Hi - David -- CEO of Double Coconut -- here.
Ok, you have our attention (always had it TBH - but we clearly haven't done enough to communicate or address key issues swiftly enough!)
So here's my stump speech, from my heart:
Vote NO!!!
This proposal would throw out a gurgling, cute baby along with some admittedly scummy bathwater.
Soulkeep has a lot of ardent long-time players and is gaining new ones each day. The game has garnered strong reviews and attention across the web3 and wider game world. We genuinely believe it is a bright spot in the HIVE / SPS universe and a net-positive in terms of a vehicle to bring new people into HIVE and Splinterlands. We are actively raising funds and putting partnerships in place for marketing to wider audiences. If SPS rewards stop, it will of course be difficult if not impossible to keep the momentum going.
Over the past months we’ve taken some major steps to try to placate those who were (rightfully) worried about giving away SPS rewards without getting value: We now burn half the DEC the game brings in and and we require significant SPS staking to play in higher leagues. We understand that for some people there is never going to be "enough" and they just don't care... but I believe most good-faith community-members can see that the game is constantly improving and making efforts to grow while also trying to be really fair to existing players.
As was brought up on Discord, we indeed think an IMMEDIATE reset / new season is warranted. We want to make sure it's possible for those who invested their resources and time already to rise again swiftly through the ranks with solid gameplay -- but in an equitable and balanced way, now that we believe exploits have been plugged.
We were always planning to move to a season-based model along with larger features / maps / leagues we were developing -- along with new NFTs (Heroes and Towers and Spells) and rule sets with a "Battle Pass" mechanic... and we still want to do such releases thoughtfully and with a lot of new content. But we can start with an immediate reset.
We also were on the cusp of rolling out a more balanced reward scheme that doesn't allow any specific individual / small group to "run away" with the lion's share of rewards. We can accelerate this update.
We commit to doing the reset and reward re-balance within a few days of this proposal being voted against.
We also commit to being more transparent about not just a vague roadmap, but specific feature ideas or significant changes. Everything we do is never going to please everyone. But we will absolutely incorporate more outside thinking on all of our key decisions and, at the least, give everyone more heads up to plan properly.
Those who voted yes .. I respectfully implore you to rethink your vote. And others who have not voted yet, I request you consider voting against.
I believe we're on the cusp of another great era for crypto gaming and a new crypto summer... Soulkeep on HIVE & Splinterlands is positioned to genuinely be a rare "shining light" of sustainability & community-focused gaming in an otherwise scammy and shadowy web3 gaming world.
Let's do it together!
There is nothing holding you back from stopping the SPS distribution until you resolve this issue that many people clearly care about. In fact, we asked you to stop the distribution until you could find a solution.
That wasn't agreed to from my understanding, thus we have no choice but to put up and pass this proposal because you didn't act when you were given legitimate concerns.
I would love for you to immediately stop the distribution of SPS voluntarily until you can fix things, and would also like to see you respect that we don't want anyone to take advantage of rewards that we feel are valuable.
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David, you were given a legitimate chance to handle this properly. You stalled, ignored, and eventually turned down efforts to deal with this issue.
I will be the first one to change my vote once you STOP the SPS from being given out unfairly. But the ball is in your court and you should respect that we have legitimate concerns that can't be kicked to the curb.
If you want to do something together, then act like it. Respond back to @clayboyn, make decisions that protect the people that are helping you to be successful, and do more than just implore us. Take action and admit you made a mistake.
We - the SPS DAO - are a very caring group of people that want to see Soulkeep not only survive, but definitely thrive. And fortunately for you, we are determined to help you make that happen. But its your choice, and we are waiting to see if you will finally do what is necessary to protect the integrity of not only SPS, but also of your game as well.
Thank you for making that response. As I already stated in the Discord, we will need better and clearer communication on what's going on with the game, what your plans are, what you intend to do when, and so on.
I appreciate that you want to change things for the better and I'm removing my vote for the proposal on that base. I believe SK can be an awesome addition to the ecosystem and it totally can draw in a lot of players that wouldn't be particularly interested in a trading card game. Let's get this thing back on track again.
Can you prove to me and show stats about how many new players there are each day and how many of them are actually playing and buying something? Joining and actually doing something are two VERY different things. My suspicion is you have far less players and it continues to go down.
The games legit broken at the moment with like two crazy OP cards and without them you just suck lol Just spread the rewards pool greater instead of reducing it. What really concerns me is how slow and how long it's taken to do anything about these things when you must have clearly seen player numbers falling quickly.
From what I can tell like a whole 20 people are playing and ranking on the leaderboard. DO BETTER. Show you're committed to fixing this and making it better and I'm sure we the community will vote SPS back in.
Not convinced.
Keeping my vote as is. I haven't seen any plan to stop abuse. The fact that this proposal was required for you to even talk about this is a good sign.
Even if he didn't have a plan, he could voluntarily stop the distribution of SPS until he made one. We really didn't need to have this vote at the DAO level, this could've (and should've) been handled on his end when @clayboyn directly discussed it with him.
Having said that, I hope he voluntarily stops the distribution of SPS immediately. That would go a long way in showing me how seriously he is taking the concerns.
Also this response from him shows that he is trying to negotiate from a position of power. He has none. Community overwhelmingly supports this proposal
This proposal has put a knee on his throat. It is hard to think that there will not be permanent resentment for the embarrassment and deep cracks in the relationship between the DAO and DC. Assuming that DC is able to gain enough votes to block this it would be prudent for them to prioritize regaining control of their asset and start issuing their own reward token together with SPS. I would not want to own a valuable asset that others could derail so easily no matter how much they said that they would only act in good faith.
there is no faith in crypto
DC and the SoulKeep gamers should farm their own token and NOT SPS