Why was Splinterlands so successful in 2021? Because the concept was simple and easy to understand.
Get cards. Play the game. Earn new cards by playing.
And there was always the excitement of RNG—you could pull an extremely rare card that might be worth $100, $500, or even more.
Why not return to that formula?
We don't need entries, scrolls, land, potions, and a dozen other systems. They only make the game more confusing, especially for new players. Simplicity is a strength. The easier it is to understand, the easier it is for people to join—and stay.
And honestly, stop worrying so much about the OGs. I'm one myself. Back in 2021, my deck was worth around a quarter of a million dollars, and I'm still holding today.
I've always believed that too much attention has been paid to protecting long-time players. Yes, some level of protection is important, but the future of Splinterlands depends on attracting, exciting, and retaining new players.
Without a steady flow of new players, there is no long-term future—no matter how well the veterans are treated.
yes, you're right. Simple is the key of success back to 2021. We don't need so many card sets, format, tokens.
we just need a game that's fun, simple to understand, can play during the free time (on the bus, ... ) and can earn some $ from it.
I still remember the excitement when I pulled out Ossanuss Djinn worth $50 in ghe old day.
It wasn't only simple, the team knew to open up market incentives. Short and dirty I can only repeat what I stress all the years: Let people organize their own leagues, their own tournaments in ways that focus tools organizing for different rule sets or card sets. When there's a league for Alpha, those cards will drive value, like any other niche.
Develop complex tools simple enough to be adopted and not more and more simple rules adding complexity.
!invest_vote
There is an argument that the value extraction out of the network is bad for long term success. Play a game for free, get a rare card, sell for $500 and pull that valuation out of Splinterlands. It's like liquidity leaking out of a ship.
I understand your point however, don't get me wrong. Playing to earn cards to play more was the core mechanic which brought a lot of players. I think Foundations is done well, super duper cheap cards which you can still start to build a baseline collection with.
So let me tell you why the 'simple' model failed
In order to prevent those exploits, we had to add complexity to the game so that the simple exploits can be prevented. So either you change simple humans or change the simplicity of the game. We couldn't do the first, so we did the second.