Thanks for tagging me in, @sinistry, though I'm not sure how much I can really add to this particular conversation. After all, until reading this post (and the one by azircon that led to it), I didn't even know scholars existed. I will pepper you with questions about that in DM, though. :)
Thus far, I've been in the grindy-grindy class, and it's been extremely difficult. And the only reason it's been difficult rather than discouraging me to the point of quitting the game, is because sinistry has done so much hand-holding. Otherwise, I likely wouldn't have stuck around long enough to even figure out that you cannot advance AT ALL without buying, renting, or having someone delegate cards to you.
It was insanely frustrating those first few days to play game after game, and win multiple times, only to receive 0 reward points each and every time. It should REALLY be made clear to newbies that buying the spellbook gets you nothing on its own. If you don't use the $3 in credits you get on cards (renting or buying), you will never earn a single reward point because playing with starter cards cannot earn RP.
Thanks to sinistry's explanations I understand why this was done (to thwart farming with no investment), but folks who have been in the ecosystem a long time, and didn't have the restriction of earning 0 RP when they came in, don't seem to realize that it is incredibly frustrating to newbs who don't have the benefit of a friend with a huge deck who can afford to loan them a bunch of cards to get started. I know I wouldn't have hung around if I didn't, and I probably would've trash-talked Splinterlands to anyone who would listen, because the onboarding process (as well as the onboarding process for hive in general) has been an absolute nightmare. Add in the disappointment of being unable to advance without going above and beyond the initial investment, and I would've given up long ago.
I don't know if this helps anyone, or even really speaks to the issue at hand (if I ever get enough cards to try a bot, maybe I can form an opinion). But for those of us in the far bottom rungs, bots are the least of our worries.
Hi! Welcome! I'm really glad Sinistry has taken the time to show you around and help you out. I swear, the game needs about 50 volunteer 'ambassadors' or something to help onboard new players.
The new player experience was not fun when I joined in January 2022, not without making a solid investment, and with all of the changes since then I imagine it's pretty miserable now.
According to the team, they are focusing on solidifying the economy before shifting focus to the new player experience. I'm not a business person, but this choice seems to be like picking between eating and drinking when you should do a little of both every day.
I'd encourage you to look at your opponents' names - even just the ones you've recently played. It looks like you might have a bit of a bot problem, too.
Hey, thanks for the response, and the warm welcome! I don't doubt at all that I've been playing against bots. I've noticed the weird usernames that seem unlikely to be humans, but honestly, at my level of inexperience, I can learn as much by losing to a bot, as I can from losing to a human. 😂
I am a business person, and I agree that that approach sounds a bit wonky. However, every business has to make decisions, and given the crappy crypto market we're in right now, I'm sure the choices on Splinterlands are harder than most. I just hope that they manage to get the economy bit squared away soon, as new customers are the lifeblood of ANY business. As I pointed out to sinistry early on, if the onboarding experience continues to be this awful, the business will die out naturally, no matter how many hardcore oldtimers it has.
I really, REALLY like your idea of onboarding ambassadors. I don't know what you'd have to do to run that up the flagpole, but it sounds like an excellent idea whose time can't come soon enough!