The Decentralized Franchise of the Future

A maxed gold Splinterlands card.

I can't even play it as maxed, considering the highest I play is in the gold leagues and the highest playable level is L8. It is also silly because while I can't play this one, I also can't play this one at max, which I already own.

So why buy?

Well, justify it how I want, the real reason is that I wanted at least one maxed gold card and this one was "cheap" and, I really like the card. Plus, it is fast, has flight and is great for the low-mana games I enjoy playing the most. But at the end of the day, I could have got away with spending much less and getting what I can play.

I have a bit of a dilemma with Splinterlands though. You see, I have come to value ownership a lot and it pains me to have to rent, especially if they are cards I use a lot. I would really love to own more, but I just don't have the funds available to drop thousands into my playing deck cards. However, I am "opening up" to the rental system quite a lot and taking the approach that these cards are like rental cars, if I need a moving van for a day or two, I don't have to buy a van outright. I think that this is quite a good system for the people who are working their way up the leagues and perhaps slowly learning and investing into the cards that they use the most.

I still believe that in the long-run, ownership is very important though, which is why I will slowly expand my own card profile over time. I have bought a few recently, but I think I will wait to see what Chaos Legion has included, as I think that based on the current Reward Cards, they should be pretty decent. However, they aren't going to have a lot of collection power, so that is one factor to consider.

Which is another reason that this is not an entirely stupid purchase.

I paid $215 (I bought it already maxed) for the gold Pelacor Conjurer, and last I checked a maxed normal card was about 75 dollars. So, it is ~23 CP per dollar paid for the gold, and 28 CP for the normal. This is quite a big difference (about 20%), but I don't mind that for a gold, as if it does rent, it should rent for a fair bit more over time, especially if someone is renting for CP at the end of the season. But, this is me justifying it again - the main reason is still to have one maxed gold card - just because.

Isn't it funny? This seems completely ridiculous, but just think how much people spend on a diamond wedding ring, and diamonds are super common, if it wasn't for the manipulated scarcity by the tiny amount of companies in the industry. Back in the day, the "recommendation" was to spend 2-3 months salary on the ring and the concept was that it provided some financial security, but it is very much a scam, as other than the weight in precious metal, the ring itself is very low value. Has anyone tried to sell one? I guess the scam was pretty decent back in the day though, since divorce was rare.

But, the world is changing and what we value is changing along with it, which means a shift in demand. Perhaps 15 years ago, a lot of the people who wanted financial, self-controlled security, they would have bought gold. Now, gold has a digital option, that while not physical, is far easier to manage and use, making it a trade-off in terms of why there is value at all. It might be great to have a stack of gold, but push come to shove, how mobile is it? How practical for daily usage?

The future of investment strategy is going to increasingly put percentage into digital assets of various kinds, and I suspect that even games like Splinterlands are going to get more pure investors involved, where they will buy assets with no intention to play whatsoever. This means that an "investment manager" would need to have an understanding of game mechanics to pick and choose the "stocks" that are the likeliest to give the greatest passive return or appreciate in price. There are many people who do this now for themselves, but increasingly, they will do it for others too, possibly looking to build "managed asset funds" where people are able to buy packs for example in a group, combine cards, rent cards, have jockeys play cards - much like how people invest into stables or racehorses.

This makes for a very interesting future for the gaming industry, as rather than the monetary models for the pros, the spectators will be able to invest into their favorite teams for a return on the outcomes, rather than j7ust gambling as individuals. This is already being seen in professional live sports through crypto, with football teams issuing tokens that fans are able to buy and "stake" to make simple decisions. The teams are also experimenting with issuing the tokens as part of the player remuneration package also.

So, while this purchase is ridiculous and unnecessary for me, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a bad investment for the future, as over time it will gain value back when I play it (if I win), when I rent it (if not playing), as it appreciates in value as demand increases (it is a good card imo) and perhaps in a future where I am able to put cards into a pool so that a professional players can earn from them, with me taking a percentage cut.

This could work much like a Liquidity Pool setup, except there will be cards staked rather than fungible tokens and in time, entire franchises could be built across them across multiple games and leagues, where the fans are the investors and stakeholders, as well as the consumers. Combine this with streaming services, gambling, merchandising and player and asset trading, and there is the opportunity to build a massive industry that starts to take market share away from the traditional sporting teams, as attention turns elsewhere. It not only offers the same feelings as a sport, but gives a direct ROI, making everyone a part-owner - something that used to be reserved for the insanely wealthy alone, while the best the fan can hope for, is a jersey they paid the same as this card for and next year, they will want to be the new, slightly different version.

Why put more money in the hands of the mega-corps, when we can create our own by putting real value in the hands of the fans?

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]

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