July 6, 2023, was the day when Collection Power (CP) was laid to rest and Staked SPS based reward system was pushed into the game. For many of the players, this was like playing the game afresh as CP based rewards on higher leagues could no longer be achieved.
A bit of a blow to the player's hard-earned card power, but we know that SPS is the governance token and it has been continuously under pressure and performing lowly in the crypto market. There can be many reasons behind this change, let's explore some possible scenario's that might have played a role to bring this to the game.
Price Drop in Market
SPS is fighting so hard to maintain its value in the market, but it seems that a big chunk of reward emitted from the game directly goes into the market, this actually is affecting the overall economy of the token.
The above price chart shows short-lived golden days and the current market price of SPS. The price line has slightly improved, but overall it's 94% down compared to the actual price.
Reducing Bot Farming
The game allowed bots from the beginning to play the game and earn rewards without any human intervention, the possible reason behind this could be increasing player's interest and collecting more funds for running the platform.
But, the number of bots slowly started to grow and started to milk the big share of the rewards from the game, this has caused some issues such as rewards earned from bots being sold immediately in the market, bot accounts not staking SPS as most of the human players did.
Now, many bots are earning very low rewards compared to what they had been earning during CP based system. Hopefully, this will distribute more rewards to the genuine player compared to bot farmers.
An Experiment
It may be an experiment or maybe not, but it feels like a major overhaul to the game ecosystem for the first time, we have seen some changes in the past, but this one is quite impactful since it has suddenly put many players to buy SPS and enjoy the perks. This experimental change should improve the ecosystem and create a new approachable market for Staked SPS delegation which is currently asking quite a high price for Staked SPS.
Increasing Utility of SPS Token
Besides the utilities mentioned in the whitepaper, this one is totally new, but it is a big step to strengthen the SPS token and its utilities.
It may be expected that we see more of such updates that empower SPS and provide more value to the token.
What's New After This Update
Well, the CP based reward system has completely vanished, now players will need Staked SPS boost to earn better rewards and SPS tokens for winning in ranked battles.
As shown in the above image, CP based blue bar is replaced with Staked SPS based Boost system, now a player will get an 'x' amount of boost based on the staked SPS in the game and an estimate of reward points can be seen on that bar, but reward points can be more or less than that estimate based on the cards used in the game.
Reach Any League:
Now, players can reach any league regardless of staked SPS or cards, it is now easy to jump to higher leagues without worrying about collection power (CP) as long as a player wins and receives a nice battle rating.
Staked SPS Rental via Delegation:
A new economy is added to the markets of Splinterlands, any player who wishes to increase the boost can fill out a simple bid form to obtain the desired amount of SPS tokens via delegation from other SPS owners.
The bids will appear in all supported Splinterlands and third-party markets as well, when the provider fulfills an order the player will receive a delegation in the game.
This means that any player can provide this service and fill the bids if he owns some Staked SPS in his account.
Final Thoughts
This is indeed a very impacting change that has changed the course of the game, players who like to grow and improve their rewards must have a good amount of Staked SPS. Many players have issues obtaining decent loot after this change because it is a big investment for them which they had not thought of while joining the game.
Now, there will be a double burden on the players, they need to rent cards and Staked SPS. Although this will improve the market economy because the delegation providers can take advantage of this change.
It is quite hard for an average player to achieve a good boost for better rewards because Staked SPS requirement increases for higher leagues based on the battle rating.
What do you think of this new change patched in the game and how does it affect your gameplay? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
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