With all the layoffs in Splinterlands there are now less devs to code new features and the last one that has been talked about is the 1-click Set rentals. Here are my thoughts about it...
The New Player Experience
Pretty much for 5+ years now, all the focus of the team has been on 'fixing the economy' and printing more and more cards trying to stay on top of the high costs. This all came at the cost of making the game more fun and accessible to new players. While this has kept the lights on, it also got us in the mess we are right now.
In the end, for this game in order for the economy to hold up new players need to come in and this hasn't happened. So the team shift their focus more to this or at least they say so as there are a lot of proposals to get more funds and to print more cards while there is no sign of a new game mode or improvements to the game visuals. What they have been talking about for a long time now is the 1-click set rentals so new players that come in can easily rent an entire set of cards to get them going.
Why New Players Aren't Coming In.
There are several clear reasons why no new players have come in for a while even though Splinterlands at its core has the potential to be a great game ...
Bad New Player Experience: While Splinterlands is fun if you know how everything works and if you have an expensive cards collection to be competitive. New players that come in are presented with a horrible experience. The tutorial is a complete joke, the visuals of the game and the background in the battles could be so much better. So there is not much when you come in to try that makes you stay.
Expensive costs: It costs a lot in Splinterlands to get going and be competitive. not only does it require a 10$ spellbook, you also need a ton of cards which likely isn't even enough as existing players have cards you can't even get your hands on as a new player. So even with quite some money you are not going to get far before totally getting hit by the Pay2Win wall. the Set rentals might help with this. On top of this, there is SPS needed to get a reward multiplier.
Crashed Old Card Values: There is no place in Wild for new players as it costs to enter while they are unable to ever recover that cost. So new players are down to Modern and are encouraged to buy packs which with the slightest bit of research they know they will get crushed on financially.
Complicated Economy: There are so many different assets DEC, SPS, Vouchers, Land, Different sets, Credits, Potions, ... that it's just too overwhelming for new players.
Bad Community Sentiment: As everyone who is playing the game got totally crushed by the oversupply along with how everything else went down and no real outlook for improvements, the sentiment is quite bad and there are few players actually talking positive about the game. Not even to talk about anyone trying to get others in the ecosystem
No Affiliat Program: With DEC trading below peg for the longest time, the entire affiliate program was bypassed by the team as they are good to earn DEC but players who referred others don't get it as only credits count and nobody is paying with those as it is more expensive. So there hasn't been any incentive for players to get other players in for a long time.
Obligation to play 60+ Minutes daily: While this isn't really a reason why no new players are coming it, it never made sense to me how Splinterlands forces players to grind at least 40+ minutes each day if they don't want to get screwed over by missing some returns.
Why Set Rentals Won't Move the Needle.
So the 1-click Set rentals was said to save the game as it is going to be easy for new players to come in and with 1 click just rent an entire set to get them going. The reason that I see why this won't do anything is because on the offer side there simply won't be many that have a complete extra set and are putting in the effort to put it to rent. As someone who has a lot of spare cards willing to rent them out, this doesn't do anything for me. The moment new players will come in, the prices of these 1 set rentals will be so high that they are getting screwed since the rewards never will get close to the cost or there simply won't be any available.
For these reasons I don't see the Set rentals as something that will make any difference to Splinterlands Whatsoever.
How It Should Have Been Done!
So what they want is new players to come into the game and start off with an easy to understand affordable fun experience to get them going and get sold on the game. I believe a new game mode needs to be created just for that putting everyone fully on a level playing field. This with a fixed extry cost and Rebellion packs as prizes which acts as an indirect way to sell packs.
Players that own cards should be able to just deletage them to a contract where they are pooled up and these cards are used by players that enter this new game mode. Part of the earings should be paid out passively to the ones that delegate their cards based on how often their card actually gets picked and played. This makes the stronger cards with less copies in circulation extra valuable.
If this was available and actually fun like a draft / arena mode, New players could buy a spellbook wich includes 1 or more tickets to enter and instantly play on a level playing field experiencing the most fun in the game. This leaves them with an option to play when they want instead of being forced to play daily. and from there on out they could discover ranked play and potentially get involved with that if they want.
Conclusion!
The way I see it right now, the 1-click set rentals are the next failure in Splinterlands since there is never going to be enough supply in case the demand would come in. I also feel we are getting further and further away from the game ever getting fixed since all focus remains on the economy instead of the actual game making it as fun as possible. It's a shame though the entire game infrastructure works really well and the game has the potential to be really fun for everyone.
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