Greetings Hivers!
It may seem biased but it is true that splinterlands’ game module is not fit for profit earning. Before arriving on any conclusion, we should examined its gameplay and the game assets module.
What is splinterlands?
It is a card based game in which every card has certain properties and the properties of the card increases with the level of the card. For example let’s consider this card:
(Shilvershield Assassin)
Shilvershield assassin is a rare card of the earth splinter. It’s a melee attack monster which has sneak and double attack ability in the first level itself. However, its melee attack is only one at an each time. It means it can damage two life of a back rank enemy monster in one round. When we combine three cards, it become level two card and it gets one armor as well. For a level 5 card we need to combine 21 level one cards which means it takes 21 BCX to get a level 5 cards of it. Level 5 card’s attack is two, its speed become 4 and it gets poison ability as well. Now it become a more powerful card. But, there is a tiny problem associated with it. At present the lowest price of the level one card is $1.4 while the lowest price of the level five card is $28.874. It means if the price of one BCX is $1.4, price of the level 5 card, i.e. 21 BCX should have been 1.4x21=$29.4. But, it is just $28.874 which is less than $0.526 than the single 21 level one cards. The lowest Price of a level 8 (115 BCX) card should have been $161 but is just $131.999 which is too low compared to the value of total cards that were used to level up this card to the top level.
(These screenshots are taken from the respective dapps)
This is just an example. In many cases the price of the cards sharply decreases with the level of the cards. It means low level cards are more expensive than the high level cards. For using the upper level cards in the gameplay one also need a suitable summoner of the high level. High level summoner requires more cards to be combined to reach desirable BCX. So, it gets more and more expensive to level up cards and to use them in the game. On the other hand the value of these cards decreases respectively. So, it becomes impossible to even get the amount which one had invested on buying and combining to get a high level card. Overall it’s a great loss for the person who combines cards to make them a higher level card. Apart from it, it also take labor to buy and level up cards. It is also very possible that one may get a 1 BCX card at $1 but in the open market price of the second 1 BCX card may be $1.1 and so on. So, it become more and more expensive to increase the level of the cards. So, it’s a failed model of maximizing one’s wealth. Despite of this failed model, splinterlands is enjoying a great profit. Even the cards holders are enjoying profit from it. It was possible because the overall price of the cards has increased with the time and the players also used to get good return for the gameplay as they were rewarded with bonus cards, free card packs and other crypto assets for winning.
However, this situation has also changed. As I already have mentioned above, Splinterlands used to distribute bonus cards, free card packs and other crypto assets for winning the game or completing the tasks, it has changed its policy. Now players are getting soulbound cards as rewards which are not possible to burn, trade in free market or put on rent to other players. It is giving merits, SPS as reward for gameplay. Merits can be used to purchase gladiators cards but these cards are identical to new reward cards which are not possible to trade. Value of SPS has declined too sharply. So, the possibility of earning profit from the splinterlands are very low at this time. This is the result of poor policies, lots of greed and no clear vision of the game developers. They are ruining the whole system just for reaping profit and ignoring the reality. I hope this post may help them to consider for their own mistakes.
Thanks for reading!
Note: My aim is not to criticise anyone but to discuss the business module of splinterlands and the way its business module suffers from the inherent shortcomings.
Well written and a detailed article. I agree with you. I have no clue about new reward cards. They are not mean for burning, selling, transfer and renting. So, what is their use for the players?
So far I have not find them useful for the purpose of transactions. But, they are great for the win in the game. I hope someday splinterlands will change their properties and they would be able to be sold as other cards are sold.
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Indeed, I have been experimenting with Splinterlands and it does seem unlikely one can get ahead starting from scratch nowadays.
Have you looked into the #Galactic-Milieu? An analysis and overview like this for the #Galactic-Milieu would be nice, and maybe you can even give some good input on the question of how best to "price" the #CoffeeMUD part of the Milieu, something we haven't been getting a lot of feedback on but which could have a large impact on the economics...
-MarkM-
It is still not bad to start experimenting with splinterlands as players still get rewards and those rewards are in the form of cryptos. However, recently they'd changed their reward pattern which is not so good.
I'm relatively new on Hive, also in these kind of NFT games (I hardly can call them p2e games), however, I'm already have opinion about them, as I tried few. Generally, I see them as an MLM model (not even a successful one, so the timeline, phases are clear). Some not even that, just simply a scam.
On Hive, I've found only 1 game, what perhaps can be worthy to play (and I do). The dCrops. I really don't understand, why only this game could create good, sustainable economy, without depreciation of its token. The Crop token is pretty stable, moving in a relatively small range (its still wild, but compare to all other Hive games, free fall tokens, at least that one is working). And you receive Hive everyday after your assets holding. (Funny, but very few people play it compare to SP.)
I didn't get involved in Splinterlands, only in the pools for approx. 2 months. And with the approx. 40% APR, I still left it with minus, not even small minus... I'm glad I didn't buy any game assets.
However, I bought some packs, cards, tokens of the Genesis League Goals game (as I recognized, these games mainly MLM, I decided to gamble with that one). Overall, it is a huge disappointment, and the game hasnt launched yet. The same devs like SP, I already see, there is a huge chance, the tokenomics will be fcked like hell. (They mislead people with the GLUSD name, so newbies will believe, it will be tagged around 1$, what probably won't be the case. I don't know how to call it... on Hive, when Hive has own stablecoin, what works pretty fine, they could easily use that, but no!)
You can't believe a word for the dev team, the game hasnt launched yet, but they already changed several very important things in the game, compare to the whitepaper (and they still havent corrected these already announced changes in WP).
They are late, pretty much with everything, they let the people know just couple of days before... meantime they are late by weeks, so they knew it long time ago... They talk about a fun game, but what I see, their only focus is on maximise their profit, adding more necessary ways where you have to spend money to play it, and cutting back rewards... and again, the game hasnt launched yet... :) :) :)
I pretty much feel I was scammed, if I would have known the today situation, I never get involved in that months ago.
Hopefully, I'll get out from the 'game' around breakeven, maybe some small plus, as I was in that early. Anyway, it is a good lesson for me, stay far from the so called 'p2e games'... and that's my recommendation to everybody. more worthy to buy randomly pre-sales, shtcoins for gambling, that takes almost zero effort, includes much bigger chance to earn some compare to p2e games...
There are many such startups which ended in loss for the investors. Splinterlands has been a good choice for me. I had purchased its starter packs much before it was actually started. It ended in lots of profit for me. At present value of my cards is about $3000 which was once more than $35000. Also, the people associated with it are well reputed and old steem whales.
i know that, that's why i stayed far from things like this in the past. never looked up deeper in SP past (only token devaluation), but based on your numbers, it just gives me another proof, these games are (in the better case) just MLM pyramid games, until there are newcomers, maybe you can make some profit, but all destiny is to fail by time...
That may be the case. I don't know what will happen in the future but it is evident that when the crypto market is high, their price also skyrocketing and vice versa.
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