosted is great!
Except....
Besides blocks, am I missing something?
Then I have a question around the rewards. While I am receiving the rewards....
I assume this is because I had to give posting rights to @peakmonsters for them to run the validator for me (though I am missing many blocks), but it also is quite inconvenient and off putting. Because I didn't make these claims.
I claim once a day so that I can get a sense of what is happening on my account without having to dive into the numbers with a fine-tooth comb and a magnifying glass. As easy as it was to set up (@peakmonsters do a good job of these things), I am still unsure of what is happening, if it is worth it, and all of that - this will likely shake out in time.
2. Brawls
My next issue to talk about a little is Brawls, because over the last months there has been a marked decline in interest and attendance, and it is seemingly across guilds, not just the one I am in. I have been Brawling for a couple years now, and there used to be a lot of excitement around it, but I think due to changes, it has become far less valuable.
Firstly there was the change to add Gladiator cards into ranked play. This was a great move, because since Gladiator cards are soulbound, to benefit one would have to have brawled, earned some merits as prizes, and bought gladiator packs to have some. And, merits were hard to come by. Winning a brawl in a top tier would bring about 12,000 merits, which could buy 6 packs. It was a slow process to build a Gladiator set! People would get super excited when they got a Quora....
Not any more.
Because merits are easy to get now as they are distributed when people buy reward chests with Glint.
I am the 7th largest holder of Merits
And I don't have a full deck of Gladiators.
Because, while they used to be valuable to hold, many of them are now underpowered, so I don't see the point in trying to max them. And since so many people have them already, they don't bring much advantage in ranked play anyway. They are bit players, rather than an edge given from years of brawling. Every man and his dog, whether brawled or not, can have them, and I think that this is the driving force behind people being less interested in brawling, because being in a brawl doesn't bring much extra benefit than not. The SPS rewards are pretty low, and the Merit rewards are insignificant compared to what is possible to get in chests.
MBGA
Something has to happen to Make Brawls Great Again, and that is likely going to have to come through exclusivity. Where there are benefits that only brawlers get.
3. Reward Cards
Speaking of exclusivity...
This is me being somewhat selfish, but I also think it is important considering what was said about a year ago in regards to Splinterlands-Hive cooperation. I have also noticed that finally there are more Splinterlands players branching into building Hive content that is outside a season review, or some sill card giveaway.
The reward card system is pretty good and I think that the various campaigns that have been run like with Heloise the Hollow, Legends and Exclusives have been pretty successful at attracting various resources to be purchased and spent in the ecosystem. However, what I would like to see is something that ties Hive into the mix occasionally, where for example there would be a reward card that is toed to HIVE holdings. Or perhaps an additional multiplier for ranked play and SPS earnings that factors it in. Just like there should be a significant benefit for participating in Brawls, there should also be some benefit for participating on Hive, which is part of the underlying infrastructure and has played a key role since the inception of Splinterlands.
I am sure many will be against this.
article a few weeks ago. In my Hive-holder opinion, we should be encouraging cross-ownership participation, not just taking Hive rewards to sell into Splinterlands assets, or whatever people do with what they get (probably sell for those in the art contests).Because many in Splinterlands don't have any HIVE holdings, as evidenced by @azircon's
4. There was no four!
And that is why I am going to end it here and see what kind of discussion comes from this. I think Splinterlands still has some legs in it as both a game and an investment, but it has to be a game first, because it can't compete with other investment vehicles and is dependent on market cycles. If it is a good game that people want to play though, then when those markets boom as might be the case later in the year, people will be willing to invest more into playing the game. The stickiness of the game can't just come from potential to earn token rewards, but players should be rewarded for participating with decent assets that make playing the game more fun, more interesting, and give an edge over opponents who haven't participated in value-adding ways.
Thoughts?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
As far as I can see everything works as expected.
You are missing blocks because PeakMonsters only handle your staked licenses. We don't run a full validator node for your account (that will be way more expensive).
You should not vote for your own validator unless you are also running a full validator node yourself.
And other people should do the same and not vote for nodes not running a full validator.
Great cheers! Didn't know how it was working. Will change it once at home again, thanks mate!
I did my node delegation through Monstermarket and it appears I haven't missed any blocks yet. I also noticed that you and I are running different node versions, mine is called "development", maybe that has something to do with it? Brawls is still my favorite part of the game right now. I do them pretty religiously.
Maybe - I have no idea. I think there should be a "check" if there is no chance to actually process. The kinks will be worked out though.
Yeah, I have been pulling in a decent amount over the past day or so. I mean more than I would have thought I guess. I have more votes than I would have imagined too though, so I guess I'm not as unpopular as I thought!
I think your idea on giving Hive holdings some benefits in Splinterlands is great! I think various levels of bonus multiplier would be most effective. Like guild bonus up to 20% or perhaps even more.
Exclusive card bonuses for leveling up your HP and holding it would also be great.
Guilds should be the biggest focus in Splinterlands, that potentially could be the most addictive aspect of the game. I know my son spends hundreds of dollars every week in Whiteout Survival game and gets no rewards there and their social aspect of guilds is super effective. Splinterlands should really study what Whiteout Survival is doing marketing wise and social aspect wise.
Whiteout Survival is a phone based web 2 game but they somehow get people to spend money and get addicted to their game. My son was a Splinterlands player but left. It drives me nuts that he is playing that game at his level of game spending he would own every regular foil card in the game by now. He is an adult and spending his own money, so I can only advise...
There are many ways it could be implemented and could encourage both SPS and Hive holdings growth.
I have always wondered who the hell plays these games! :D
You are correct about brawl interest declining. I play in tier 5 in a diamond fray and used to face mostly diamond level decks. Now I often see even the top guilds like Summoners Tribe and Immortal Gods filling diamond frays with players that have a silver or gold level cards.
It would be nice if they reease a new set of gladiator cards as part of conclave arena to bring more excitement and motivation to brawl.
Good idea about rewards or promotions tied to HIVE. Perhaps some rewards cards as you suggested or even a mini-set. They could offer a discount in hive or based on hive power similar to how they have done with voucher discounts in previous sales.
And make them earnable only from brawling - but speed up how quickly it is possible to build a deck from brawling. It took long when first released - which is why they likely brought merits for everyone.
Something like this. Would also be interesting to tie a mechanism to SPS-HIVE holdings too, like a multiplier for ranked to encourage people to have both.
Yes, I like this idea. Perhaps target being able to max them in 1-2 years, they could correspond with each new reward set. Include a way to get them either only from brawls or you get a multiplier from brawls compared to other game modes.
Since they already have a mechanism for rewarding players for staking more SPS. They could add a secondary multiplier which multiplies that by your HIVE power. For example this is what mine looks like. So they can just add another multiplier line based on HP.
There is quite a bit to unpack here and I can’t do that with one comment. I will show you/others some data on validators later.
I am running a full validator node. You will need a domain and need to set up a virtual machine somewhere in the word. It is profitable at current prices. It’s not going to make you rich but does have an incentive to be interested in it. Again it’s easy to go overboard with your server specs and overspend. Many have done that and they won’t break even at current prices. More on that at a later post. Still very early days to comment.
Next the game aspect. Agree 100%. Company recognizes it too. Several community members are actively testing cards so that major missteps does not happen. @bjangles and @vugtis is involved I know and there could be others. They can tell you.
Brawl need work and incentives. No one is working it. It was @cryptomancer but now he is 100% land. When can game make enough money to hire a dedicated dev to enhance brawl? Open question for @davemccoy
I am missing other things but a travel day for me. I will read again on the airplane
Hey AZ! I'm happy to answer:
When we can demonstrate that we have solved the equation for bringing in new players.
This will not only bring the actual new players, it will also deliver confidence as everyone will understand where we are headed with these new players.
Confidence in the future increases the desire to own assets. This creates demand for the products we provide = more revenues = profits = ability to invest in EXACTLY what you would like to see.
We have many such opportunities to improve and expand our system, and they all have the same ultimate solution. In other words, attract and retain new players and the whole world of possibilities open up to us, our boundaries are nearly limitless!
Thanks Dave.
Here you have it @tarazkp; this is the official line from COO ;)
The retention is key. A lot of the time it is based on earning potential, which is great for short-term, but not going to keep it for long. Same on Hive - write and earn only goes so far, especially in the bears.
On the node front, I might fire one up later if I can be bothered. I know there is a cost to it, but it might be worth the effort just to get the practice in.
On the game front, it will be interesting to see if the next set is balanced and brings back competition. At this point, I am not even sure if I will buy if it is just going to be more of the same. Or at least, I will buy much more slowly. I have been heavily burned buying sets early.
Brawls need a overhaul for sure, and there has to be something unique for participating, even if it is a single collector card to keep interest up.
Thanks for the reply and have a good trip!
I would love for Gladiators to be completely removed from ranked play again - fortunately, we'll be seeing that soon enough with Modern but it seems the cat's forever outta the bag in wild.
Guilds & the whole of the brawling system need to be blank slated and completely reworked in my opinion - guild wars, live brawls, exclusive rulesets, exclusive land items, alliance fortresses that tie in with land... a million things could be done to spice things up - as we're long overdue here. I, too, wonder when we'll see some dev time allocated to the only social system we've got in-game.
Taraz is in the loop with the CA testing :)
Lastly, I wonder how many @vugtis tags it will take to get him to clickety clack his response into any sort of interaction on Hive!
When Dave podcast?
Heading to Venice today.
its out... I talk a lot, but I hope you enjoy AZ :)
https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@thepeoplesguild/episode-128-a-davemccoy-conversation
Right on time for the airplane! :)
I don’t think Vugtis knows how to check notifications! :) LOL
That is for his own good.
We all know how to reach him if we are desperate :)
I might have to introduce @vugtis @vugtis @vugtis to F.R.I.D.A.Y. :D
Hi,
I agree on the part game first. A lot of time is spend last years on the tokenomics.
Secondly i would add imho they should focus also more on casual players, lower leagues, more fun. Looking forward to campaign mode.
Splinterlands currently is highly competitive in ranked and tournaments with huge deck investments.
Combination to rewards more players with HP is a something worth to consider...
I only played one round of Survival mode so far, and thankfully I won because I don't have a good deck for it! :D
How much info out is there on this so far?
To stop it getting completely gamed, perhaps there should be some kind of ratio with SPS holdings also. So, someone has to be invested into both in order to benefit. Those with a lot of SPS might want to buy some HIVE to get some prints, those with Hive might want to buy some SPS.
Only some eye-candy for what we have seen:
And that is directly why i would say not for now... Even more time spend on tokenomics, rather spend that on improving gameplay and new modes.
But it does bring in the chance for new players from Hive, or bring back players from hive.
I think that some way of directly earning Hive by playing splinterlands would be very nice. I was aiming to get 48,000 SPS so I could play in diamond level tournaments. But for now I stopped at 28k because I am not good at tournaments. Shame because those thousands of SPS rewards would be very tempting if I was a better player.
I am a terrible player in tournaments and brawls. :D
It is weird. normally I have around 50 percent win ratio in a season. so I would imagine that I should do better at tournaments and brawls. I guess it is just my luck that in tournaments and brawls I am matched against better players. :D
I only play gold tournaments and I tend to get matched in rounds that only need Tofu - which I don't have any of in gold :D
I have only negative thoughts about all aspects of the game - but I will remain silent.
:D
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
good luck
More valuable commentary from you. Great work.
Great job Kee it up
Another great comment!
Mr Taraz, this blog really nails the struggle between gaming and crypto rewards. Splinterlands has to stay fun first, or it’ll definitely turn into another farm and dump project. For the Brawls, I'm no expert at all but maybe some exclusive perks could fix that 👀👀
!PIZZA
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$PIZZA slices delivered:
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