Greetings friends!

When Splinterlands first emerged under the name Steemmonsters, I invested in Alpha and Beta packs and purchased cards from a company that was still taking shape. Despite the delayed launch of the actual game, I was willing to take the risk, confident it wouldn't have a significant impact on me.

Upon the game's commencement, I thoroughly enjoyed playing and initially received satisfactory rewards. However, as time passed, the situation deteriorated. The turning point was when Splinterlands completely overhauled its reward distribution system. Since then, I have felt disillusioned both as a player and an investor.

In the initial stages, progressing to higher leagues after winning matches held significant value. Subsequently, they introduced rewards tied to staking, which wasn't as attractive as it was before but it wasn’t worse as it has become today. I had accumulated enough burn value in my cards, enabling me to receive additional reward chests for completing daily quests and end-of-season rewards. These rewards included the opportunity to obtain card packs, and cards were distributed based on the number of reward chests earned.

Now, the process of earning rewards has been decoupled from staking, and Soulbound cards are being given as rewards. Instead, a fraction of SPS is provided as rewards for completing daily quests and end-of-season rewards. This transformation has led to a complete overhaul of the gameplay. Progressing in the league has become nearly impossible despite having numerous powerful ability cards.

Despite putting in considerable effort and utilizing half of the restricted daily energy limit (now capped at 50 per day), I find myself unable to secure even one or two reward chests as part of the daily quest rewards. The contents of these chests, when opened the next day, typically yield only a fraction of SPS, such as 0.2 SPS, 0.15 SPS, etc. Occasionally, I receive a few merit tokens like 5 merits, 50 merits, etc. If luck is on my side, I might obtain a soulbound card per chest, but even these are often disappointing as they have no value at all.

For a detailed overview of my end-of-season rewards, please refer to the attached screenshot.

I received 7 sets of Soulbound reward cards, 11 SPS, 299 merits, and some potions, although the potions are currently useless as they neither can be traded, nor brings valuable cards. Unfortunately, we’re unable to trade or burn Soulbound cards, nor can we transfer them to others. While these cards are suitable for the game, they hold little to no intrinsic value. It feels akin to buying a pig in a poke.

The value of one SPS is approximately 0.02, translating to a total of around 0.2 USD for the 11 SPS I earned. Effectively, my hard work resulted in obtaining a mere $0.2 worth of crypto tokens, with a value that can fluctuate at any time. I suspect other players might be experiencing similar outcomes. Is this some sort of joke? Are we, the players, being deceived and taken advantage of by the game owners who provide us with a fraction of seemingly worthless tokens and a handful of less-than-desirable cards? This is reprehensible; it amounts to cheating. It's crucial for us to speak up against this unjust treatment.

I hope this article will be read by the game owners and the players and they will consider what I am trying to say.