22nd September 2022.

The Splinterlands team is doing their best to make good of a scuffed Riftwatchers presale that left a few players in the dust.

The crux of the issue is the refunding of packs for various reasons. The 2 common issues are: packs bought are not counted in presale (hence not eligible for promo card airdrop), and a confusing shop page that needed vouchers to be inputted twice (causing people to buy packs without using vouchers for bonus packs).

As you can see below, the players are currently not happy with a refund.

If both proposals fail, there will be NO REFUND of the packs sold in Riftwatchers presale.

The controversial proposals

Here are the 2 proposals that are dividing the community. I have not decided which way I will be voting, but I will continue to watch the arguments on both sides before making a decision.

Not that my meagre amount of SPS would tip the balance of the equation though...

Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 3

"DAO to refund anyone the exact amount of SPS and vouchers they spent for Riftwatchers packs... Splinterlands to loan 30k Vouchers to be returned by the DAO at a later date... Should proposal 3 pass the DAO will need to refund approximately 25,000 packs... Packs that are refunded will be burnt and no rewards or airdrops will be sent to players that receive the refund."

Obviously, most players would rather not have the DAO refund the packs if possible.

Many players are investors in Splinterlands; we have SPS staked in the game. And having SPS staked in the game gives us the ability to control the millions of SPS in the DAO.

Having the DAO do the refund would be similar to having the players refund the packs.

Ironically, having the DAO do the refund is fair because the SPS went to the DAO in the first place.

The only issue is the Vouchers that were burned during the presale. The Splinterlands team will be loaning the Vouchers to the DAO to tide us through this.

How the Vouchers will be returned to the Splinterlands team in the future is not stated in the proposal.

Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 4

The main issue with Proposal 4 is that it is split into 4a and 4b. You will be voting for both at the same time here:

"4a - Anyone requesting refunds will be refunded by the exact amount they purchased (in both SPS and VOUCHERs) by the Splinterlands company as opposed to the DAO. Splinterlands will then be considered the purchaser of those packs and will receive the presale bonuses like any other account, but unlike any other account we intend to use the majority of purchased packs and awarded cards as promotional giveaways."

"4b- We would like to increase the number of packs eligible for pre-sale rewards to allow anyone that purchased packs within the first 3 minutes (60 blocks). This would be a ~10% increase to the total pre-sale packs and resolve 60% of the transactions and 81% of the financial considerations of the presale refund requests."

Part 4a sounds ok to most players. Having the Splinterlands team purchase the packs back from players who wants a refund seems like a good idea, with the assumption that the packs and promo cards are given out as giveaways in the future.

Part 4b though is what set a very vocal player base in Splinterlands off. They are very unhappy with the 10% increase in the total presale packs, which potentially translates to a 10% increase in the total number of promo cards.

Given that most players bought the presale mainly because of the promo card, increasing the print rate of it will cause it's price to decrease, which hurts the players who are within the first 500k packs.

2 cents of thought

From the wording of Proposal 3 and 4, it is obvious (to me at least) that the Splinterlands team would very much prefer for Proposal 4 to pass.

They are very open to processing the refund for the players as they have done in the past. It is probably simpler for the team to do so without going through the DAO.

On the flip side, there is a vocal part of the community that is actively voicing out their opinions to vote "NO" for the proposals, specifically Proposal 3 and 4.

You may find their comments in the original proposal post to understand their train of thoughts and motivations.

Faith in humanity

I am slightly disappointed in the vigorous response by some of our community members.

Regardless of how the presale turned out, we should be finding ways to resolve the issues and move forward to a brighter future together.

Instead, we have individuals who are hyper-focused on their immediate gains and losses, disregarding the effects it has on their fellow players.

Splinterlands can be a brutal and unforgiving wasteland, especially when "profits" and "investments" are tied to decision-making.

We can only hope that the Splinterlands team is able to create a free market where the selfish individual actions are able to serve the greater good of the whole.

"The invisible hand is a metaphor for the unseen forces that move the free market economy. Through individual self-interest and freedom of production and consumption, the best interest of society, as a whole, are fulfilled." - Investopedia definition

Posted using Splintertalk