Have you ever tried to bring friends to Splinterlands?

Have you ever tried to bring friends to Splinterlands?

As a devoted Splinterlands player, I ended up talking about the game to some real life friends. We're all part of a group that regularly play Magic the Gathering in our local gaming store. One of my friends (a very experienced MtG player that regularly joins tournaments and already won several local championships), ended up liking the idea of playing a virtual TCG and earning some extra money. He was the "perfect" player for Splinterlands: he already loved TCGs, he was already used to spend several thousand dollars on a single deck, he was already used to buy/sell cards for profit.

However, his experience turned out to be quite different from what I anticipated.

My friend embarked on his Splinterlands journey with optimism, downloading the mobile app to dive into the battles asap. However, his initial encounter with the app left him a bit disappointed. The interface felt wonky and somewhat unintuitive: according to him, the app is "way less polished" than other mobile TCGs like Magic the Gathering Arena, Legends of Runeterra or Slay the Spire (his favourite). And, to be honest, it really is.

He also had some problems to buy the spellbook using Paypal, but I think that the problem was a hiccup from Paypal itself, and not fault of Splinterlands..

Despite the bad first impression, I convinced him to give Splinterlands a chance and he ended up buying the $10 Spellbook on the next day.

One of the primary factors that sets successful trading card games apart is the variety and depth of gameplay. While Splinterlands did offer a wide range of cards, my friend found that the basic cards available on the Spellbook lacked the engaging abilities and synergistic combos that make card games truly exciting. This lack of diversity in gameplay mechanics led to battles feeling repetitive and, in his words, "boring."

Players that just bought the Spellbook shouldn't have access to the best cards in the game, due obvious balancing reasons. But, let's be honest: the gameplay when you're limited to use ONLY the basic "shadow" cards is, indeed, weak. The game isn't fun and engaging if you could only play with the Spellbook cards (which is the initial experience for new players).

My friend couldn't help but compare Splinterlands to more established card games like Hearthstone or Slay the Spire. While Splinterlands was attempting to differentiate itself with blockchain rewards, it seemed that other games in the genre still offered a more captivating experience with a greater variety of cards and more refined mechanics.

As my friend continued to play Splinterlands over the course of a few weeks, he also began to realize that the profits from the rewards were quite negligible. The allure of earning money had initially piqued his interest, but the reality was that he was only making a few cents per day: this neglible financial incentive couldn't compensate for the lackluster, repetitive gameplay experience he was having.

it's true that, if he had bought more expensive cards and increased his Collection Power, he would have been able to raise throught the Ranked Ladder and earn larger rewards. But WHY would he invest 100-10,000$ in a game that he's finding both boring and with bad rewards?

I couldn't convince him to stay: he decided to call it quits with Splinterlands. Due the unfortunate combination of 1) unpolished app; 2) lackluster gameplay, 3) unmet expectations with neglible profits, it was hard to justify spending his time on this endeavour. It was a very shitty ending to a journey that had started with excitement and curiosity.

Have you ever tried to bring a friend to Splinterlands? How it went?

Thanks for reading this post, and until next time!

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