RE: STEEM MONSTERS. WHY I WORRY THAT THIS GAME MAY NOT GROW TO BE AS BIG AS I'D LIKE IT TO BE.
Incentivizing new players and plankton went to shit ever since they decided cards will NOT gain xp through playing.
I know, to protect the market price blablah, but if there isn't new interest in the game, the card market will slowly collapse by itself. And we'll end up having a circlejerk between the top investors, without any sheep to make for a foundation. And without the sheep, the wolves slowly die in any online game.
And at the moment, a sheep has almost ZERO incentive to play the game. Like really. A quest that makes progression absurdly slow. A season reward on par with the quest. And the intrinsic pleasure of the game itself - which can keep you engaged for only so long anyway.
Other than that, a beginner will feel there isn't any point to play more, play harder, play smarter, because a sheep can never become a wolf (because by default you have to play catch-up, and your rewards are so small that you'll make a deck for gold1+ in over a year).
So the new player will think "What's the solution to get better? Oh, spend cash on packs/cards. Ooohhhh, it's THAT kind of game. Oh...."