Collectible Card Game on BlockChain Technology
From physical collectible card games like Magic the Gathering, YuGiOh, Pokemon to online games like Hearthstone, Urban Rivals, and AFK Arena: I have played a lot of them. I even invented and pubished my own card game in 2015 called PBL Robots. Splinterlands is extremely collectible, fun to play, and thanks to the blockchain the assets truly feel fluid across different internet market places. I purchased cards on the atomic market place before ever joining the game just because they were inexpensive and interesting and those purchases eventually led me to buy the spellbook and try the game. Almost 6 months later, I enjoy the game today more than ever.
Gameplay that Scales
Splinterlands was developed in a way that you can play a full game while waiting for your toast to pop, or you can sit down for a few hours and; brawl, grind for daily rewards or battle in tournaments. Especially for someone who leads an unpredictable lifestyle, I appreciate the flexible time investment very much. Splinterlands feels like a game I can play passively on busy weeks, but also can saturate days when I want to sink my teeth into ranking up or building a new deck. Each challenge has varying rulesets that requires just enough strategy and contemplation that makes it satisfying to win, but not devastating to lose. There is a level of "Pay to Win" in Splinterlands, as the better cards are price prohibitive and extremely hard to defeat, however the in game currency DEC that you earn from rewards and battles allows you to RENT cards, which becomes a game in itself. The goal for a new player is to earn DEC and then rent the right cards to earn more DEC and rinse and repeat. The better you are at building the right decks and renting the right cards, the faster you rank up and start building a sizeable collection.
Play to Earn.... For Real
I played other crypto games like AlienWorlds and RPlanet, and it just was not for me, the games weren't really games and the returns were consistently changing or non-existent. Splinterlands was the first crypto based game that felt like a real game, with realistic and beneficial rewards. I played for a few weeks and found out that all my questions had very logical or suprisingly intelligent answers. Having developed trust in the game's core mechanics and rewards system, I invested a little money in cards, packs and even bought a plot of land. The timing was fortunate because not only did I now own assests that have drastically appreciated, but the SPS token launched to add free daily drops of tokens. Like most people, my only wish is that I got in sooner. I will always tell new players to be patient and consistent, because the game really does reward you over time and it is actually a fun game at the very same time.
It would a disservice to the game to not mention a few honorable mentions like:
-The incredible Splinterlands Discord server which constantly feeds me new information or helpful advice
-The Weekly Dev Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) which is an essential service for understanding the game and trusting the team behind the game (check out Brybro's great AMA summaries HERE)
-Big shout out to The Furious Chicken himself (my favorite splinterlands card).