Well, here we are. It's the final day of the current Splinterlands season, the game is offline, and I'm still sitting here grinning. How? Why? Let me explain.
I'm gonna start at the beginning and move quickly. I love trading cards games. I played Magic the Gathering for the first time on a sidewalk at recess, traveled the North East of the United States to play in Android Netrunner tournaments, and absolutely hate Hearthstone. This is to say I've been playing TCGs my whole life and am not a fan of the titles currently dominating the market.
Years ago, when I was starting my first job in cryptocurrency, I would often use the analogy of trading cards to explain NFTs. It's all there. Many of the same item, varying quality and rarity for 'like' items, and the utility of use example. I always knew NFTs were going to change how TCGs were played. Gods Unchained was making money hand over fist with promises way back then but I didn't get involved.
Four months ago I discovered Splinterlands and, over the course of the next month, I moved roughly $700 into the game. The majority of this went to buying other folks collections at ~80% market value. I focused mostly on collections with a large number of goldfoils. The rest of that money went to purchasing specific cards, mostly legendry's and summoners. A month later I dropped all my spending money for two weeks on a level 4 Kron. Roughly, $300 at the time. I felt like an idiot for spending so much on a virtual object. I was also sure.
My Splinterlands collection is currently valued at $24,000.
That level 4 Kron? Somewhere between $2000-2500.
This shit is fucking nuts. Also, it's not going to stop anytime soon.
I don't really wanna be focusing on value here, I'd really like to be talking about how fun Splinterlands is, because it really really is. It has a lot of unique and novel rules and cards that make it one of my favorite TCGs I've ever played. People don't really care about that though. People care about making money, and I've made a ass-ton of money on Splinterlands . Want the specifics about what makes this a really special game? Read literally any of my other articles on this amazing game.
As soon as I tried Splinterlands I knew that it had that special something that other games who have tried this type of project have not. As I watched the project for a few weeks I saw it immediately delivering. This sold me on the whole experience and, Im so glad it did.
Buying in when I did means I bought in before the rental market, the SPS announcement boom, hell ... I was in before people were even talking about LAND. As I've watched this game grow and develop I've found an interesting variety of ways to earn value on top of the constant growth my collections value has grown week after week.
Play tournaments. Write about the game. Buy and sell cards. Complete daily quests. Play each season. Guilds. There is just so much opportunity. So, when I tell you this is just the beginning, I think you should give me the time of day.
Why do I know the future is bright for Splinterlands? The game is down.
More than that though, lets go take a look at what messages were shared from the team today on their official Discord:
There are two very simple lessons to learn here.
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The Splinterlands team is working hard to resolve the ussies the recent explosive growth have caused. And they are taking the time to communicate directly about what they are doing. Cool.
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"we are set to double the number of spellbook owning players in the next 20 days"
Consider that. I've heard a lot of people talking about the Splinterlands card drought and how the card prices cant keep going up like this much longer. Tell me: Does that kind of naysaying hold water in a world where the player base for this game is doubling every three weeks?
Splinterlands is strong and everything we are seeing today is evidence of that. Why have I not old my cards to 'lock in profit'? Because I realize Splinterlands has the potential to make Magic the Gathering look it's prologue chapter.
Friends, Guildmates, brawlers ... We ain't seen nothing yet.
Want to be there with me for the whole wild ride? Join us over at the The Crypto-Gaming Guild discord. We are looking for game captains and folks who can help organize. If you are interested, please step up.
The games we are currently focusing on are:
Rising Star
Splinterlands
UpLand
Neon District
Alien Worlds
Lost Relics
eXode
