Oh, and I forgot to mention, you can sell your cards. So if you buy like $50 worth of Hearthstone cards and then stop playing, that' just $50 you won't get back.

But in Splinterlands you can sell your cards on the market because they are NFT's. So you can get money back when you are done with the game. Possibly more than you put in. That Yodin Zaku Gold Foil Legendary card is worth ~$300. I spent about $50 to "get" it!