Devs dont want players (and bots) to hower in the low leagues. And yet they dont allow us to progress.
Seriously! This game makes less and less sense. I was shocked and angered when I just checked the market - and I am venting ... sorry for the rant ;)
I paid about 2k USD for my cards (and about the same amount for SPS and DEC) and all I get is hardly enough power for Silver II! I have cards and skills to play in Gold I, but I have to rent power to be able to get there. This makes no sense!
I want to play in higher leagues, I want challenge, I want better rewards - at least I deserve them based on my performance, but Splinterlands reward system is getting more and more retarded and progression does not even pay for itlsef. Minimal price for 50k points today (last day of the season) is 7,36 beeping bucks per day (and will probably rise)!!!
In fact I just paid 0,36 usd just to get 2k points to get back in Gold II because someone canceled my previous rental. Then I figured out how stupid that was, as I will only get a few cents of rewards more. And here they are ... about a dollar worth in Gold II while in Gold III I would get only 2 chests less.
I have enough points for Gold I, but I am not paying for power to get it (this is why I was checking for 50K power). Nobody with healthy mind should.
Leagues and reward system makes no sense. Not from game play point of view, not from game economy point of view. How come I get no DEC reward for getting to 700 something spot in Gold league and some pathetic sealclubbers with 100k+ decks in Bronze get hundreds of dollars in DEC?
Us - players that want to enjoy the game and improve - get exploited if we want to move up, and lowlife exploiters get rewarded! Make no mistake, I congratulate devs for making a good product and earn millions (15 mill packs *$4 = 60 mill - not bad) - but this situation we have on the market is nothing but the result of devs greed and one of the worst reward systems in games I have played. And I dont know which is worse, probabaly incompetence, because I guess greed is good ... until it doesnt break your business.
This game has by far the worst new players experience I have had in any game I can remember (this is my second full season). The price of cards is much higher for us than it was for older players, the price of packs will be higher (not to mention we wont even get the vouchers to buy them) and the card points are halved! So I would probabaly have to pay 10x or even more then old players did per point.** Based on what I have now, I would have to buy cards for 10k USD just to have enough power for Gold I.**
I dont know what devs are thinking, but new players are best customers in every game (if fact in any business). But this game sure feels like it was deliberately designed to exploit new players and put us in inferior position compared to old players (that is in fact a Ponzi scheme). Whales dont need protection (in games - it is OK to save them in the ocean), new players do. Otherwise we go. And since I got in this game I have never seen an improvement of new player exprience, only efforts to protect whale's assets and market prices (yes, I am talking about the bronze league nerf). But market prices are too high, and maybe bots would be good for the game to bring prices to affordable (I dont have any bots). This game cant afford another price hike because it will become unaffordable for new players. I would even argue this game is way too expensive for the majority of the world's population, so how can it grow to a million players?
I dont say it is wrong to cherish early adopters. But they have better decks, higher net value, more experience and better knowledge of the game and the entire system. There is no need to protect them and stop new players in the rush of a new experience (I will write an article about the worst game design mistake soon.). Games die when new player influx stops, because we bring new energy, new life, new interest it. Old players get slowly tired of old tricks and cash out, move to something new for a new thrill. Maybe devs should ask themselves how much a game with no new players coming in and old players moving out is worth - and if greed is still good.
Fixing the rewards system is so simple - remove the power limits ofr the leagues, just reward players for their achievents/season points. Nobody will linger in bronze if rewards will be better in Silver and so on! And allowing whales to stay in low leagues makes no sense - this is license to sealclub! And I see I am not the only one to propose that. I was watching @Bulldog1205 video - he made the same points. And I am sure many other older players see the same problem. What if devs would put the governance tokens in play and ask us what we think of this issue? Or do we have governance just to feed devs greed?
Oh - I just checked. In about an hour the price of cheapest gold legend (50k points) is up 2x to 14 beeping bucks! Who is even renting this? For what purpose?
