Last Saturday while at the mall with my family, we stopped by a toy store and there were these two Dragon Ball Z machines. I had seen them before but something made me pay more attention this time around. My youngest kid, 2 years old, saw another kid older than him ( maybe around 9 years old) playing the Dragon Ball Z game. He had a full plastic case full of cards. The cards are the only way you can play the game. Not coins or tokens but the cards.
Interestingly, these weren't any ordinary cards, the cards were placed on the screen and the kid moved them to perform various actions. Each card represented a character. Now, while I am not a fan of card games, I can see a trend here when it comes to NFT games like Splinterlands and games many are already used to. It is an obvious evolution in my opinion that the pivot will be to NFTS.
The network effect is taking shape and the fact is people want to do what others are doing. So if someone sees many talking about and playing splinterlands, Ragnarok or any other P2E game ( much like my son saw the older kid playing Dragon Ball Z), they will want to play too. And we know how it is with crypto, once you go cryp it is hard to lose that grip.
I stood there just watching this kid with his deck of cards and thinking how all these will become NFTs at some point as he will grow up to have a smartphone ( if he doesn't have one already) and carrying that plastic box will not be an option. He will have the ability to utilize, trade or lend out his cards without even leaving his home. But does he even realize this?
Personally, I am surprised at the amount of Japanese that are into NFTs (purchasing and minting on oepnsea) I am also surprised that @Splinterlands doesn't have a Japanese language menu on their website. Because in my mind, no one plays card games like the Japanese do. Just look at this machine dedicated /built around this card game? But I guess in time that will come.
The last question I have for those who will answer, is it too late get started in Splinterlands? And as someone who doesn't like card games, do you think it can be enjoyed?