Three Years With Splinterlands - Play2Earn Or Play4Fun?

Three years ago, I chanced upon Splinterlands while reading up about play-to-earn crypto games. I signed up on 25 Sep 2021 and found the game interesting during the tutorial, so I purchased the spellbook the next day on 26 Sep 2021. At that time, such crypto games were a relatively new concept to me but I thought why not give it a shot and explore this space, hopefully learn some new stuff as well.

Screenshot from my email on 26 Sep 2021

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Recap From Two Years Ago in 2022

I wrote my "One Year Review" of Splinterlands here.

Back then, I wrote how I managed to accumulate USD 318.05 of Splinterlands assets from playing everyday (yes, everyday!) and I included this table back then as well!

Item	Amount	Price in USD	Value in USD	%
Tokens
SPS	1,438	0.067	96.35	30.3%
DEC	48,057	0.0007068	33.97	10.7%
VOUCHER	9.633	0.425	4.09	1.3%
Packs
CHAOS	30	2.05	61.50	19.3%
RIFT	2	3.58	7.16	2.3%
Cards
Non-Gladius	1,055 (1,190 BCX)		113.00	35.5%
Gladius	46 (70 BCX)		1.99	0.6%
Total			318.05	100%

And finally, I concluded back then that Splinterlands was more a game than a play-to-earn because it wasn't realistic to expect the earning rates to replace a full time job.

So back to the question in my title, is Splinterlands really play-to-earn? While it's a "Yes" because one does earn something from it, but I think one also has to be realistic to recognise that with such earning rates, this can't possibly replace a full time job, at least based on my experience. So for me, I think it's more of a game to have fun and play with friends, and the earnings are more of a bonus and it's best not to have high expectations (e.g. striking of a windfall).

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Recap From One Year Ago in 2023

I wrote my "Two Year Review" of Splinterlands here.

Somehow, even though I didn't play as much, my Splinterlands assets have grown to USD 435.49, including divestments of USD 82.58.

Item	Amount	Price in USD	Value in USD	%
Tokens
SPS	1,121	0.015	16.82	4.8%
DEC	6,667	0.0007323	4.88	1.4%
VOUCHER	18.621	0.025	0.47	0.1%
HIVE	32	0.29	9.28	2.6%
Packs
CHAOS	59	1.10	64.90	18.4%
RIFT	1	2.96	2.96	0.8%
Cards
Non-Soulbound	1,723 (2,041 BCX)		246.69	69.9%
Gladius	103 (210 BCX)		6.92	2.0%
Reward	588 (720 BCX)		0	0%
Total (excl Divestments)			352.91	100%
Divestments			82.58
Total (incl Divestments)			435.49

By then, I was chilling a lot and didn't really see Splinterlands as a play-to-earn game anymore.

My answer would be it's not really relevant because I am seeing Splinterlands as a game, a place to have fun with the friendships that I have built over the past 2 years. I might not agree with every change that the Splinterlands team has implemented over the course in the past year, but that's fine, I will just chill and continue to play it for as long as I want!

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How time flies! Over 17k battles under my belt with a 57% win rate (9,660 wins out of 17,032 battles)! All played by myself!

And I have been with Splinterlands, not just the game, but also with the community as well, for 3 years! Unlike the first two years which was relatively uneventful and smooth sailing, I really took it easy for the third year.

Within the game, the more memorable parts would be battling guild brawls with Pizza 2! Regardless of how they change the gameplay and rewards, nothing can take away the fun of guild brawls! It's always enjoyable to play alongside strangers who have since turned into friends as we battle the brawls week in week out, celebrate one another's achievements and console one another's bad luck in chest rewards. Having these friends made playing Splinterlands a million times more enjoyable than going through the daily focus rewards for sure!

Outside the game, I also spent time interacting with different Splinterlands related communities. One of them is SBT project, which @itzninjafool is the founder. The daily raffles, the friendly battle challenges, provided light hearted and casual fun for me too!

Of course, I also did some trading with SPS, DEC and cards too. It was mostly to take advantage of severe price movements as well as spring cleaning my collection since card prices have been on the decline.

Compared to the first two years, it was really a chill year where Splinterlands has totally become a casual game and the earnings are so insignificant to the extent that they just don't matter anymore.

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Now to the financial part of the post, amidst all that has happened in the past year, did I grow my USD 435.49 worth of Splinterlands assets or have they shrunk due to the depressed prices now?

Item	Amount	Price in USD	Value in USD	%
Tokens
SPS	3,196	0.0084	26.85	14.9%
DEC	153	0.0008312	0.13	0.1%
HIVE	233	0.204	47.53	26.3%
Cards
Non-Soulbound			106.08	58.7%
Total (excl Divestments)			180.59	100%
Divestments			82.58
Total (incl Divestments)			263.17

After 3 years, the value of my Splinterlands assets have fallen much lower to just USD 180.59, or USD 263.17 if we include earlier divestments of USD 82.58 in the second year. I didn't make any divestments this year. How unbelievable is this? Haha.

Comparing this year's table against the previous ones, one can easily tell why.

• Even though I have gained more than 2k more SPS, the value of SPS has fallen significantly.
• The value of cards and packs have fallen significantly as well
• VOUCHER which used to have value, are now worthless
• Gladius cards which used to have DEC value when burnt, are now worthless as well

With the above reasons, it's not surprisingly when the value has declined substantially.

Summarising the asset values across 3 years:
Year 1: USD 318.05
Year 2: USD 435.49
Year 3: USD 263.17

So now if you ask me, is Splinterlands really play-to-earn?

After 3 years of playing, to be honest, USD 263.17 is definitely not meaningful earnings. Maybe we will see a bull market and this number will go up. But if we were to compare this with a salaried job, this is nowhere close. So if you ask me, it's really "play for fun", and one should manage their expectations if they are looking for earnings. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

So here's wishing Splinterlands an awesome year ahead, and to everyone who is reading this LOOOOONG post and has crossed paths with me within the game, thanks so much for being part of my Splinterlands journey!

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If you are interested to sign up to play Splinterlands, my referral link is here.