The New Player Experience. The People's Guild Challenge

This is an entry for #TPGChallenge "The new player experience" by @thepeoplesguild.

A few months ago we released a video going through the whole Splinterlands' onboarding process. We did so with the mindset of helping hide the complexity to make it easy for a friend.

However, for this challenge we will assume the new players are on their own and just parachuted into the Splinterlands starting page. But having the onboarding process as a whole is quite important, so keep that in mind.

The Main Hurdle

I think a new player that has no idea what is going on will almost never buy a 10$ Spell Book in this day and age where free to play is the norm.
So the only option left is for they to be able to play the game for free. And I mean play the ACTUAL game, not some lame tutorial.
We want them to experience the main game loop.

Game Loop

1. Play battle
2. Win rewards
3. Use rewards to get stronger
4. Repeat

Currently the game loop is not happening because:

Game Loop

1. Play battle: Ok.
2. Win rewards: Level 1 starter cards vs max level cards = no win = no rewards.
3. Use rewards to get stronger: Even if could win, no rewards penalty from using starter cards.
4. Repeat: Even if got rewards, can't continue cause rewards are locked for 30 days.

Proposed Solution

1. Allow accounts without Spell Book to earn Glint.
2. Remove glint penalty from starter cards.
3. Give SPS rewards liquid. (Add the option to receive it locked for 30 days for an extra 5%, if that makes you feel better.)
4. Update matchmaking to taking into account not just Elo Rating but also account power. (Median card level?)

That way they can play the REAL game, earn soulbound cards, get a feel of the progression and get familiar with the game loop and should now be way more likely to buy the Spell Book and be part of the game. And 3rd point ensure that the experience is not different that what he experienced before the Spell Book.

Viability

I'm not sure how hard the 1st one would be to implement, but I assume not so much given that battles have been off-chain for a while and glint is an in-game token.
For 2nd and 3rd, I think they are as easy as it gets.
4th should be easy as well, maybe they already do it and I'm just not aware.
I think not only this is the necessary steps we need to take, Matt also made it clear that any new features are a hard-no. And to stay on the "realistic" and "easy-wins" theme of this challenge I think these proposed solutions fit.

Potential Drawbacks

It is always concerning to allow free accounts to play the game for real, as it could open the door for exploits. But the only exploits I could immediately see here would be win-trading or farming soulbound cards for free and eventually transition to a regular account.

Let's ignore Wild, as there is no way it would make financial sense to pay for the Wild Pass.
Win-trading shouldn't be an issue if the matchmaking is skewed to face other new players, so the soulbound rewards would be so low that even botting it should make no sense.
Same for farming soulbound rewards. Plus, bot is not allowed in Modern, and farming soulbound rewards would be a long term exploit, and that would give enough time to detect them way before any value is extracted.

Final Words

I know these are not fancy solutions, nor exciting new features, but that's the point. Splinterlands is a good game already; it is just very convoluted. I think "less is more" is crucial here specially with limited resources.
Thanks again for @thepeoplesguild for running these challenges.