Yesterday, I harvested some of my GLX staking proceeds and sent it to Hive-engine. In Hive-engine, I converted it to Swap.Hive and then used that to buy a couple of Rift Watchers gems in the secondary market.
WHile I was there, I used the change from the Rift Watchers purchase to buy one Chaos Legion pack from the secondary market. In total, I spent roughly $25 and got 4 Rift Watchers and 1 Chaos Legion at the prevalent rate in Hive-engine.
On opening the packs, I was met with monsters that I can only describe as underwhelming. The dollar value of the total assets from opening 4 Rift Watchers and 1 Chaos Legion was less than $10.
I know you might say that dwelling on the dollar value of monsters ruins the thrill of the game then if that's the case, perhaps the entire game should be completely free of charge. The way I see it, investors spend thousands of dollars to play this game, so it is only fair that we expect some return in the process.
I'm not going to lie, the return from that venture was very underwhelming and it really got me thinking about tweaking some things. However, I'll talk about that further down the line, for now, all I want to talk about is the diminished interest in buying Rift Watchers Gems.
Stuck there
If you've been visiting the Splinterlands site regularly, you must have definitely noticed that Rift Watcher Gems aren't being purchased in the game, at least. All the hype has dissipated and up till now, only one monster has been airdropped after the presale airdrop.
It is still too soon to start talking about burning Rift Watcher Gems but with the way things are going, it is most likely going to be in the conversation down the line. The fact is that people aren't ready to take the hit from buying them now.
When you think about it, there is very little incentive to buy Rift Watcher Gems right now. When you buy in-game, you're most likely going to be at a loss if you open the packs.
You buy Rift Watchers Gems in the market and you're still going to be at a loss when you open them and on top of that, your gems will not be eligible for the airdrop. It really feels like a lose-lose situation in the short term.
In the distant future, it is possible that things will be different and the gems, as well as the assets inside them, could become more expensive. However, for now, there's very little incentive in investing in Rift Watcher Gems and that's why I think nobody is buying Rift Watcher Gems.