Cool read! Yeah, the new player experience hiccup is definitely an issue with Axie, or I would be already playing it I think.

Splinterlands has a neat intro quest and the entry price point to play-to-earn is $10 vs buying the 3 cheapest Axies listed in your pic as it takes 3 axies to actually play. That is $672. That is a wallop of a difference. On top of that, those are the bottom 3 on the market, and new users who don't understand the game might think "It costs this much to get the bottom tier, im completely priced out of anything powerful"

Because I've thought that too. If I just went in and got these 3 bottom axies, am I getting 3 garbage worthless axies? Well, I dunno. I could watch a youtube video over gameplay, or maybe do my Splinterlands daily. But I really wish I could test run Axie.