Splinterlands was unexpectedly down for a long time yesterday as most know. The general sentiment from what I can tell in the community is mostly cordial and accepting. I do not want to be negative here at all, but as a thought exercise I am wondering what players really think about this and what the Splinterlands team is going to do.
I understand the game is experiencing an extreme influx of players right now. It is no doubt a challenge for the game to keep up with the growth. It is somewhat interesting to think about this emergency maintenance and compare it to other games.
In a normal game, scheduled maintenance is expected and accepted. Same here.
But if a normal game goes down unexpectedly, players are (and rightly) generally upset. The common remedy for this is some kind of payment to players for the inconvenience and often apologies.
As an example, I was pretty hooked on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius for years. Even when scheduled maintenance went barely beyond expected amounts of time, they would compensate the players with 100+ Lapis (the in game currency. Which costs about $1 for 100 if I remember right.)
This does not seem like something a game like Splinterlands could do. Given that the game's assets are bound the way they are. And this of course is one of the big reasons people play this game, but also kind of limits what the team could do in a situation like this.
Not even sure if the team is even thinking about this kind of stuff. It is entirely possible things get totally fixed, everyone moves on, and nothing else happens.
But you do have to admit that when something like this happens in a game like this, it is even more inconvenient than a normal game. It has the same problem of people just not getting to play of course. But, it also has the problem that the downtime is literally costing people money.
A day or two of lost DEC earnings from ranked play is the most obvious. By extension, given the current airdrop this also costs a bit of SPS. Some people seemed to get to do their daily quest somehow, but many did not, so that is lost DEC and cards. And with only 2 days left in the season, people lost time they may have planned to reach a higher rank, and therefore more lost season rewards, potentially.
In a game like Splinterlands, that is all lost income, not just in-game losses. The amount varies from person to person and many would say it is no big deal, but to some it is.
Not sure anyone will read this anyway but, the questions here would be these:
In my opinion, I DO think the Splinterlands team should do something for the players when they are done dealing with the issues. I do not think it should be anything extravagant or costly. It should instead be something fun and appreciative toward the community because I also DO think some players will quit because of this. Mostly new players that were on the fence about the game anyway and their leaving will most likely be entirely overshadowed by the continued exponential growth of the game.
A fun idea would be something that marks players that log in soon after as a 'I survived the down time of August 2021' status symbol. 😄 Like a reward card that has 0 mana and 0 life that has fun art work, so people can throw it in an empty spot as the game starts it dies. Or a title that is kind of funny and relevant. But all that may be too much work even... but the point is just something small that can be a gesture of good faith to the community.
At the very least I do hope the devs take note and learn from this though. There are always going to be problems to overcome, but you are not always going to have such a calm cordial response from the player base.
Hopefully the vast majority of players are understanding in this though and will continue to play.
So I guess in conclusion, play 2 earn games have a bit more to think about than a normal game when it comes to compensation to players for inconveniences like this. But do they need to care? I don't know. I certainly do not expect anything, but I do think it would be a good look for the game if they do something to show appreciation to the players.
