The Rental Democracy
So I just wanted to take a minute and talk about the way the rental market for cards is going to bring about a great deal of democratization in SplinterLands.
In yesterday's post, I showed how anyone can rent a Diamond level deck for less than 2 USD per day.
What does that actually mean?
In every other CCG in the world, you had to buy your cards. Sometimes those cards cost huge amounts of money (just like some cards in SL cost huge amounts of money). If you wanted to be a top-level tournament competitor you either had to spend tons of money or partner up with someone who spent tons of money.
With the advent of blockchain gaming, we now have a perfect record of the chain of custody for cards. With the delegation mechanics that the SplinterLands team has built, we now have risk-free lending of these digital assets.
For the first time in gaming history, we have separated game play, skill, and capital. Now you don't need to spend thousands of dollars on cards in order to play with the best. You can rent cards for a few dollars per day and get all the same rewards that someone gets after spending 5k or 10k.
This rental mechanism has truly opened up competition to the world.
For myself, I have invested probably too much money into cards. But it turns out I'm just an OK player. If I had the time I could get into Champion I, but I probably won't crack the top 50 again. But I don't have the time to even do that.
So what do I do to share my enjoyment of the game while still making the situation a win-win? I rent out my cards. According to the guys over at @peakmonsters I have the most active rental contracts right now. @aggroed is apparently making more than me though, which I am finding kind of annoying!
Now, my capital is being put to use both in game terms as people use my cards to battle and also in financial terms as I make an acceptable rate of return on my card portfolio.
This approach keeps me and other whales invested in the game and attracts new players to a CCG where they don't have to invest heavily. You could sign up today with a $10 starter set, rent $2 worth of cards, and be in the top level of the game in 5 minutes. Rent $10 worth of cards and you can be at the peak.
In the end, the rental market will create a virtuous cycle where capital is attracted to good return, players are attracted to affordable and fun games, and the two together create more demand, which attracts more capital, which increases card supply, decreases prices, attracts players, and on and on.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://nealmcspadden.com/thoughts/the-rental-democracy/
I continue to test the rental market with mixed results but probably due to not having cards at high levels to rent out. May need to consider investing a little more to improve my opportunities there. Thanks for these thoughts as it expands my view of how to approach a part of the ecosystem that keeps me engaged and encouraged!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Yes renting lower level cards is tough.
One of my plans for when the peakmonsters crew implements grouping is to rent out splinter-league sets. So I would offer a fire-silver set that would rent for a single price.
In general most lower level cards just don’t make sense to rent at the moment.
I havent fully admitted it yet.... But I may not be Champion 'skilled' either. Gold and Diamond League are fun to me. Last season I went to the top 50....and it was a chore.
The rental market is awesome for giving more skilled players the opportunity to try out their full potential!!
Thanks for sharing this!!
Peace
Yeah, I thought I was pretty good at the beginning.
Then more people started playing!
It's incredible, isn't it? There's never been anything like this before. Not even close.
It is incredible. It's still early days, but the number of cards being rented is growing at something like 5% per day, so people are catching on.