You say it yourself, the problem they have is that without any criteria, they joined the crypto game boom thinking that it would last forever.
The Gaming community and the Crypto community do not hold hands, if you want a game to succeed you must build community, you must think about the community and that will generate profits, it does not work to create a game thinking about making a lot of money because people will invest time.
Splinterlands is NOT fun, it is NOT optimized and although surely you have a bubble of users that are active and will criticize me saying that it is the best game of their life, the amount of users is NULL compared to other TCG in the market, can it compete with Heartston? NO, can it compete with Legends of Runeterra? NO (and this game is dead), Can it compete with Pokémon TCG? NOT even close, Does it compete with Magic? NO, Does it compete with its direct rival Gods Unchained? NO.
Why is it that all these games I mentioned have more community and active users than Splinterlands? Surely they will tell me that it is because of the support of big companies, and now they will come with the excuse that Splinterlands does not make money and Splinterlands does, that is where they are wrong, because if Splinterlands was such a superior project, the users would come alone, it is impossible that people do not want to earn money having fun and if money can be earned, logic says that the game is not attractive.
In your post more than a request for help, it seems a threat, literally between the lines I read "Either you support us, or I'll have to go to another platform...", it seems absurd and aggressive, but I also recognize that Hive is a platform of few users and little active, even those who no longer use Splinterlands know that a lot of movements are given through the game and that removing it from Hive is to cut a leg to Hive.
The migration does not benefit anyone, it is a gamble, maybe leaving to another platform everything will be better, you get investment and get more users, as they may remain stuck at the same point and lose users who do not know about the migration, what will they do? Ask people to make Tweets with a referral link?
The Gamer community is wide, but the one who knows it knows what a kickstar is, and knows that good games don't need 500.000 USD (Approximate) for their development, there are GOTY winning games that were developed with less than 40. 000, but I guess that for staff and others you will have your accounts, it would be good that at least you take the time to desglozar as they will invest that money, because you could easily take it invest 20% in the game and the rest invest it in a house with a pool for staff to go to relax, Is it the case? I do not think so but with your message is left to the interpretation of the user.
"Splinterlands is NOT fun" says who? Dancing is NOT fun... Drinking is NOT fun... Watching a movie is NOT fun... You might not like the game but it's actually fun for a lot of people. I, in fact, played Hearthstone at a high level for close to 10 years and I ditched it in favor of playing just Splinterlands. Different strokes for different folks...
It sounds generalist but it is not, if you are a regular player of Splinterlands is because you find it fun and that is fine, it is your opinion about the game; Venezuela is a baseball country, where all the stadiums of the country are constantly full because people find it fun, soccer instead has huge stadiums but the soccer community is not big, and for the rest of Venezuelans it is not fun. What is the point of building a 50,000 person stadium so that only 2000 people attend?.
If the Splinterlands player base is so poor, the question is not if it is fun for you who are part of it, it is if it is fun for those people who decide not to come in and play.
Well, playing web3 games in general is a niche in itself so it's normal that SPL's player base has a hard time growing just based on the fun factor. I've got more than 25 years of web2 gaming experience and I know that most of the "web2" gamers still won't touch a blockchain game with a 10-foot pole. That's an obstacle web3 gaming has yet to figure out how to overcome. Moreover, TCGs are a niche of their own as well - not really that mainstream in web2 either, so that also makes thing difficult but definitely not impossible. I truly think @yabapmatt has what it takes to elevate the game to the needed heights both in terms of gameplay and sustainability.
I strongly agree with you that Splinterlands is not fun. The new game Soulkeep pales in comparison to Crazy Defense Heroes (which also has crypto elements.)
The only people who find Splinterlands fun are people who have not played any other games or hope to derive ROI. (Which is probably still easier to do in Splinterlands.)
Remove the monetary value, who is left?
And, yea, some people will find any game fun, but there are niche indie games too, and I doubt the majority will find those games fun.
I'm more willing to play Magic the Gathering Arena without earning money than play Splinterlands (after rewards tanked.) And you can argue that it's play to earn too! Because it's theoretically possible to win USD.
Splinterlands as it remains is far too expensive compared to other alternatives. For a tier 1 competitive deck, it's far cheaper in other games. (Sure those games don't have renting, but renting is a copout.)
For Splinterlands to become fun, that would require several fundamental changes, some of which greatly dilute the value of holdings that people have.
I'll throw in one more competitor of the same genre: Teamfight Tactics.
As long as wallet beats skill, I don't think Splinterlands can see mass adoption especially because the cost is so high. But if skill surpasses wallet, then that means, everyone who hasn't sold tanks to near zero.
If anyone wants to make a serious argument to play Splinterlands over any of the competitive games listed, I'm all ears. The argument must not hinge on the possibility of making money.
You are wrong bro. Im a gamer and I can assure you splinterlands is fun.
Same as football is fun but american football is boring, same as how basketball is fun but car racing is boring.
Eveyone has personal opinions and interests but basing an economic decision on them is just dumb.
Here they are asking for 500K, the games are designed to be fun... If Splinterlands is for such a small community, fun is a determining factor.
I don't care if 10,000 regular users of the game come to tell me I'm wrong, I'm used to work and moderate large gaming communities; I really respect that there are people who enjoy Splinterlands, but I go a step further and talk about what the game has to do to get out of this absurd bubble of 50 people believing they are a crowd.