Soulkeep Rewards - an open letter to the Splinterlands Team and Community
Good morning everyone,
CaptainDingus here with a rather important post about the "Soulkeep Reward Situation". I encourage you to read this but there is a Tl;Dr for you.
This is going to be a summary of the critical information you NEED to know, before you vote on both the Poll and the probable upcoming Proposal.
You can see the Community Poll here:
You can read my lengthy reply here:
https://peakd.com/@captaindingus/re-clayboyn-sleciw
Soulkeep was a game that was supposed to be developed in conjunction with Splinterlands
The original plan was to use in game assets to stake and then use to power up Towers, etc... This would act as a "CP Sink", driving up card demand and soaking up BCX from largely unused cards
The game was also supposed to act as a "DEC Sink" to help start the flywheel and get DEC to Peg, help keep it there
That's what it was supposed to be. We, the community, were told all these things... the presale happened... Soulkeep "Nightmare" Packs were given SPS Rewards for those holding them...
Remember all that? Remember how we were told Soulkeep & Splinterlands were supposed to work together and be synergistic with each other? Remember how we were promised that Soulkeep was a "good thing" and we should invest our $$$ into Soulkeep Packs because of an upcoming game.
Remember how we were told this game would have SPS Rewards - THESE REWARDS WERE ALREADY SET ASIDE FOR THE GAME.
Soulkeep was pretty much ABANDONED after sloppy pre-sales and #BearMarketThings...
We, the community, sat on our now questionably worthless packs - some of us bought thousands of them... (not me, I am too poor for that)...
Eventually... Angel of Light came along and hit Soulkeep with Resurrect. Double Coconut was brought on board and began working on finalizing the game
There was a TON of Splinterlands marketing done to hype up this launch, after much waiting... EVERYONE was told about the opportunities to PLAY and EARN via Soulkeep... EVERY. ONE. OF. US.
Soulkeep emerged into the world in late June of 2024 and it was, like many children... an ugly baby.
Soulkeep was most certainly not a "finished" project by any means when it was released (I still think there's much work to be done)...
On day 3, I joined the ranks along with a handful of other players to see what all this was about...
I wasn't sure about the game and when I tried it, I was a little surprised at how much I ENJOYED playing it... RNG wasn't as much of a bitch compared to Splinterlands and I like Tower Defense games since I am older and have played them since the early days
I decided that if Soulkeep was going to be a thing... I was going to be good at it... REALLY good at it. So I, like others, started buying packs/cards/heroes and started learning the ins/outs of this REALLY glitchy game... THIS IS LARGELY IN PART BECAUSE WE WERE ALLOCATED REWARDS BY SPLINTERLANDS SO IT MADE SENSE TO SPEND $$$ ON IT...
In the Discord, I became increasingly active and then began writing articles on Peak'd, like this one: https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@captaindingus/soulkeep-a-shift-in-the-balance-of-power-rise-of-the-voodoo-tower
I communicated with Arhov, the DC Rep who oversees Discord communication and helped suggest certain things due to how they were negatively affecting the Game and Community
Since then - I have been relatively active in the community, on Peak'd, published some YouTube content to help players with tough maps, etc, etc...
At first "Multi Accounting" was prohibited. This is in part due to how Soulkeep is currently played.
There is no "Play" mode. You get ONE single Free Pass into the "Tournament" that day... after that, you pay an exponentially increasing amount to play more... and this amount increases each League.
In addition to this, each card has "Energy" which means it can only be used X amount of times per day. If a card has 4 Energy, with a 6h regen, that means you can play 4 times, then have to wait 6h for a 5th... 12h for the 6th etc...
Naturally, like in ANY situation... a few people saw an opportunity... and took it... First was "Alexandrp54321", "Tanyboi", "Megabloop", "ThomasWrocks" and a few others - including myself... We saw the higher leagues would have higher rewards... so what did we do??? WE PAID TO PLAY. WE PAID OUT THE ASS FOR EXTRA DEC, CARDS, RENTALS, ETC... Especially "Alexandrp54321"... He was always one League ahead and MAN... did he earn a TON of Rewards... BECAUSE HE SAW THE OPP AND TOOK IT... but MAN... people sure did bitch about this and his response was "I played ELEVEN attempts each day... how many did you play" - that's a very fair statement.
People were frustrated about the League disparity but then... the Multi-Accounters arrived... Word spread about the Rewards and a few more players joined... with a LOT of accounts... Interestingly... the "Multi Account" section of the WP disappeared and the chats in Discord... 🤔
Glitches & Bugs - there were lots of Glitches and Bugs during launch and there still are... however... one critical Glitch popped up that Splinterlands knew COULDN'T BE ALLOWED or 1-2 players could leech a LOT OF REWARDS for very little invested...
Remember how I said each card has "Energy"... For awhile, it was found that if you delegated a card... the recipient would receive the card with FULL ENERGY... even if you had used it to ZERO...
With that knowledge... the trouble began and when discovered by myself and a few others... The shit hit the fan in the Discord... players were enraged because it was discovered several people were multi-accounting and using this glitch to get multiple "Free Attempts" to perfect the map that day... then they paid VERY LITTLE in Entry Fees for Second Attempts+... and would consistently take the top 3-5 spots, edging out the other players.
When confronted with this, there was a lot of contempt on both sides but eventually DC "fixed" that issue... but inadvertently caused another one, which I call the "Rental Energy Issue". (Not Relevant)
Everything is pretty much fixed for that issue... but yet we, the Soulkeep Players, are now being told "They" - Splinterlands, the DAO, the Spl Community are considering PULLING THE SOULKEEP REWARDS... and now you're caught up...
Like many things in Splinterlands over the last three years... we were promised something... told it was a good thing... told to invest our MONEY into it because "it'll be worth it bro"...
However... I can't think of a SINGLE THING Splinterlands has done/said, that I have put money into over the last three years... and it be in the GREEN.
Not a single thing - EVERYTHING is in the RED... Everything that we have been told to buy... has tanked.
I do genuinely believe that is, in part, due to #BearMarketThings and I expect to recoup some of those losses in the Bull... At least I hope.
But... like many things: Waka, Land, SPS at $.85, Mayweather, DEC at stupid valuations, CP Cards for season rentals, Card Values... it's all turned out to be a bust...
$SPS is hovering around $.008 right now and despite DCAing... holy balls am I, like many, in the red... SPS has a lot of Inflation Points and emissions issues... BUT 1M SPS TOKENS A MONTH WERE ALREADY SET ASIDE FOR THIS GAME AS REWARDS (1% diminishing returns)
So what is the point... it is simple actually...
WE WERE ALL TOLD THAT IF WE BOUGHT THESE ASSETS... WE COULD PLAY A GAME RELATED TO SPS AND EARN REWARDS.
Well... a few of us took YET ANOTHER CHANCE and bought them... we INVESTED YET AGAIN in a Game/Company that has NOT put anything in the GREEN in THREE YEARS... In fact this Company has now moved on to ask Hive for additional $$$ to survive... I do believe things have turned around and I do believe Matt is doing a good job...
But we were told about an opportunity... to #Play2Earn some $SPS Rewards...
The few of us who took that chance... are now reaping those Rewards for it... and those who didn't... are bitching about how much we are earning... Which is only because there is X Amount of Rewards... AND VERY FEW PLAYERS!!!!
So in response to this... THE COMPANY/DAO/COMMUNITY WANTS TO FUCKING RUG US?!?!?!
Please FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY... DO NOT VOTE FOR "REMOVE REWARDS ENTIRELY"...
SPS Staking MAKES SENSE. PLEASE DO NOT ROB US, DO NOT ROB ME OF THE MONEY I INVESTED BECAUSE I WAS TOLD "THERE WILL BE REWARDS".
Thank you for your time, please vote Staking Requirements...
Jim Thomas aka CaptainDingus
FYI. We are asking DC to do certain things that were supposed to do months back. If they doesn't do it by Dec 31, we will pull the plug on SPS rewards.
The poll was my suggestion :)
So now direct your hate carefully.
Nobody is robbing you or anyone else. This is business.
First things first: humor - damn you AZ!!! You're making me extremely sensitive to my "vote size" loooooooooooooooooooool
It's getting bigger though!!!!! HAHAHA :P
Ok onto the real reply lol
There is no "hate" but there is a good bit of frustration and disappointment.
I, like many others, have seen pretty much everything related to this game go deep into the red for years... but I have continued to put money in and support a game/ecosystem that has not rewarded me (yet). Dollar Cost Averaging is a stressful thing lol
Like a bunch of other past issues, there wasn't much communication about when/what/how etc and it wasn't very clear as it was written...
For perspective, on my end, all I was hearing was: "People are bitching in Tavern and others and Splinterlands is going to stop SPS Rewards"... then I see the Poll... which didn't give much context either.
My thoughts immediately went to "Oh no... I was finally making something happen here... it's getting yoinked... WHY???"
Without much clarification, the frustration from previous hyped up buys "Licenses", "Land", "CP Cards" etc etc etc... was present in my replies.
Now, upon reading your reply it makes WAY MORE SENSE.
If DC was obligated to do certain things in order to receive the Reward Pool... and they aren't doing them... then it needs to end.
It still sucks because it means my investments will suffer but I understand that aspect of business.
The second part is equally as understandable, upon explanation.
A. "They're going to cut off SPS Rewards [No timeline give] because people are bitching in Tavern!!"
is very, VERY different from
B. "If DC fails to meet the contractual obligations set forth by Dec 31st, we will terminate our end of the agreement."
I'm sure you can see how Option A looks like a shitty rug-pull scenario, whereas your explanation of Option B - well, that's just business 🤝
I hope they don't discontinue it because I am good at the game and I found my niche to earn a decent pool of SPS HAHAHA
Thank you again for the vote and clarification 🤙
do listen to this episode by Cryptomancer, he probably still one of the largest SK pack owner. Listen to his dissapointment on how and what that game could have been and its NOT.
https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@thepeoplesguild/episode-118-a-cryptomancer-conversation
I met with David at DC during Las Vegas, and I strongly suggested what Mancer voiced here (that was 2 years back, damn, I hate to be right!). It was a massive mistake making that game devoid of SL characters. On top of that it was half-baked when released. But at least at the time it was part of SL. Now it is not. Why will we carry a dead weight, where we are having difficulty carrying our own weight?
It is now a DC game. If they can't deliver, they will have to handle their own reward pool.
"Why will we carry a dead weight, where we are having difficulty carrying our own weight?"
Because the players were told it would be done that way (people like me).
However - as you said previously: "if they do not uphold their end of the agreement, then we (splinterlands) will terminate the agreement on [Date]".
That is a fair and valid statement - if it were to be something like Vader here...
Then I would be justified in ragey anger lmao. But what you described seems rational and logical 😁
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Yes, I really hope they don't pull the plug completely. There could be a promising future in the game, especially if they can add in more synergy with Splinterlands. In my opinion, what Splinterlands needs more than anything is more exciting ways to play the game. Ranked battles are just stale to me as someone who was playing in 2018, and all of the extra rulesets, abilities and cards makes me less interested in playing. It's too much to keep track of, so I let my bot do it instead.
Soulkeep is the first new game I've gotten into in a while, and I think it's because it sort of feels like a new way to play Splinterlands. I would love to see it continue to grow with Splinterlands, and eventually even bring in some of the cards, and have the maps be actual places in Praetoria and stuff. It is ripe for the taking. I understand they've planned too much, bitten off more than they can chew, and that there aren't really the resources to build it all out... but I hope they see what could be with Soulkeep and Splinterlands and that they don't just let it die off.
But we'll just have to see what happens and how (a handful of powerful) people vote.
Well - I definitely see the point of "DC is failing to uphold their end of the agreement so if they don't rectify that by [Date], then we will terminate the agreement".
It would suck... but I would understand it.
Yeah, I guess only time will tell. It just sucks to think of what it could be and know that there are no resources to devote to building it. Imagine building the idea of tower defense into land somehow. Could be huge. I'd say the DAO could buy it back and we could plan on working it into land, but the DAO is getting tapped hard and often.
Just like "Lux Vega" 😈
!discovery 40
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