RE: WARNING! The Precarious Future of Splinterlands: Splintermarket Fall, Splinterbots, Flawed Pack Release, New Legendaries (and cards in general), Voting Discrimination, Open Source botting? SPLINTERLANDS NEEDS YOUR HELP

I think the bot issue is something that should be tackled, but I don't feel the dooms-day scenario, that article is trying to give off. The author's most likely feeling the shock of the entire global market crashing, and is trying to let it out on SL and spread FOMO...or he's simply promoting for God's Unchained, since he does have a segway where he goes on about that game for a bit. #possiblepromo

In either way, the article does have some interesting points that are worth delving into:

1. I actually think the idea of adding a simple captcha is so minuscule a change, however, incredibly effective at deterring the bot accounts and throttling them in a controlled manner. I really liked one of my guild member's idea, about not making the captcha before every battle, but rather every 5 battles or so. This would also grant the devs the ability to crank up the throttle on bots even more, if in the future, there was need for this. They could increase the rate maybe to every 4 battles a captcha. Or if things ever became too rampant, even bring it up to every 1 or every single battle. And I do feel the DEC rewards would become more meaningful than they currently are for real players, if the bots became more manageable. Because if this game wants to be sustainable and keep it's fans for a long time...or even forever, then there must always be more humans than bots in the game...at least once we've reached a solid number of real players. Until then, the bots do offer faster queue times, and aren't all doom and gloom.

2. The mobile version of the game definitely has to evolve, and preferably become the more enjoyable format to play. All the features of the desktop version have to be integrated and offer a sleek mobile optimized interface, without sacrificing anything (there's actually no need for this, as an app can be setup to interface with anything, with the proper coding, even a blockchain). So the remark that CL packs weren't available in the mobile version is a legitimate point of critique, though I would counter that all people that wanted to buy packs badly enough, found a way to access a desktop to buy them. But access to packs (and all full features) within the mobile version would be a welcome change, especially since I prefer playing something like Splinterlands on mobile. At the moment, it only serves doing the daily quest and grind though, since all other aspects of SL, I need to jump on the desktop for.

But all the criticism of the pack release and so forth is a litte too much for me. I think the release, pack numbers, etc. worked out great so far. The cheap legendaries and epics are a welcome sight in my opinion. :slight_smile:

But why does the author cite for us to go to feedback.splinterlands.com and create a proposal, rather than creating his own, that the readers can go upvote (if they agree with his sentiments). Seems a bit counterproductive to me. :thinking:

All in all, this article does not give the Splinterlands devs team the respect, they no doubt have earned from their player base, for being always transparent and open, as well as keeping the community involved, and part of the development process. Their company policy is outstanding in my opinion, and some of the really big gaming studios could learn from this process, of involving the player-base in developing their games for the better . cough EA Sports FIFA cough

This article is thought provoking though, I'll definitely give it that. It addresses a prevalent problem in the game, that should be dealt with in one way or another in the future.