This is a very embarassing and frustrating moment for me. I have a special topic to cover today and it will be quite different from my usual blog posts in this community.
As you can see my Splinterlands account got suspended from some of the major game modes but if you give me the benefit of the doubt for a moment I will give me some context and explain what happened.
The thumbnail and title might be a touch on the cheeky side but it's only to foster the discourse around some key aspects of the game and ultimately let my voice be heard.
Towards the end of the Rebellion set I decided to "scale back" and instead of aiming for a Silver deck invest in a fully competitive Bronze deck. With all the strongest cards for that level at my disposal it has been easy for me to end up in very advanced spots in the Silver league but ultimately this becomes a very unfair and frustrating experience as I'm outmatched by higher level cards, most of the time.
For this reason, I often resorted to conceding games to go on purpose on a losing streak and fight against a more even opposition. Either in Bronze or at least in the lower divisions of Silver.
I didn't know at the time that conceding games consistently was against the Fair Play policy but I understand, now, how it could be used to artificially inflate the ranking of select players, much like some bots do.
This wasn't, of course, my intention but it was dumb nevertheless.
One of the few silver linings in all of this was how fair, understanding and efficient the support team was in handling my appeal and after a few hours and some quick exchanges the restriction was lifted from my account 馃榿
Many players were also quick to get back to me with helpful and comforting messages on Discord while I was trying to figure out exactly what happening with my account.
Of course, I never intented to put my account in jeopardy as I've put a lot of money and time into it.
I wasn't going on losing streaks because of any particular personal gain, I simply wasn't having fun in the league where I was forced to play.
Let's look at some battles that exemplify how fundamentally unfun the player experience is in Modern, although this really extends to several other game modes as well.
This wasn't exactly a very fair Silver II battle, for instance, where I was barely able to win in spite of my opponent having considerably higher level cards.
I also, somehow, manage to win this one against very strong opposition.
However, there are many others where there is simply no point in even trying to put together a coherent team like the following one.
The one that really takes the cake in this whole battle sub-genre is, perhaps, this one where I am literally pitted against max level cards in Silver.
And of course it doesn't stop here. There's literally countless examples that I could provide of how unfair the playing experience is.
You might think I'm nitpicking extreme examples but you really reach a point where it's battles like this every other match and I simply do not have the stamina to pretend to care about this game mode.
Playing, in this way, it's not something that I ever look forward to do.
I simply thought that I wasn't hurting anyone by going on a losing streak to deflate my rating but I now understand how intentional losses are tools that can be used with malicious intent and policy needs to be applied with no exception.
Now, I am aware of the issues that were being tackled and how it led to where we're at currently.
I also understand that a fix is finally on its way.
However, the truth is that we shouldn't have been in this position in the first place and it shouldn't have taken a year to start discussing an alternative.
The reintroduction of leagues started being discussed in a meaningful way in August of this year.
Many smart players have contributed to the discussion and although there aren't many specifics on how the new ranked system should function most people seem to agree on the fundamental issues that need fixing, which is good.
At the same time there's this weird attitude around the topic of leagues and level restrictions.
It really seems like it's a taboo and it's not a particularly "sexy" topic that most content creators are willing to cover but it really is a game-breaking issue that completely takes the fun away from the battles, takes away any illusion of a fair gaming environment and ultimately betrays core elements of design of the game that have been here since the start.
I do genuinely believe that the team has the health and prosperity of the game as their main goal and the transparency and the way they make the development a collaborative effort is to commended. In a similar way their willingness to honor a draft proposal that didn't quite make the cut shows how much they listen to the player-base.
However they did mess up in a really unforgiveable way when it comes to this issue with the leagues.
I understand that they were hard-pressed to solve many difficult problems at once but it still feels like an unexpected betrayal.
As I understand it, at least to some extent they were justifying the removal of leagues thinking more blurry lines between the different levels of play might incentivize a more gradual progression, the combining of cards and other such things.
Every now and again it is brought up that "players should not aim to stay in Bronze forever". We constantly talk about bringing more players in and make it desirable for people to increase their stake in the game and move up through the ranks.
I don't know that the change with the leagues had that effect, overall.
Just as a matter of principle, I don't like this approach of forcing the issue artificially.
And in general I don't believe there's ever going to be a remedy against people wanting to stay in Bronze. At the end of the day this is a game and for some people, such as me, it will never be a realistic proposition to spend thousands of dollars on it.
I do like the game, though, and I'm willing to spend some money each year to keep up with the meta and the new releases in a fair and competitive environment.
This is pretty much what I've been doing since I joined.
Just the other day I went on a shopping spree in order to acquire the new epic and legendary reward cards, just so I could use them in tournaments and other meaningful game modes.
I do believe that catering to players such as me is just as important as trying to attract new players or entice current ones to "upgrade" and that the game can be sustainable in the long term while remaining fair and skill-based.
Ultimately I'm making this post for a couple of reasons.
One is just to rant to my non-exisiting audience here on Hive about an aspect of the game that's very important to me 馃槀
But also, I want to make it clear that I would never cheat or bot and my temporary suspension was only due to a relitavely harmless kind of infraction that I will avoid from here on out.
