Botting: The Breaking Point
Now before reading THIS article you should read this, or this, or this , or this (Yeah not new issues). So you at least have some context before you start going into this deep dive. If you follow my talkings, the state of botting, and everything else in SPL this article shouldn't be a surprise for you. I have been talking these points for ALMOST 2 YEARS WITH ZERO PROGRESS MADE TO COUNTER THESE MAJOR ISSUES UNTIL VERY RECENTLY! Happy Splinterbirthday to me.
However, here is a TLDR for those of you not in the know: The majority of active SPL accounts are bot farms run by a rather small playerbase. This section will go over why this is a problem on various levels including: esports, legality, optics, and overall human player enjoyment. There will not be sugar coating in this article, so buckle up it's gonna be a bumpy ride. This attempts to shine light on things and present the potential perspective for viewers outside of HIVE.
Brass Tacks: The Bad
It's Market Manipulation
(taken from a SPL tech update notification in their discord)
The glaring issue here with this is that
they have knowledge of how many bots there are, and have had this knowledge and capability from the games inception.
they are publicly admitting to knowingly misrepresenting botting statistics and having accurate knowledge of how many human players there have been SINCE THE START.
all instances of them calling bots "players" and implying there was a large human playerbase are obtainable via subpoena via twitch/twitter. Even though the broadcasts aren't live anymore there are various instances in which it has been recorded into youtuber's videos etc., and the broadcast itself is obtainable via twitch's parent company Amazon in the event of a lawsuit.
Knowingly calling bots "players" to entice new users or buyers is market manipulation.
The Esports Dilemma: No one wants to watch someone fight robots
Quite frankly, no one wants to watch an autobattler where the player fights a bot with no one at the helm 90 percent of the time. No one wants to watch this with any other video game, why would they want to watch it here? They wouldn't. No one would watch the Teamfight Tactics legendary ladder if they knew 9 out of 10 of the competitors were AI AND there were no entertaining animations to boot. The draw just isn't there for the majority of gamers (ie people who watch VIDEO GAMES).
Optics: Botting, an exploit.
Botting is not an aspect of the main game, and aside from being viewed as an exploit by web2 gamers also makes the game appear "so boring, or such a grind" that players use these third party services instead of actually playing. What makes it worse is the vast majority have stopping playing the cards, meaning it's NOT FUN ENOUGH TO PLAY MANUALLY FOR THE MAJORITY OF ACCOUNTS. Keep in mind this is from a "fresh" perspective, those who have been here a while know that these bots are in fact "bot farms" owned by a handful of people and not actually "individuals".
Legality: Inflated Statistics, Market Manipulation
For the longest time the devs would call all accounts "players" when presenting the game in AMAs or wherever else they would appear. Previously all accounts were called players deliberately to give the appearance that all accounts are human players and garner much different numbers than the current "bot churn". This makes the account numbers seem like a MUCH different statistic and is by definition market manipulation. More info here
Soulbound Cards: A Nail in the Coffin
Some of you might be asking, why are soulbound cards bad? Doesn't this keep bots from burning DEC value? The truth of the matter is that SOULBOUND CARDS DON'T SOLVE ANY ISSUES LONG TERM. This next section will cover why, and what the real intent of this update is. This is NOT an "anti-bot" update, this update actually harms incoming players the most and only accomplishes a few things in the short term. Bots remain relatively unaffected, they will still bleed the overall economy and will still continue to sell rewards cards en mass. The only difference being they will have to pay a fee to list their cards and sell them to extract the value, this brings dec a modicum closer to peg but that isn't the true purpose of this update.
What's the point of this update?
This update is meant to make the "market volume and sales" statistic seem much more inflated than it actually is, where previously cards would be burned to gain value if they weren't selling for more than their burn value. Now all cards have to be sold, this will pump up the "24hr trade volume" statistic and allow it to be mentioned instead of the flatout lie of "player activity". It will be HEAVILY implied that this volume comes from humans or "players" and actual "demand" not just bot lords cycle buying from other bot lords in a centralized fashion.
How does this effect onboarding? Non-linear progression at a snail's pace
Currently you cannot spend what you earn on cards without waiting 4 weeks to unstake, you cannot trade or sell your reward cards you earn from gameplay to expand your collection either (without paying a fee bots will easily afford and just use as a "base selling" price and increasing the price to incoming players artificially). The in game progression is the slowest I've seen in ANY CARD GAME, even blockchain games, being p2e isn't an excuse. If a player plays religiously for weeks he should be able to get some cards, currently there is a HIGH CHANCE a bronze player playing everyday for two weeks will not be able to acquire any new cards at the end of season without putting in outside money. This is a step too far and many of us have lost sight of what this game looked like when we entered it, this is not the game we used to play... it's something else. The argument presented is "well the rewards cards are valuable and can be sold for value" (if that's the case how does this stop bots at all? the answer is it doesn't, it is a veiled pro-bot update), but new human players can't sell them to get new or different ones to improve the variety of their gameplay. Most gamers won't be masochistic enough to grind all day all week for weeks for numerous copies of the same common cards (IF THEY SHOULD BE SO LUCKY) and no additional game variety while playing against the SAME BOT LINEUPS EVERYTIME, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE OTHER GAME TITLES OUT THERE THAT OFFER BETTER IN GAME PROGRESSION. This isn't a matter of tokenomics, it's a matter of the gameplay being very stale for those "playing to play". The reason Splinterlands WAS unprecedented was because it was implementing web3 tech to allow a p2p market for in game assets, Splinterlands is no longer unprecedented and has lost that edge.
The Council: A Gesture
The council that will be elected to "make player decisions" is also a farce, because it isn't 1 PERSON 1 vote it's 1 ACCOUNT 1 vote. This is handing the council over to bot lords while acting like it's a "fair democracy". They will just vote with whatever amount of bots are necessary to enter the council and lock in the current pro-bot trajectory, which is the trajectory the team wants, don't be fooled by any "it's out of our hands" bullshit. It's NEVER been out of their hands. These positions are purely ceremonial, in fact the whole current voting metric is just "smoke and mirrors". NO DECISION HAS HAPPENED THAT THE DEV TEAM HASN'T WANTED AND TO TOP IT OFF THEY MAINTAIN VETO POWER. Think about that and also how SPS isn't really an investment or related to company decisions whatsoever. The real purpose of this is spread the blame out across more people instead of the team being confronted with every update that THEY IMPLEMENT FULLY VOLUNTARILY. If they wanted any of these quote on quote "governing bodies" to have ANY power they would add it to the whitepaper AND ToS, otherwise it's just blame deflection to have the community blaming themselves instead of directing their concerns where they should be going.
The SPS DAO is not a financial institution according to the ToS and operating as such while labeling it as "not a financial institution" is in fact illegal to do so.
Where did all the money go? Not game development.
In short, mismanagement of funds. Holding over half of it AS CRYPTO INSTEAD OF A FIAT THAT CAN BE USED TO PAY SALARIES AND OPERATING COSTS. YOU DO NOT HOLD CRYPTO OR UNSTABLE ASSETS TO PAY PEOPLE'S SALARIES AND OPERATING COSTS IF YOU PLAN ON HAVING A TEAM HIRED FOR ANY EXTENDED PERIOD. This is a very very very very basic business management concept and not rocket science, and the fact it was borked should be a red flag.
It shouldn't have been spent on ANY OTHER ASSET (this would include buying plots of land or whatever other asset aside from holding funds to pay salaries and operating expenses, not just holding crypto). The priority purpose should've been hiring the appropriate team to develop your game, or AT LEAST setting it aside. Instead we got 50 percent of it held as "volatile" crypto, and the rest of it pissed away on rather half-cocked promotions and hires (ad-time with Alliestraza despite this game being a hard pass for Hearthstone gamers, the waka flaka promotion because why?, hiring a dude to animate two swords in the maintenance screen and giving him a full salary etc. etc.). Considering both of these promotions cost quite a bit of capital and resulted in almost zero human player retention when only 50 percent of the capital was well... capital. This was a foolish use of these funds when game development has ALWAYS taken back seat compared to "eye candy". There wasn't enough game to pitch to gamers, and waka flaka fans would at most get JUST the waka card. Eye candy is not meat and bones, and at a certain point you need meat and bones. No one cares about a one hit wonder rapper who was popular a decade ago, and hearthstone players won't come to play this game either EVEN IF A STREAMER THEY LIKE PLAYS IT (in fact Allie was met with serious backlash and had to stop streaming Splinterlands completely due to her having a similar issue when she pitched another game in an ad months before, her fans were not going to tolerate a boo-boo shill a second time).
Some Numbers: How much down the drain?
The team has made AT LEAST 3 Million from Untamed packs and another 3 million from land sales. AT LEAST. On top of this, various "personal assets" were sold at all time high by the team for further potential funding.
Previous Projects: And How they look
If you follow the team like aggy and yaba it becomes apparent that yaba is carrying most of the weight of developing this project at this point. Aggy has essentially been in almost exclusively sales for his entire career (which is just selling a product, the how is usually immaterial as long as the product sells). This pretty much reflects each AMA that has happened up until this point (Matt answering hard questions, Aggy providing "hype"), it also begs the question why the team hasn't expanded in a meaningful way to fill the gaps with all the money wasted (see sections above and below on where the money went). Additionally aggy's previous projects like GETSOME have all been abandoned, and quite frankly are rather "cringey" at best.
(above is an example of an abandoned project, GETSOME)
Quite frankly it's no surprise GETSOME wasn't picked up by any publisher, but to top it off the followthrough on this cringey project that REACHED IT'S FUNDING GOAL (as you can see) is nowhere to be found and was abandoned years ago (right before Splinterlands was started up, coincidentally). Begs the question, will this project be abandoned despite already having been fully paid for and all the funding has been raised that is required to deliver?
All this makes this project feel like the shit that finally stuck on the wall after throwing turds like GETSOME (from an outside HIVE perspective), when it isn't that (or at least I hope it isn't). Quite frankly, Yaba has done a great job developing the GAME itself. I have the utmost respect for yaba as a developer, he's carried this project almost on his own and his back must be tired. He made the game mechanics unique and interesting and developed a GAME, quite frankly I'm not very sure what aggy even does for Splinterlands at this point aside from hype sales. I can only imagine the inner turmoil yaba feels when he sees how HIS baby has developed, that guy deserves better than what he's gotten. Maybe his time as CEO can have a better visual impact, it's hard to say what structuring is necessary but at least it's a start.
"Forking": The Hail Mary Pass
At this point all previously suggested solutions will be shot down from the drawing board (most likely, or "delayed" until the point it won't really matter), due to SPS voting becoming a by bots for bots operation as predicted ages ago. To top it off the whole DAO in and of itself is just a veil to deflect blame from the developers, THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN COMPLETE CONTROL AND MAINTAIN VETO POWER. Nothing has happened that so far that hasn't been part of the agenda, the DAO only exists to say "it wasn't us it was that dirty DAO". Additionally the DAO acts as a financial institution without being "a financial institution", generally this combination of ingredients doesn't have a long shelf life.
The only viable solution to address most of these problems at this point is a "fork" with an exit, and the DAO not being responsible for EVERY DAMN IN GAME DECISION. The only viable voting system that would work in the future is a 1 for 1 voting system where only HUMANS can vote, because that is true player representation. All the DAO does is allow for bots to keep the boot on the neck of this game and keep it from achieving actual attention or greatness outside of the nichest of niches, even among crypto games Splinterlands has lost most of it's steam to other games ( games that focused more on the game and less on flashy promotions and holding crypto ). Ask yourself, When the next bull run comes why would people pick Splinterlands over other videogames that have oriented more around listening to the playerbase and being a videogame? The answer is simple, they won't. SPL is no longer a big fish in a small pond, it's just another fish in the sea. Keep in mind I use the word "fork" but in reality it would have to be a complete reconstruction that allows an exit for existing players not technically a "fork".
Quick List: Pros of "Forking"
- an esports environment people might actually watch
- players having an actual say in development, not just wallets
- retention of Splinterlands assets and usecase
- the removal of bots and the problems that they come with
- distance from the the dubious legality of the current game
- no more inflated statistics
Cons:
- initial cost
Some of you might think an "across the board bot ban" would work aswell, and you may be right. But at this point it is impossible to trust if bots are actually being banned, previous members of the team (since axed) had previously run bots in the 10s of thousands. How are we to know ALL bots are really getting banned? EXTREME transparency is needed on this issue, who's in charge of going against the bots? what projects have they worked on before? Are they really incorruptible? At this point it's hard to expect a bode of confidence.
Just Tell 'em about the bots already
Another solution is rather easy, just TELL THE INCOMING PLAYERS ABOUT THE BOTTING DYNAMIC IN THIS GAME. You don't even need to have the complete numbers, by merely mentioning it MANY of the issues with botting are parried. By doing so the illusionary bubble of a "PvP Esport" has to be broken, but also no incoming players would have any reason to be mad if they were told about bots in the tutorial and it's the RIGHT thing to do. Continuing to keep bots a secret at this point is incredibly dishonest to entering players when all that needs to happen is a blurb in the tutorial mentioning that bots EXIST. Not doing so at this point isn't a matter of laziness, it's intentionally withholding this information from the incoming playerbase on purpose to misrepresent the game's dynamics.
Is Splinterlands a Ponzi Scheme? Well....
For reference here is the definition of a Ponzi scheme as defined by wikipedia
"A Ponzi scheme (/ˈpɒnzi/, Italian: [ˈpontsi]) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.[1] Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity (e.g., product sales or successful investments), and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as new investors contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and still believe in the non-existent assets they are purported to own."
Did reading that definition while thinking about SPL gave you a sinking feeling in your gut? You aren't alone, and it's because Splinterlands currently meets all of these definitions if their promises aren't delivered WITHOUT NEEDING "new outside money". So let's go through and check all the boxes, shall we?
1| "A form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors"
This is Splinterlands current economic model, every time the team says "we need to bring in new money to reward our current holders and investors" this is THE VERY DEFINITION of a ponzi scheme. Considering the bot lords have been around before SPS was even airdropped this only adds to the negative optics in this area, every HUMAN player that joined since the airdrop was the "new money" that funded THOSE "investors". Keep in mind they have misrepresented all of these "investments" in the first place (see above how nothing purchased in SPL is considered an investment by the team despite the phrase "invest" being used CONSTANTLY).
2| "The Scheme leads victims to believe that profit is coming from legitimate business activity."
Like leading new players into thinking that this is a robust PvP card game with many human players instead of bots win trading against each other and only a fraction of users even being human at all? Check and double check.
3| "A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as new investors contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and still believe in the non-existent assets they are purported to own"
Splinterlands fits this aspect of a ponzi scheme like a glove: the inflated bot numbers that are intentionally used to inflate stats, the "transaction and battle activity" being referenced to show how "active humans are", and all of us holding onto our cards for dear life as the game devolves further and further into "bot mining" while being presented as something else. As long as a fanatical fraction of the player base believes there is hope, the "illusion" can be maintained for bot lords to extract the most value from this "scheme" until inevitable web2 exposure blows the lid off of what's happening behind the scenes. This can also be maintained from whales cycle buying off of each other, and doesn't require smaller fish. If everyone decided to cash out or "demand full repayment", the money isn't there to do so.
So to answer the question: Yes Splinterlands appears as a ponzi scheme to anyone who looks at all these aspects and has no sunk cost fallacy within this ecosystem. Objectively it checks all the boxes, since currently the only thing paying older investors is new investors cash and no futures have been delivered on (as of this date). All the while "we need new money to do anything" is the constant phrase repeated at nauseum in the SPL discord by mavs, the uninformed, and mods alike. So yes, it appears to an impartial viewer as a ponzi scheme. The money everyone already put in IS enough to deliver on what was promised initially, but the reality is that that money is already pissed away and now "new money" is being frantically searched for to fund delivering on already funded and promised futures (ie Land, totems etc.). This includes the new "land potions" designed to further milk the already small playerbase with their current sunk cost fallacies. All these additional batteries of items you "require to use land" that require spending or burning DEC are essentially eking out last little bits of money despite land not truly being delivered as stated at it's launch.
To top it off the team plans to have the game deal with MORE legal exposure by having the "not an investment" token listed on an exchange where things are regulated as legal investments. Not to mention they STILL call all bots "players" (lying to investors) every time the team attempts to secure VC funding at any event or function. (most recent examples below). So no, they haven't stopped with the incredibly dangerous and repeated terminology or pushing for exposure despite a magnifying glass NOT being what SPL needs right now.
Potential Retorts and SPL under lawsuit (Read Before Responding)
"He's just FUDing, why would you say any of this? Boooooooooo"
I know warnings, criticism, and wary words are always met with "It's FUD" in the crypto space. However, if I wanted to just spread "fear, confusion, and doubt" I wouldn't be addressing my concerns in this post in a constructive way nor on this platform. This is meant to prompt the team, the playerbase, and the reader to look at these glaring potential issues from the perspective of an INDEPENDENT AUDITOR OR OUTSIDE VIEWER. I'm a fan of the gameplay loop and would like the game to live on, but an auditor will pull no punches and go straight for the throat. If this article scares you, or raises some points that you find distressing. Bring them up in the Town Halls, ask the team what they are going to do to deal with the hurdles. What is the 100K spent on legal every month going towards? Where does the money go and why? Why do they keep asking for more and more money for land's release? These are fair questions to ask the team as it effects everyone.
Additionally I still think making botting TRANSPARENT could assist here, but doing so could potentially remove the mask of how many humans are playing and who owns the bots. To top it all off, it would make EVERYONE wonder "why didn't they do this from the start?" (well to manipulate the market of course). Sadly, this information could just as easily make the game collapse like a house of cards depending on what would come to light, but at this point that is the only recourse available if botting is to be a part of SPL. In any other scenario that isn't banning them Splinterlands will eventually deal with a legal battle that they are unlikely to emerge victorious from (even with 100k a month being spent on legal). I am posting this to incite discussion and raise the fact that these issues ARE STILL ISSUES, and it doesn't really matter what the current playerbase thinks (it sucks but it's true) because an auditor or regulator won't care. It's what outside eyes will think coming into this ecosystem, and most of web2 has "crypto scam" stuck in the brain from things like Bankman and Logan Paul. Imagine what someone could come up with if they did IN DEPTH investigations (perhaps someone like coffeezilla who the CEO tweeted at while pitching at Logan Paul).
and not the perspective of a fan of the game the way I and others have. If the thought of someone coming at this game with a shovel scares you, then you should let the developers know your concerns. These concerns aren't just "salt" to be brushed aside. Splinterlands is even currently being sued, it's not a good situation.
In fact Splinterlands is currently being sued by the world's only undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather, this legal battle will be against a professional and high dollar legal team (or cost SPL at least 200K to have it not go to court). Additionally Floyd feels personally slighted and attacked and is unlikely to let this lawsuit go even if it's at a loss to him if the team decides to not pay a vig to keep it out of court, he can afford it and his legal team will push whichever method of attack will be effective. The dangers I've been talking about for years are finally here, it's not a vague potential threat.
This lawsuit is coming and it will be against one of the wealthiest individuals currently in boxing, it won't putter out like the last one. This ends in court or payment. I do think Splinterlands made the mistake of FULLY EXECUTING THE AGREEMENT IN APRIL 20, 2022 so it doesn't matter if Mayweather was a part of projects that did very poorly or have bad optics the agreement was signed and executed (6.). The team should've done more research and sent their concerns about "negative publicity" (7) long before 7 days after signing a legally binding agreement as none of Mayweathers behavior constitutes a breach of contract. Additionally the team was even informed of his previous projects before the contract signing (9) and still kept trying to avoid paying him afterwards (10). The SPL team fucked up here with this one, they signed an agreement and are breaching it against someone who won't let it go and is known for not letting even petty lawsuits go. This won't go over well as the legal battle drags on and botting and other things are likely going to be used against the team in a court setting, it's either that or they have already been paid off costing the team 100s of thousands of dollars unnecessarily. The magnifying glass and shovel are coming and it won't be good. (Images pertaining to Mayweather lawsuit below)
There will be a lot of rebuttals and arguments and ground covered that was previously written here a few months ago. I recommend looking over that to understand some context for this article and why it doesn't "start from square one" and already assumes the player's knowledge over certain aspects of the game (like the MASSIVE majority of players actually being bots and not players).
Splinterlands is majority bot accounts and not human players. The person(s) involved in botting intend to keep the game this way to have it merely be a façade for mining and skirting financial regulations. Not intending for it to be a card game, just a miner that generates APR and ROI while looking like enough of a card game for folks to not dig farther. This is gutting the potential this golden goose had to be a genuine Esport for hive and draw attention to this platform. Keep in mind, I'm just kicking up dust compared to any serious investigator or auditor. So if this article makes you feel antsy or riled up, imagine if someone comes here with a shovel and is looking to dig.... Yeah, I'm concerned too.
All responses, solutions, and discussions will be added into this article as it has been with previous articles. No comments are bad this is meant to be a discussion, BUT PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE AND ALL LINKED ARTICLES BEFORE COMMENTING, YOUR QUESTIONS MIGHT ALREADY BE ADRESSED.
A Half-Assed Bot Ban to get you to shut up
Now some people mention "but they are removing bot farms from modern, that means botting is over and we won right?". WRONG. In fact this is just a gesture to get all of us to stop pushing it with as much fervor. Why ban bot farms in only ONE playmode? Why allow them at all? The answer is simple: they don't REALLY want to ban bots. They just want you to shut up about it and let the bots farm silently while you (and whatever other players) naively chase whatever their most recent sets are. If bot farming is allowed to churn endlessly in any mode it still presents the exact same problems as before for the economy and overall player progression. All this update does is hide bots from newer users that will likely play the modern format (no new user joins the "wild" mode in any card game), but still allow them to maintain relatively the same market control and impact. It's rather sneaky. Additionally, it's hard to say if bots are truly even banned in modern or whom is a bot or not. As veterans are aware a lot of the older guild networks ran exclusively bots for many of their accounts, many of those accounts seem to be performing exactly the same but when questioned about it "they're scholars I swear". At this point in time it is reasonable for the player base to not trust that this bot ban is really across the board in modern. Trust has been lost and promises have been broken to the point where expecting the playerbase to "believe" without proof is incredibly condescending. As stated previously I think SPL coming out with an open source bot library, informing incoming players about bots, or various other solutions I've mentioned ad nauseum could've done the trick. Regardless all these actions and movements are too little too late as I predicted here and here (I hate being right). They need to disclose whom is actually working on banning the bots and what they have worked on before, are they a trustworthy third party that won't succumb to being bribed etc.? there's potentially a lot of money involved here if they were to let private bots get through. Some assurances are needed (and reasonable expected) for the community.
My Position: Personally Speaking
I got into Splinterlands because I'm a TCG enthusiast and competitive player, In my browsing amongst various TCG games and upcoming projects my gaze ended up hovering over SPL. This was during the time land was still being publicly sold and the concept of "Sending cards to your friends" and "everyone being able to sell them for real world money without a third party" was somewhat foreign to me outside of very specific web2 games. Seeing I could do this, I got excited and bought some packs and lands looking to see where this would go. I wanted to use the in game items I purchased down the line to experiment in this strange new web3 space, not get rich quick.
I mostly wanted to play the game and lend/ give cards out to friend to get them to try it and experiment with this ecosystem. When I put in money it was moreso to try things out in this videogame, not to "moon my wallet" or "invest". I've always been upfront about botting and everything else I come across, along with my genuine recommendations to save the Splintership. Mostly because I value my own integrity and at a certain point remaining silent is just as bad.
It's been quite the crazy journey, with pretty little delivery on most of the promises made since the start. In fact various cards and things have happened that are completely breaking whitepaper and early promises (but that's another post). If these promises cannot be delivered without additional funding at this point I'm at somewhat of a loss, honestly. They keep just "moving value" from one in game asset to another and in turn devaluing the entire ecosystem in exchange for small ephemeral pumps on specific items. They've been robbing peter to pay paul for years at this point. They've been paid enough to deliver on the points they initially made times over, and yet it's still just excuses and no one accepting responsibility. My posts in the future will likely be to merely fill out my catalog of strategy guides and card reviews (perhaps some short lore stories), but my position on SPL overall is this "It's rather bleak overall, but....
Even if this ship is sinking I'm going to go down with it playing all the while, trying my best to have fun with it (maybe I'll have to make a drinking game: for every pushed date or broken whitepaper promise in an AMA take a shot). This doesn't mean women and children shouldn't be going for the life rafts though. I put in what I could afford to lose to play a card game with revolutionary (at the time) mechanics, I know that's not everyone's scenario here. I personally am hopeful the GAME aspects of splinterlands will be further developed and everything will be fleshed out to create a genuine Esport experience that might drive HUMANS to hive, which is better for everyone in the long term. I hope the restructuring takes into account various employees that may not be "Optically the best to have on your team" at this point, similar to why they backed out of the Mayweather contract they signed. I am hopeful but not expectant, I have personally been dissapointed on SPL's delivery on various points and even know this may be to little to late, but it's better than nothing and could be the ashes a phoenix rises from. However I wouldn't speculate or gamble on anything, perform financially responsible actions. Remember despite it being called an investment, SPL is not an investment. I hope in the future a more responsible PR, marketing, and company direction is taken.
Silver Linings: + Giveaway
I'm not one to sugar coat, things are pretty damn bleak. This lawsuit against Mayweather could use many things as ammunitions if they so choose and in the best case costs the team hundred of thousands of dollars to not go to court (which seems to be what happened). The company has been restructured and there are mentions of a lack of funding in coming months if things don't change. In fact they have essentially admitted to mismanaging funds trying to outlast the bear with artificial pumps without providing real value. I suppose we just have to hope they will straighten up and fly right, but honestly trust is rather broken at this point for most of us.
As I've mentioned previously in other articles, the part of this that is the most sad is that the CARDGAME is in fact strategic/unique and original. However, that by itself isn't enough to save Splinterlands at this point. The silver lining is that the cardplay and the cards added are actually interesting and strategic for gameplay (every set has it's place and all card abilities mesh really well), but again that can't outweigh these other glaring problems. A few solutions are mentioned in this article (mentioning bots in the tutorial, or "forking", a TRANSPARENT bot ban across all leagues), but it is unlikely any will be implemented in time. I'm not trying to motivate you to sell, buy, dance the cha-cha, or anything else. The only intent this article has is to bring these issues up, start a community discussion, and have us all thinking about the following question "What is there left to do to solve this? And how does this game look from an outside HIVE perspective?" My tone might be a bit "harsh", but these are sweet supple notes compared to someone looking at this who isn't genuinely a fan of the game the way I am. Really think about it.
Considering most of the players have been presenting these same concerns and issues for years with little progress being made, it is unlikely any solution will be reached before investigation, regulation, or something else deflates this soufflé. I told ya folks, it's pretty bleak, wish I had a hopeful windup here for the end but I sadly do not, Rebellion is coming I guess. I hope it goes well and comes with a across the board ban for wild aswell TRANSPARENTLY, or a open source bot code library, or X other solution. I hope this game becomes a stable card game capable of the long term health and enjoyment we all know it is capable of.
Someone (at random) who comments and likes this post will be delegated ANY card from my collection to help them manually climb through the ranks. The winner in the last post was @ congratulations on your any card in the previous collection delegation giveaway, please respond to claim your prize. Don't forget to follow, like if you feel like it, and most importantly comment. I appreciate you guys for sticking with this TCG player and general overall gaming enthusiast and competitive player for all this time, you guys rock. I know my opinions are not always a ray of sunshine but I am always honest. And I feel the need to be transparent with you guys, no matter what occurs or what errors I may make in my personal web 3 gaming experiments. Be careful and never put in more than what you can afford to lose playing a video game, if you have issues with gambling I recommend to not even start with these sort of projects (In fact a whole youtube video on NFT games in general is coming soon highlighting the dangers and benefits of NFTs and warning folks before trying the things I might try). I'm ok losing my money, I'm not ok with any of the rest of you losing more than your entertainment budget allows. It's why I post this stuff, it's not easy but I'm not going to sit silently by without saying something either. We're a community, and if this can be solved it can be solved together. All of you who have manually been slapping down cards, contemplating your lineups using your own cranium, and enduring all this time. You folks are brothers and sisters in arms and all of you deserve a competitive esport that genuinely highlights the prowess you each possess, none of you deserve a botlords mining facade.
This article will be subject to edits and additions over time, a lot is covered and I will be implementing community feedback and discussion on these points aswell. I do not own coffeezillas youtube video, it is just provided to add context about logan paul's crypto reputation. For the record, I still love Splinterlands and hope it survives and rises from the ashes like a phoenix and am unlikely to sell my assets (but don't live your life based on my actions, do what's financially responsible for yourself). I look forward to playing THE GAME, and what the new gameplay elements explore. Wen spells? wen land? wen etc., I hope SPL lasts long enough for me to find out.
This article is subject to edits to add community solutions, responses, rebuttals, and additional information and correct typos etc.
Stay safe out there battlemages, see you on the battlefield #play2earn #splinterlands
I'm glad this post was brought to my attention. There's a lot of stuff I've seen before here, but quite a bit of new stuff, too. I had not heard of the Mayweather situation.
I'd have to read over it half a dozen times to go through a point by point response, neither of which I'm particularly inclined to do, although I would enjoy further discussion on the topic.
The Ponzi section in particular struck a chord for me, as I've never really disputed it has a lot of qualifiers, but a point that sticks in my head is the fact that these cards have a value beyond monetary as long as the game is running, or another app that uses them is still out there.
Other than that, you hit on some very concerning points. I hope however bleak things are there's still a future here.
For context, I got here about 2 weeks before battles began. I've seen all the changes, some of which hit me like a ton of bricks, making me think I might just be finished with it, while others made up for whatever bugged me and more. I was mad as hell to find out affiliate rewards were going to stop being paid in Hive, and I wasn't thrilled when they stopped giving out DEC for SP delegations, but it wasn't a deal breaker or anything.
I used to despise bots, feeling they gave an unfair advantage to game play, without really thinking much about the economic impact. I mean, hell, it's just an experimental card game. But, then, I noticed I wasn't waiting endlessly to get matched up with an opponent anymore. Then I realized bots challenge me in ways humans had not, and inspired me to experiment with strategies I hadn't thought of before that contrast. Finally, I started using a bot service to supplement my activity when I needed to step away.
For a while, I ran a tiny bot farm of 2 accounts while playing my main, before handing it off, too, for the end of the last bull run. Not I use one only on my main account and play it incrementally... usually binging every other day or so.
I say all that to say this. I appreciate the bot service so I don't have to feel married to the game to get my dailies in, but I would like to see the game reach some kind of equilibrium that would allow me to keep my status without needing a bot to stand in for me. I guess I mean I'm not opposed to bots, so much as bot farms, and I wouldn't mind those if they didn't bring the host of problems that have been kicked around here for years.
I don't have answers. I doubt I'm even fully aware of what the real questions are, but I'm hopeful things will get sorted out. Despite its apparently numerous issues, this is still a revolutionary experiment, that I'm hopeful will have tremendous impacts down the line.
Sadly it's an issue of transparency at the very least. As you can see in what I've written I have a nuanced view about bots that has changed over the years and can understand your perspective despite never having run a bot myself. Thanks for commenting by the way! You actually have won the delegation when I ran the wheel of names, so pick your card and you can use it for a season. Congratz. Cheers mate, thanks for coming out. I truly appreciate it. !PIZZA
You have a lot of really solid points. My issue with most of them is they point out the gray areas here, and rightfully so, but without an acknowledgement that figuring all this stuff out is a key part of this particular kind of experimentation. Everything you spoke of regarding regulators digging around is VERY VALID, but at some point we do want them sniffing around and attacking us where we seem weak. That's what this entire space is designed for. My concern is whether or not we can survive such a situation or if we've just been blowing smoke this whole time.
!PIZZA
Woah, so "get some" was from where yaba met aggy.
Btw I agree with a lot of what you said... bots aren't good for the economy, it should be more transparent, the voting system was broken also by it...
Audits are good actually, they will show what are the flaws, whats not been shown, what can be improved... Even if it does not pass, should be taken.
Post went kinda long... Everything is a ponzi. Yeah, money isn't well managed... Many issues, incentives on wrong ways...
Marketing is so bad lol... I wouldn't even know how to begin, like: "oh, there is magnus carlsen or daniel negreanu to choose, ok, lets go with floyd" like, pleeeaase, at least go with correlated segments of the game and economy...
Good post.
!PIZZA
I don't know if that's where yaba met aggy, I just know that that was aggy's previous project that has since been abandoned. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Cheers !PIZZA
Yeah, I agree with almost everything you said and think that it is actually still a pretty short list of the problems plaguing the game, the economy, the team and possible legal issues.
Many more points could be added.
Unfortunately most people who have an open mind to criticism and the possibility of trying to fix what is wrong have probably sold everything and left long ago, I think the majority of the mavs and handful of regular players remaining are of the sort who will just dogmatically shoot down any criticism as unsubstantiated FUD without any interest in actually making anything better.
And even with Matt as CEO if the team really really wanted to do a 180°, I'm afraid even then after the second wave of mass-layoffs due to REPEATED & CONTINUOUS (criminally?) negligent misappropriation of funds the team now is just too small to even make anything happen and probably has their hands full with just trying to hang on by a thread and not dying completely.
The misuse of funds is a (potentially criminally) serious issue for sure. Thanks for coming by and taking the time to comment. I try to be constructive and at least present a positive outlook or things to change the game, even since my earliest posts about bots (as seen above). I just hope something changes. Cheers m8, appreciate the comment. !PIZZA
There's definitely still people that are botting and/or using battle helpers in modern. How many? I don't know, but I do know of at least a handful of people that are doing it for the sole purpose of seeing how long it takes for them to be detected, and the last I heard they weren't having any issues at all so far.
!PGM
!PIZZA
Yeah, it's hard to say what's truly going on anymore. Thanks for commenting and stopping by torran. !PIZZA
Cheers!
!BEER
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You bring up some interesting points, and being relatively new to the game (just one year in) I was previously unaware of several of them. One thing you didn't cover, though, and it concerns me even more than the possibility of Splinterlands dying - what are the odds that when regulators have their attention snagged by the SPL snafu, they wind up realizing there's this whole other thriving blockchain that they've never even heard of...and decide to regulate it out of existence?
!PIZZA
!PIMP
I did not cover that, best not to panic before panic is due as they say. But it is true, SPL's bad exposure grants exposure to HIVE in it's fledgling state. What does that mean for the ecosystem overall when the exposure is from this and not something positive? Thanks for coming by and great comment. !PIZZA !PIMP
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