So there was a big pre-sale 4 years ago to develop land during the peak of the 'metaverse-land' crypto hype.

This was followed by delays and announcements of extra costs to take from the value of plot prices which went so high in price during the bull hype with the need to also stake DEC, buy a power core, a building in a box, time crystals, pay Grain,...

Now 4 years later there is a very basic product which is producing worthless resources all with the promise that one day everyone who invested will be able to make the items & spells for which might not even be the demand and which are kind of already implemented in the game with the new summoners.

All of this now is followed by a crazy funding request from the DOA to pretty much start developing land while none of it will actually help the game forward as it won't bring in new players or make the core Splinterlands game more fun and accessible.

Let's face it, Land was an easy cash grab with an overpromise of an entirely new complex 'civilisation-type' game that would give older cards a great use-case and value. All we are left with is the Splinterlands card game where you either have to choose between investing 6000$+ to be somewhat competitive in Modern where you are forced to play at least 1 hour daily and where it's a sure thing that your card investment trend to near zero as all use-case of the cards is taken away once they get dumped into wild. The other option is to play in Wild where you are forced to run a bot and where it's the most efficient to just use free soulbound cards.

The entire idea of land has been killing Splinterlands and it's needed to make a fundamental switch on it in the short term.

What Splinterlands needs most is a new game mode that is super fun and allows new players to easily get in without the need to make a major investment or do overcomplicated rentals without the rewards even covering those costs.

I Would vote yes on a funding proposal for a new game mode (something like Arena in Hearthstone) where players pay a fee to enter and get rewards (Packs, Glints, Cosmetics, SPS ...) based on their results in a fair way while they are able to play on a fully level playing field (no Pay2win garbage) with max level cards. These cards that are used in this game mode should be provided by players/investors who own them just by locking them on land for which in return they get part of the entry fees that are paid based on how many of each cards are staked and how often they are used.

This would give older cards more value again as it allows for an easy 1-click rental option and it would create an easy fun entry point for new players also allowing them to play when they want without forcing them to play each day 1 Hour+ or run a bot after investing their life savings into a sinkhole.

This Land Funding Proposal nonsense is one of the reasons Why I'm giving up on Splinterlands after 6+ years. The Card-Price-Gap- Problem needs to be fixed and older cards need to be made more valuable again if Splinterlands ever wants to attract more players and keep their existing ones.