What Is Frontier Format!
So basically no new players have come into Splinterlands for a long time and this despite the fact that there are actually plenty of signups. The gap however between someone wanting to give the game a try to the point where they are willing to buy a spellbook and really get into the game has been massive. In the last 30 days, 4088 people signed up to try Splinterlands, yet only 99 of those actually went to buy a spellbook. Frontier Format is pretty much an attempt to close this gap.
What Makes Players Convert ?To me, it's very clear that there are I would say 4 things that actually make players who sing up convert to players who also buy a Spellbook and possibly more.
1. The Belief of Making Instant Returns. This is mostly what happened near the end of Untamed when SPS was introduced. The price was artificially high as there was little supply and an optimistic outlook. On top of this, DEC was trading way above peg and was printed like crazy to a point where earnings were high. So people were willing pay big money for just a level 1 Silver deck as they believed they would earn it back rather quickly. This off course as always was followed by a crash as the weight of the DEC inflation collapsed upon itself.
2. The Belief that purchased assets will go up in value. This is what happened during the Chaos Legion Period as at the start of the sale, the state in Splinterlands was that everyone who bought Untamed and prvious sets saw a big increase on these values. So many were willing to buy packs believing that this would also happen. However, so many were bought and at in increased price that the market fully collapsed and everyone that went big in Chaos Legion pretty much lost all their money.
3. Instant Fun Addictive Gameplay. If a game is fun by nature, players naturally will come in, play and stay with the game. I would say that this is what Frontier Format tries to do for new players but honestly is nowhere near the level it needs to be to actually get players exited.
4. Positive Community Sentiment. If a game gets positive reviews and is talked about or streamed by multiple influencers. The viewers will naturally want to try it out.
Frontier Format -> The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly...
I would say at first sight, there are some good, some bad and some ugly things about Frontier Format.
The Good Things About Frontiers!
Believe it or not, but I'm actually more feeling like playing Frontier Mode right now compared to Survival Mode or even Brawls. A few of the major problems that developed in Splinterlands is that it's overly complex with too many cards for the average human who just wants some fun to grasp. On top of this, they kept inventing more and more Abilities and Game rules which simply aren't fun or intuitive. So for the average new and I would argue existing players, Splinterlands is just a total mental system overload where nobody really gets passed.
Foundation Format kind of resets everything giving new players an experience similar to what it used to be in the Alpha and Beta Days. You have only 5 different Summoners to choose from and each one has a fixed number of cards. The abilities are few and straightforward, and playing gives you this sense of "ok, I can figure this out" without making your breain go anywhere near the red.
Also, (at least right now) everyone is playing on a level playing field as it takes a very long time to grind enough cards to level them up. One of the major issues with Splinterlands now is that in most cases, you feel like you either had no chance against a player with better cards or got the win handed to you against a player with weaker cards. Right now, playing Foundation Mode Feels like a fair game and if you are beaten it gives you an opportunity to learn while if you win you get a sense of accomplishment.
The Bad Things About Frontiers!
As a standalone Free2Play game I would argue that it holds up for a couple of days before it gets old and boring quickly. It is possible to earn cards for free and level them up, but at a pace realistic pace of 3 cards earned a day and 18 common cards in the set which each require 5 copies to be leveled up, the first realistic opportunity to actually level up a card could take a month of daily playing.
So the question is if this really is going to convert new players into real paying Splinterlands players or if they are going to try it for free, have fun with it a couple days before seeing it's a massive grind playing a game hours daily that after some days isn't even that fun anymore. On top of this, as time passes by and players do manage to level up cards, the fun of a level playing field quickly will turn into frustration of new players that are up against cards that are just not beatable for them.
To me, this game mode doesn't bring a sense of instant earnings potential, assets that you buy that will go up in value, positve community sentiment, and only limited fun gameplay.
The Ugly Things About Frontiers!
This is the part where I go "What the Fuck are They Doing Now Again ???" and I don't even know where to start.
The Great Reset: Frontier Mode is pretty much a reset to what the game used to be when it started while it makes all the same mistakes again. As cards are rewards in Frontiers are made tradable, it feels like it will be another race to the bottom where bots will grind them and just dump on the market always undercutting the lowest price until they are totally worthless. It's also a matter of time before new players are foced to buy these cards of they want to have some fun in this game mode.
Another Copy-Paste Game Mode: We now after Wild, Modern, Survival, Brawls, Tournaments, also have Frontier mode which basically is 6 times exactly the same copy-paste game mode, while so many other interesting things and concepts can be done with all the cards that are already out there. There is just zero originalty in Frontiers Mode.
Moving the Bar Again! So this trick of moving the bar is used all the time and always comes at a cost that has to be paid one way or another later down the line.
First there was the concept that 10-mana monsters were the maximum. However, to move sales the mana cap in matches was raised so they pretty much power creeped the game away with 7-mana Legendary Summoners and later down the line with monsters even up to 16 Mana. When DEC was no longer working, SPS was invented which moved the bar from the need to own cards to now also needing to own SPS. SPS didn't hold it's value so Vouchers were created out of thin air to 'fix' that. Vouchers didn't hold their value so new Promo Cards were created out of thin air. It used to be fairly easy to complete the daily quests but the required time investment grew over time and they moved the bar even more by giving energy as a reward. Airdrops used to be for those who bought packs but the bar was moved to needing to buy Wagons, and later the need to even repair them. Land was just land but they also moved the bar forcing players to also stake SPS, buy the power cores, and all kind of other nonsens. Regular Promo cards weren't good enough so they created the Helloise auctions with a crazy overpowered cards that only had 100 copies and sold through auctions. Max Level used to be only for the biggest whales but now this has become the standard for everyone in Wild, Packs used to cost 2$ but they were pushed to 4$, staking requirements doubled for wild and a tax to even enter was also introduced. Gold Card were not rare enough so they created Black Foils. Owning 1 Max Level Copy wasn't enough anymore as Survival mode was introduced where you pretty much need multiple. Ths list just goes on and on and on...
Now they pulled the reverse trick of moving the bar to the downside of making new cards that are 'underpowered' as a way to print even more cards.When you think they ran out of options to pull this trick they still manage to find a way.
Another Full New Card Set Printed
More Carzy Time ivestmet or Bot Running overtime!You pretty much need to win 15 Battles daily in Frontier Mode to get the 3 daily chests. At least as a free2play players you don't get a sense of losing money when you don't play. After just a couple days, those who try to grow their Foundation set will most likely have it feel like a job they want to get over with instead of having real fun with it.
Future Botting problem!Assuming that it's allowed to run bots in Frontiers mode, itn't this creating the same issue as it was before that bots manage to grind all these cards creating an oversupply and a situation where they are dumped or used in the game to extract value. I know they are underpowered and that Wild only is profitabe at a certain level but still.
Another Extreme Pay2Win Experience! Surely they had to go out of their way to create yet another extreme pay2win experience wich is only a matter of time for it to manifest itself. In a couple of months when new players come in they will face all opponents with just better cards which kills the entire Free2Play model as it is not fun to get stomped by opponents who are unbeatable with the only way to overcome it is to pay for underpowered cards which are not really that useful in other modes (unless you run a bot and get wins against other bots who also play underpowered).
Conclusion!
For me, this Frontiers Format is another setup for disaster which might be fun initially for a couple of days but will do more harm than good and ultimately won't bring any new players to the game or close the gap between sign-ups and those who buy a spellbook even though I hope I'm wrong. It's the same case of moving the bar this time in reverse and making the game stupidly Pay2Win while requiring it to be a full-time job for players who don't have time for that. The only good thing I can say about it is that it will provide some 'Splinterlands Vanilla' fun for a couple of days. I'm not going to try to grind these cards however and after a couple of days am already bored with it again. Such a disappointment...
I will try to get a detailed and argumented post out next week how to properly do things to really attract new players and excite existing ones as it's not that difficult actually.
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