The last year has been abysmal for the play to earn gaming sector. Cryptocurrency has been down in general, but the collapse and failure of several high profile games within the space has been much more pronounced than the declines within the broader market.
The reason for this, in my opinion, is a fatal flaw within the economic structure for most play to earn games. Too many users (often scholars and/or bots) only join projects to extract as much value as possible, as fast as possible. This downward pressure on a project is usually countered only by new investors coming in and buying up assets which adds value into the ecosystem. The problem comes when the flow of new investors into a project starts to dry up.
That type of economic system has similar properties to a ponzi scheme. And it is not sustainable as an economic model for any game or project.
Fortunately, the Splinterlands team has recently introduced a solution which could help with this problem. The newly transformed rewards system requires all users to acquire game assets before they can generate any value that could be extracted from the ecosystem. Progessively better (and more expensive) assets are needed to advance and unlock the best rewards. This is in contrast to the prior system, where free-to-use starter cards could be utilized in many cases to unlock value that could then be extracted from the ecosystem. And the rewards were randomized in a way where users with little to no assets could potentially generate legendary or gold legendary NFTs (if they were lucky) and then immediately dump them on the market.
The new system seems like a giant step in the right direction for the future of Splinterlands. More needs to be done (and I'll get into some ideas for further improve the economy in future blog posts), but this is a very good start. And for that reason, I have decided to jump back into the game and accumulate tens of thousands of dollars worth of assets. I will be starting with $15k this week, and then adding more assets slowly over the next weeks.
Play to earn gaming, in general, is still a very attractive investment option for investors who want digital assets that should appreciate over time while also generating active and/or passive income at the same time.
I intend to document my journey (particularly this initial accumulation for my deck) through a daily blog here on Splintertalk.
I am beyond excited about the potential future of this game.
I can be reached on Twitter at kingzeus_aig or on Discord @ KingZeus#1017 for anyone who wants to reach out.
Posted using Splintertalk
