I started playing Splinterlands during the first lockdown here in the UK back in March. After the initial few weeks of catching up on all the books I wanted to read and finally getting around to watching all of the Wire, I was at a loose end. Now @Mudcat36 had been telling me I needed to get in on this game for a long time but I'm pretty useless at getting around to things and Manana could be my life motto. I made the leap into the Splinterlands one day though and truly feel in love with the game.
I've always loved folklore and the cards in this game had a concept that I could truly get behind. After a slow start learning the game I quickly became truly immersed and easily found myself playing several games every hour loving the strategy elements and truly enjoyable game play. I was also earning DEC and if viewed through the lens of game of chance where I could not make a loss, it scratched an itch that I have always had and stopped me wasting my furlough pay playing online poker and roulette.
I logged into the Splinterlands Discord and everyone was so friendly. I asked a couple of newbie questions and people both gave and loaned me cards which really expanded my game play. I realised there were tactics to this game but also a healthy amount of luck. Completing my daily quest became the true highlight of my day and I was exceedingly lucky. From my daily rewards I started to level up and in my time of playing I was fortunate enough to be awarded a Gold foil kraken and on another evening I got a Yoden Zaku.
I never really put any of my own cash into the game bar the initial buy in but could easily see why people were dropping large sums of cash to improve their decks and abilities. It was not a necessity to buy my way in though and through a slow crawl and a good dose of luck I managed to pretty consistently get up to the diamond league and on a couple of occasions I even got into the champions league which was an achievement I relished.
Now as the game began to change I understood that the creators of this game of course considered it a labour of love but also a business. They have put out a product and I would never begrudge a person making a dollar where they can. The rewards system was very generous and I can see why it needed adjusting. The new league system made sense to me and I awaited its implementation eagerly.
I would start in bronze like many others and would be capped at Silver II with my power of 50,910. This seemed ok at first glance, I could stay in the lower leagues and face similar level players and compete fairly for a spot in the top 100. It was initially annoying to realise that I wouldn't be up in the diamond or gold leagues for a long time unless I put some more 'skin in the game' as it says on the Splinterlands website but who am I to begrudge them making a profit? I would be playing in a league of my peers and I looked forward to the challenges that this type of competition always brings.
Then I came to realise that what looks good in writing does not always work out when implemented. Being back at work and out of lock down I initially looked forward to getting in from my shift and completing my daily quest. It soon became clear though that with this method of playing I was not going anywhere. If I played between five to ten games each night I could not compete with other players who appeared to be playing the game almost constantly. This was annoying but to my mind could not be helped, some people work from home or were able to access the game on their phones I reasoned and I'd just need to really hit the game hard on my days off.
Then I started to read peoples posts and conversations on Discord and one concept kept being debated and that topic was BOTS. Now truthfully I'm a bit of a luddite, and the thought of making a programme to play a game made no sense to me. Then after a conversation with @Mudcat36 (who I used to share a beer with and play Splinterlands over skype whilst we were all under housearrest lockdown). I now saw that the odds were truly stacked against players like myself. The leader boards were swamped with these virtual players as they played almost continual games. I wonder with all Splinterlands advancements if they have not hit a Catch 22 in regards to player numbers? If all of the BOTS were removed would this game still be as popular?
I used to relish the challenge of playing against an opponent wherever they are in the world, win or loose it was enjoyable. I guess playing against a computer isn't too bad but when the shear volume of BOT players takes away from all of the joy that initially came with the game it looses a large chunk of its appeal. Not because I'm not winning anything but because I never had a chance. If I was shooting craps and the other player had loaded dice, my anger would not be because I lost but because they cheated. Playing with BOTS is in my mind the equivalent of a player using loaded dice and cannot be seen as anything but base manipulation or rather down right cheating. I am from a nation which has lost much of its identity and place in this world but we do still respect sportsmanship, fair play and concepts such as queuing are ingrained in us.
Now I know that the daily rewards had to be reduced and I can understand that getting my 80 plus reward chests each season is not viable for the games creators. This rant is not that the prizes have been reduced; it is that now I have two options and neither sits well with me. I can put a large amount of my own cash into the game to keep playing it and get up to the higher leagues or I can stay in the lower leagues and simply compete against BOTS playing other BOTS.
I have never been a big video game player but If I am going to drop real money on a game online it would either need to have great rewards or truly immersive game play. A lot of my colleges classify themselves as 'gamers' and from chatting with them most simply told me to find a new game or wait for this one to fix itself, hell one even offered me his old Nintendo if I wanted to play games as he stated it is from 'back in your day' and to tell the truth the first game I ever truly loved was Asterix and Obelix.
But I digress and this rant has simply been me venting. I used to thoroughly enjoyed playing Splinterlands and still believe it is a great concept but changes need to be made as it is no longer fun. As the game grows I understand it needs to become more streamlined and made into a more lucrative business model but at the moment these adjustments have simply made playing the game and advancing nonviable for lower level players such as myself whilst simultaneously stripping all joy from simply playing the game. I do not want anything for free nor do i expect it; but with the odds stacked so much in favour of the BOTs unless I was able to play the game solidly for a minimum of eight hours daily I'll always be stuck in the doldrums.
I do not know what the answer is but surely a simply Captcha or numerical question before each match could solve the BOT dilemma. Hell why not ask a question about cryptids or folklore, no BOT would know the favourite food of a Wood Booger?
If by some slim chance one of the Splinterlands team read this, please get rid of the BOTs now and take the hit to your official player number and whatever else they effect. The players are the true lifeblood of your creation and its starting slow but many of us are jumping ship. I wish no ill will on the game and hopefully things sort themselves out but I will be boycotting the game for the foreseeable future . So to conclude, I am not naïve enough to think that this post will make a blind bit of difference to what is occurring but posting this rant it is the only route open to me bar abandoning all hope and selling my cards. Put simply the game is no longer fun to play, it has become a chore completing my daily quest and for this reason alone I have decided to stop playing.
Image Credits
1 - https://perpheads.com/threads/jacobs-unlucky-day.24599/
2 - Own Image from my mobile.
3 - https://www.jeuxmangas.com/IMG/png/Ast%C3%A9rix_(snes)-22014.png
4- https://media.giphy.com
5 - http://unrealitymag.com/video-games/could-hardcore-players-kill-gaming/