Two years ago, I chanced upon Splinterlands while reading up about play-to-earn crypto games. I signed up on 25 Sep 2021 and found the game interesting during the tutorial, so I purchased the spellbook the next day on 26 Sep 2021. At that time, such crypto games were a relatively new concept to me but I thought why not give it a shot and explore this space, hopefully learn some new stuff as well.
Screenshot from my email on 26 Sep 2021
Recap From One Year Ago in 2022
I wrote my "One Year Review" of Splinterlands here.
Back then, I wrote how I managed to accumulate USD 318.05 of Splinterlands assets from playing everyday (yes, everyday!) and I illustrated the breakdown with this pie chart as well.
I included this table back then as well!
| Item | Amount | Price in USD | Value in USD | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokens | ||||
| SPS | 1,438 | 0.067 | 96.35 | 30.3% |
| DEC | 48,057 | 0.0007068 | 33.97 | 10.7% |
| VOUCHER | 9.633 | 0.425 | 4.09 | 1.3% |
| Packs | ||||
| CHAOS | 30 | 2.05 | 61.50 | 19.3% |
| RIFT | 2 | 3.58 | 7.16 | 2.3% |
| Cards | ||||
| Non-Gladius | 1,055 (1,190 BCX) | 113.00 | 35.5% | |
| Gladius | 46 (70 BCX) | 1.99 | 0.6% | |
| Total | 318.05 | 100% |
And finally, I concluded back then that Splinterlands was more a game than a play-to-earn because it wasn't realistic to expect the earning rates to replace a full time job.
So back to the question in my title, is Splinterlands really play-to-earn? While it's a "Yes" because one does earn something from it, but I think one also has to be realistic to recognise that with such earning rates, this can't possibly replace a full time job, at least based on my experience. So for me, I think it's more of a game to have fun and play with friends, and the earnings are more of a bonus and it's best not to have high expectations (e.g. striking of a windfall).
Here We Are In 2023!!!
How time flies! Over 14k battles under my belt with a 57% win rate (8,358 wins out of 14,754 battles)! All played by myself!
And I have been with Splinterlands, not just the game, but also with the community as well, for 2 years! Unlike the first year which was relatively uneventful and smooth sailing, I must say that the second year was filled with ups and downs. So here's some of the notable thoughts and comments!
One, I actually lost interest in the game a couple of times during the year. And I am frank enough to admit that. There was a period where there were many changes to the game, many proposals to change the gameplay, and I felt that the changes were skewed to benefitting the whales and it was really hard to find motivation.
Two, real life got busy too. It's not entirely Splnterlands' fault that I stopped or reduced my battles as I had a lot of going on in my real life in the past year. And naturally, gaming just took a backseat.
Three, I traded some SPS and DEC tokens into USD and Hive. Combining both above points, I looked at the downtrend of the price of SPS, and thought perhaps I should sell down some of my Splinterlands assets.
- For cards, I decided to keep them since I still need them to play occasionally.
- For DEC, I thought their value was more stable because of the "very soft" peg but I converted some of them into Hive when one of them becomes too cheap, i.e. I trade these tokens on the exchange.
- For SPS, the price kept declining and I didn't feel optimistic that the price will go up anytime soon. So at one point, I sold down my SPS and cashed out. Looking back, the decision to sell down SPS seemed right for now, considering the average price of SPS which I sold was 0.039 USD (my first tranche was 0.057 USD, by the time I reached my last tranche due to time required for unstaking it was 0.025 USD), versus the price of 0.015 USD now. If I had held on, the value in USD would be around 60% lower. In any case, I have resumed accumulating SPS since it doesn't make any sense to sell any tokens at the current prices.
Four, @itzninjafool and his SBT project helped me immensely. He probably doesn't know this, but the SBT project has helped me greatly outside of the Splinterlands game itself. Be it in expanding my knowledge in trading cards, or just winning cards from raffles. It was a case of right place, right time, and I was one of the earlier members. I wrote about the SBT project almost every month and currently hold more than 1mil SBT tokens. Though @itzninjafool hasn't been around lately, I still appreciate his help and generosity!
Five, I had a lot of fun playing brawls with Pizza 2! Regardless of how they change the gameplay and rewards, nothing can take away the fun of guild brawls! It's always enjoyable to play alongside strangers who have since turned into friends as we battle the brawls week in week out, celebrate one another's achievements and console one another's bad luck in chest rewards. Having these friends made playing Splinterlands a million times more enjoyable than going through the daily focus rewards for sure!
Finally, I just chill a lot these days. In the first year, I was more focused on outcomes, in the sense that I would calculate probabilities, compare chest rewards across leagues, time my battles to maximise battle rewards and monitor my card rentals to maximise the rental income - you get what I mean. Now, I have decided to really, really, really, enjoy Splinterlands as a game and just let most of the stuff auto-pilot. On days when I am free, I do some fights, and on days when I am tired, I just not log in. I just let my card rentals run on their own for most of the time, as it's just not worth the time to maximise card rental incomes at the moment given the low rental rates and my small card collection. In short, I just have fun. Hahaha!
Now to the "boring" part of the post, amidst all that has happened in the past year, did I grow my USD 318.05 worth of Splinterlands assets or have they shrunk due to the depressed prices now?
This pie chart shows the breakdown of the assets that I have accumulated over 2 years. Currently, more than 70% of my Splinterlands assets are actually cards. If you prefer to look at the individual amounts, there's the table below as well.
| Item | Amount | Price in USD | Value in USD | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokens | ||||
| SPS | 1,121 | 0.015 | 16.82 | 4.8% |
| DEC | 6,667 | 0.0007323 | 4.88 | 1.4% |
| VOUCHER | 18.621 | 0.025 | 0.47 | 0.1% |
| HIVE | 32 | 0.29 | 9.28 | 2.6% |
| Packs | ||||
| CHAOS | 59 | 1.10 | 64.90 | 18.4% |
| RIFT | 1 | 2.96 | 2.96 | 0.8% |
| Cards | ||||
| Non-Soulbound | 1,723 (2,041 BCX) | 246.69 | 69.9% | |
| Gladius | 103 (210 BCX) | 6.92 | 2.0% | |
| Reward | 588 (720 BCX) | 0 | 0% | |
| Total (excl Divestments) | 352.91 | 100% | ||
| Divestments | 82.58 | |||
| Total (incl Divestments) | 435.49 |
In summary, based on the values of the tokens, packs and cards at the time of writing, I currently hold USD 352.91 of Splinterlands assets. Including the divestments (see my writing above), that's a grand total of USD 435.49.
Despite the price declines, and my lower activity, somehow, I managed to increase the number from one year ago.
So now if you ask me, is Splinterlands really play-to-earn?
My answer would be it's not really relevant because I am seeing Splinterlands as a game, a place to have fun with the friendships that I have built over the past 2 years. I might not agree with every change that the Splinterlands team has implemented over the course in the past year, but that's fine, I will just chill and continue to play it for as long as I want!
So here's wishing Splinterlands an awesome year ahead, and to everyone who is reading this LOOOOONG post and has crossed paths with me within the game, thanks so much for being part of my Splinterlands journey!
If you are interested to sign up to play Splinterlands, my referral link is here.