I can imagine how many people from those multitudes that signed up for Splinterlands over the last few months are facing some disappointing realization these days: Splinterlands just ain't what it used to be any more! As someone who has been using (though not necessarily playing) this game for over three years, I can only say: It sure isn't. For most of its existence it didn't even bring nearly as much return! In other words, if you have gotten used to the continuous outpouring of wealth and riches in its various forms, which have gone back considerably in the last weeks, my advice is to just hang in there. What you have seen was the exceptional. Now that things are returning to normal, you may as well enjoy the game.
SPS and DEC Prices Down in the Gutter
What am I talking about specifically? First and foremost, it's the daily(!) airdrop going on for a year(!) that will obviously drag prices down. I know, previously even the concept of such an extended airdrop was outrageous to imagine. The token distributed for holding any Splinterlands assets, such as cards, unopened packs, DEC holdings, Land plots, etc. is called Splintershards (SPS). Around three months ago, just before the start of the Chaos Legion pre-sale, I had about 2k SPS, worth close to $2,000. Today my 2.5k SPS are barely worth $500. Shocking for sure, though I don't know what else to expect if you keep sending out daily SPS to every holder of game assets. For this reason, I don't see this trend is going to change anytime soon.
The other in-game token that is affected in a similar way, is the Dark Energy Crystal (DEC). Even though this one is not handed out in the same way as SPS, the tendency it follows is almost the same. This shouldn't come as a surprise either, as both tokens are related, since they are ultimately used in tandem in the game. Unlike SPS, DEC can be used to buy cards, potions, and other in-game assets, and smart traders will switch from one to the other. In light of this I feel particularly happy about my decision to spend about $750 worth of SPS and DEC to buy myself a plot of land three weeks ago. Though the land price has not changed much since then, the tokens I sold to buy it have both gone down in value. The fact that I expect land to grow in value and utility later on, is just my own speculation.
Vouchers to Chaos Legion Packs: In-Game or from the Free Market?
Another unfavorable development is how the price relation of Vouchers and Chaos Legion packs has reversed. When the pre-sale started, I could trade one Voucher for one Chaos Legion pack, with an additional $4 fee. Or, I could sell my Voucher on LeoDEX, and for the price of it buy myself two Chaos Legion packs. Once again, a typical those were the days phenomenon, especially since right now I'd need to sell two Vouchers to be able to buy one Chaos Legion pack. Or I could make up the difference with some HIVE, which at its current price would mean paying about $5 for a pack. So I'm still better off getting my new Chaos Legions within the game, even if I have to pay $4 in Credits, which I buy with DEC. On the upside, buying packs in the game increases my chances for a character airdrop, though at only 17 packs purchased in the game, I consider my chances rather negligible.
Renting Cards for Peanuts
I know, the sheer number of different game tokens in Splinterlands may be overwhelming, but "peanuts" sure is not one of them. What I mean here is that renting out cards has become so cheap that I could easily claim it's not worth it any more. But is that really so? Again, I remember renting out my mid-level Beta cards for the last two years, without much return. Most of them remained not rented, and the few who were, literally brought me a couple of cents in a week. All that changed around September, and suddenly all of my 88 cards were rented out successfully, bringing in at least 1,000 DEC every day. As the rental market got more competitive, this was soon adjusted to around 1k/day, then gradually to just under 1k/day, until it reached the present at least 500 DEC a day.
When we could finally open our recently acquired Chaos Legion packs, I thought they would add nicely to the already affected rental market. However, it turns out that these new cards don't fetch very high prices. In fact, I saw absolutely no point in competing with others offering the same cards for the minimal fee of 0.1 DEC a day. Instead, I might as well use them otherwise, which means getting back into fighting battles with them.
The Challenges of Daily Quests
Okay, maybe it's just me, who's been out of the game for so long, but I remembered these battles to be less difficult. Granted, I'm playing with level one cards, still I found it amazing how hard it was to rise through the Bronze leagues. Eventually, when I made it into Bronze II on the last day of the season, with only one battle left to finish my daily quest, I decided against it, fearing that I would lose and end up back in Bronze III.
Compared to this, when I was using my equally undeveloped beta cards, I remember rising through the leagues fairly easily until I reached Gold. That's where the real competition began, but since I was rewarded for each won battle with Reward cards, which I'd sell in order to buy more Betas, I could level up fairly quickly. These days the rewards tend to be potions, or DEC, which is nice and all, but nowhere as enticing as it used to be. But who can complain with so many other niceties being airdropped every day?
In once again, this post is not to complain about how "Splinterlands don't pay any more". Instead, I wanted to put things into perspective for those who may be lacking it. In any case, I am still just as excited about the game, and remain confident that the new developments will have lots of great turns in store for us. So my advice is: hang in there, have fun with it, and don't fret about diminishing returns. It's all just a game after all...