Splinterlands: Inadvertently Winning It For The Bot Economy?
Splinterlands has been unplayable for the past two weeks now and I think this is probably due to the changes that took place in the middle of last season. Another thing is that the game has become tougher but less rewarding in terms of the investment of time and money.
Although the modern format that was recently introduced has created a better entry point for new users, I wouldn't say if the modern format still allows players to earn normally as they'd do in the past, but I'll say it's the wild wild west for the wild format
@joetunex once suggested I start renting cards to topple the competition in Silver III, but the truth is that I already was a decent Silver III player, the problem is the rewards were already shittier.
Renting: Worth The Trouble?
They've been shitty for a long time, but it was still pretty manageable, but the last change was what broke the camel's back. Now, even if I decided to spend 200 DEC a day to rent cards, it'll be to leave silver III and maybe aim for silver one.
If I'm spending let's say 80 DEC a day to buy cards for both CP and utility to remain in silver III, there are 0.001% chances that I'll pull a loot that'll have 20 DEC in focus games, even if the chances might be increased to like 1% at the end of the season, not to talk of making back my money.
The investment is lost and the time and expertise taken are lost as well. From my experience, silver III should probably be the shitiest league to play in.
Taking Away The Expectancy Of Rewards
This is because in bronze I, you'll still earn some loots, even if they'll be filled with potions and merits, and occasionally some Pelacor Bandit, but in silver III it's difficult to win one chest, you'd have to probably win 20 games to have one focus and one end of the season loot.
So it's a question of getting reward loots for your efforts, even if there's the potentiality that these rewards might be shitty. It's psychological. In bronze I, people do not argue if they'll earn chests they'll do.
The bone of contention is in the content of these loots. Silver III completely takes away the expectations and potentiality of being rewarded not to talk of facing the doubts as to whether the contents of these loots will amount to anything. Now, I'm not even talking about being beaten or losing, I've been used to being beaten and losing throughout my splinterlands' journey.
The Mathematics Of Time & Proportionality Of Value
I think being beaten and losing has brought a certain mastery, because of the bot economy and player base, it's easy to learn, but even the most passionate of players lose the enthusiasm, when the rewards dip so hards, there's no certainty of getting loots no matter how hard and how long one plays.
This brings the mathematics of time and proportionality of value. There's this sense of the "greater good" that we often apply to the game especially when these changes are happening constantly and tweaking things.
sometimes, I'm happy to be accumulating bits by bits, because when one attaches the prospective value of everything they've calculated, who knows they might be worth decent figures when the splinterlands market takes off. However, it's even more difficult to accumulate at this moment.
To Play Or Rent Out?
In this situation, I think something must give way to another. The owners of the game are doing their best to sustain the value of the game by making some decisions. It's been long real players have been begging to see an end to the bot dominance, but was shortening the rewards or almost entirely removing it solve the bot dominance? No.
Another hit to the balls of real players. But, should I keep playing or rent out my cards? I think I've done the former for one month since these changes and it's not thrilling, maybe it's time for me to try the latter.
I've got some decent cards I can put out, even if it they can all collectively earn me 50 DEC per day, I think that's still decent and I can take it, hopefully, we can see better changes, desperate times calls for desperate measures.
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When will I be able to play this game like this?
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Looks like the team at splinterlands is organically pushing players away
Technically, it seems like what they're actually doing. Which doesn't make a lot of sense
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It doesn't and a very painful experience given how invested people are in the game. Worse still not only has the value of everything reduced, earning isn't happening.
It is tough. For enjoyment, maybe just playing the second half of the season would be better. Most of the tough competition would have progressed to the higher leagues.
I even understand it being tough, it's totally difficult to understand why they'd make it difficult to earn any loot.
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There was a moment 3-4 days ago when I thought to myself should I just rent out my cards but then I quickly discarded the thought. If you look at my FOCUS CHEST posts for few days ago I was complaining of how difficult the game became, I think I only stopped nagging 2 days ago.
There's something unusual going on this season, the battles are tougher is an understatement and it's a reflection of bots at work. I have never experience this before.
I ended playing in both Modern and Wild Format just to try and accumulate chest. It kind of worked a bit.
These is all across the leagues though, I chatted with players in Discord and they experiencing the same lol.
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I think I understand it being tougher, even at all that toughness, I've still managed to do a lot of winning. It's just that no matter how hard I win, I don't seem to accumulate many loots. In a good season I could accumulate 40 loots, in a bad season Maybe 30, but since after the changes, the DEC rewards have been too poor for each win and I've barely gotten 5 loots, with less than 4 days to go. I think it's crazy.
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This is basically worse off for you, 5 chests or even 10 for a season is not worth it to be realistic.
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The rewards have gotten worse, I think silver III players have suffered the more, the bots are running rally even if this move was meant to curtail them.
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Battle-wise, daily rewards-wise have been far from good this season.
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The competition is harder because most of the bot farms shut down for the last few days (leaving mostly human players with strong cards) and cratered the card rental market. They are slowly coming back it seems like.
For curiosity sake how can one tell bot farms shut down lol, so them shutting down is bad by the looks?
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I just use obvious intuitive clues. Competition becomes harder than usual (bot farms usually are easy to beat as human players have stronger cards). Check the daily volume on the card rental market. If it's down a large percentage then bot farms are probably down. Bots make up a huge percentage of the card rental market. If finding an opponent match up takes longer than usual instead of instantly, then bot farms are probably down.
Interesting I do notice the card rentals are down though, even most of my cards are not taken for rent. today seems better on the battlefield, it is competitive but my win rate is better than the previous days since start of the season.
Cheers.
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The bots are starting to come back online. Daily card rental volume jumped by double digits since yesterday.
In which league do you play?
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Silver (early season) and Gold (late season). I wouldn't pay too much attention to whether your cards rent or not as an indicator of bot activity. The real indicator of bot activity is the daily card rental market volume as a whole.
I thought the general understanding was to always play at the highest level in the league you get your chest. Play in Bronze 1 if in Bronze, Silver 1 in Silver. Reason being that's where you get your RP/FP as your rating is at it's peak.
If you aren't keen on playing in Silver 1 for majority of the season, you might need to consider dropping and playing in Bronze 1. My main is in Silver 1 and my mini is in Bronze 1 and I get around 8-10 chests each daily.
Also, you can't be playing for win rewards as they are minimal at best unless you are winning in the early season whereby the pool is still large. Lastly, was 0.05 DEC a win reward for you in Silver 3? I haven't seen it that low unless its like 90% starter cards. Are you playing with Starter Cards?
No, I own and bought 80% of all the cards I own including legendaries which I bought back in September for over 30$ each. It's a reward in silver III. I must tell you that, it wasn't like this two weeks ago until those major changes kicked in mid season of last season.
I can categorically tell you that playing in silver III wasn't bad, I've been there, I think it has to do with the new changes.
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It's a tough game and I leave some cards for myself to play while the rest is rented out. The new format changes are not that great and I have lost way more than I would like also
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I think I'll have to rent out some, myself. I just want to take some time to make the decisions.
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for those who already have decent cards, playing every day won't be a problem even if they get a reward that is not big enough.
But for me who has to rent cards to be able to play in the desired league, the rewards obtained from daily Quests and Ranked Battles are not enough. Therefore I can only play 1 time a week (I mean 1 time rental) so I don't spend too much DEC.
According to my Guild members (and it's proven), playing in the Silver League isn't profitable. It would be better if you play in the Gold League if you are looking for rewards from Daily Quests and Season Chests. Even though you will meet strong opponents, at least the chance to get big prizes like CL packs / Gold Foil is higher.
Well what can I say? I don't think I can afford rentals just yet because I do no want to incur any calculated losses, another thing is, it's easier to build when you own the cards you're using, so you can build your mastery around them. It's true silver league isn't as profitable but then, I still think it was before the recent major changes that's taken place. I think the total concentration on the top tier leagues alone is bad for users retention.
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I no like wahala oo, I have rent out all my cards for now and it is paying off because with 5days I have like 4k Dec. Seriously I will be play later I want to keep buying packs for now to be able to rent and play
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Yeah. I noticed you were no longer playing as well 4k DEC in 5 days is astonishing. Imagine what you'll be getting in a monthly basis. Passive income at its best.
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The reason the competition is so hard is the bot farms shut down for the last few days leaving human players with strong cards. The card rental market tanked because the bots left. At one point it was around $3250 daily volume which is as low as I can remember. Only today is it slightly recovering because some of bot farms got turned back on.