We're at a make or break point in Splinterlands!
I think we can all agree, that the situation in Splinterlands looks quite dire at the moment. Card prices are dumping in an absolutely unprecedented manner, and long time players are exiting the game. The most important thing in Splinterlands right now: we need to figure out a way to retain the value of older cards!
The only solution I see: We need a human only wild format to be THE place, that players want to compete in. A kind of FIFA World Cup or NFL Super Bowl, but in the SPL realm.
Proposed new league structure:
Wild (bots allowed) = make the rewards the lowest here, since no one is spending their precious real life time to play the game. Automation should still be an option for when someone doesn't have time to actively play (e.g. vacation, IRL duties, etc.), so they are still able to earn a bit with their assets. And bot farmers still have a home to passively generate income. But this league needs to have considerably lower payouts, than the human leagues. Also remove any Glint earnings from Wild (bot) completely, so that you have to invest your actual time to earn the newest reward cards from the shop. Wild players running bot automation should be forced to buy older reward cards off the secondary market, while not being able to earn the newest soulbound set at all. This forces them to put some skin in the game, rather than relying heavily on the current free soulbound cards to carry them.
Modern (human only) = the rewards here should already be worthwhile, so new players are actually enticed to enter the game and buy the newest set of cards...all while not getting whooped on by players with wild decks, that a new player most likely won't be able to afford. However, the OGs of the game should NOT be playing in modern! It simply shouldn't be worth their time.
New human-only wild league, named "Legends" league = this league offers the most lucrative rewards, and should be THE place, where the greatest battle mages meet to kick each other's asses. :) All the legends of our community should be competing against each other here. And all newbies should fear even attempting to enter the Legends League, before significantly upgrading their decks.
Possibly break the total 1,800,000 SPS reward pool down as follows:
Wild league (bot) = 100,000 SPS
Modern league (human) = 400,000 SPS
Legends league (human) = 1,300,000 SPS
I realize that creating a third league, will consequently increase the player liquidity issues we're already facing. However, Archmage, xBot and other bot services, are already fervently at work to create player liquidity bots (armed with max level ghost cards) that should help bridge this gap. This will let us scale player liquidity as needed, until real players start entering the game again.
With all these changes, older cards will become a thing of actual value again. This is the absolute most important value prospect in all of Splinterlands! At the current rate, the decline of older card values will ultimately mean the death of the game we all love.
How can you expect any player or investor to invest in cards, knowing that when the next set is released, the value of cards they'd previously bought will tank. Especially since the value proposition for us entering the game in 2021 and earlier, was that cards will increase in value, as more of those cards are burned. The changes and developments in the game since then, have sadly taken us too far away from that promise.
Ultimately, Land has not proven to be the solution we need for older cards in it's current iteration, and Matt and the team have to at least acknowledge this, and find another way of achieving that aim. It will take a long time to roll out Land as envisioned, and we need a more immediate solution now. All OGs, and player-whales, NEED to move into an extremely rewarding human-only wild league.
But how do we truly solve the problem of illegal bots still competing in the human-only leagues? They're impossible to ban from the game, right?
How to battle bots
I've always championed the idea of creating a kind of pre-battle captcha game, that only human logic can solve, and that qualifies you for human-only battles. But let's take this mandatory "human test" segment of a battle, and make it something that's actually fun! Game-fy it, make it enjoyable to solve some kind of a problem in a gaming format. You're proving you're human, while having fun doing it (unlike conventional captchas that are boring and annoying af).
And the cherry on top: you can earn special limited edition skins by random chance (only available in the mini-games, and only once skins have been introduced to the game), as well as some Glint, when solving these games before a battle (maybe even adding other possible rewards like soulbound titles, soulbound reward cards, etc.). That way it's extra rewarding for human players to engage with the mini-games!
And fill these segments of the battles with lore from the game, embodying that distinct Splinterlands feel, with beautiful ambient music and sounds to immerse you. These pre-battle mini-games shouldn't feel like a chore, but be something the players look forward to.
Splinterlands could present different themed pre-battle mini-games, so it doesn't get too repetitive:
Mini-Game idea 1
You have to hire mercenary soldiers for your "army", from a lineup of all the possible Splinterlands races, and drag them with your mouse (or finger on mobile) into a designated area on the screen. Which race you'll have to pick is randomly generated, as well as how many of the soldiers of that specific race have to be chosen, and what color their clothes need to be. The location they need to be dragged to, will be randomly generated as well. On the screen, you'll see an assortment of Venari, Goblins, Orcs, Elves, Fairies, Minotaurs, Vampires, Centaurs, Merfolk, etc. Any random group of 20 soldiers of differing Splinterlands races, wearing different clothing colors (for instance, some Venari have green and some red clothes). One time you'll have to pick 4 Orcs wearing red clothes; another time you'll need 8 Minotaurs with yellow clothes.
Mini-Game idea 2
You have to help Archmage Arius create a magic potion for battle, by dragging them into a magic cauldron. On screen you'll have a selection of 20 variously colored magical liquids, in differently shaped flasks. One iteration of this Mini-Game, you'll be asked to put 5 square shaped flasks with green liquid in the cauldron. Another iteration you'll need 3 circular shaped purple flasks for the cauldron, etc. And just like the previous mini-game, the location of the cauldron on the screen will randomly change.
Mini-Game idea 3
You have to help a blacksmith prepare weapons and armor for battle, and then drag them into a Battle Wagon (the location of which on the screen, again always changes randomly each game). You'll have a random selection of 20 different colored items to choose from: possible will be swords, spears, bows, arrows, maces, axes, shields, chainmail, breastplates, helmets, or magic staffs. You'll have two blacksmith tools to interact with: an anvil or a sharpening stone. Sometimes you'll be asked to sharpen 2 red swords on the sharpening stone, or mend 5 blue helmets on the anvil.
As you can see, the general idea of the mini-games is the same: have a random assortment of objects, in differing colors, that need to be dragged to a randomly generated location on the screen. But we're keeping it fresh with different themes and problems to solve. This kind of situational reasoning, using randomly generated context, as well as needing to identify where to drag the required object, should make it increasingly hard for bots to pass as human.
I would recommend starting with 3 mini-games in the beginning, and adding new ones to the pool in the future, to keep things from getting stale.
By the time the actual battle starts, you'll already have had a bit of fun playing one of the mini-games, while also earning some extra rewards. And what's more ingenious...you can bridge long player liquidity waiting times, without boring players during the wait, and possibly preventing a liquidity-bot from filling the open slot (human vs human should always be our goal).
Conversely, this proposal will make the recently introduced Wild Pass (and the according doubling of SPS stake requirements) redundant, as both approaches attempt to combat the same problem. They should therefore be reverted, should this proposal pass.