Thanks for the discussion and feedback. One thing that I think you have wrong though is the concept of inflation. You write:
Giving out packs as rewards is a huge inflation to the system
But really giving out packs has zero inflation to the system. There are a set amount of packs that will ever exist (900,000 in the case of Beta) just like there is a set amount of Bitcoin that will ever exist. When we give out packs as rewards, that's us giving out some of those packs for free rather than selling them as added incentive for people to play.
If, however, we give out XP as rewards, then we introduce unlimited inflation, and this is exactly what we want to avoid. It also disincentivizes combining cards, which I don't want to do.
Ultimately, this comes down to the core difference between a blockchain-based game with scarce digital assets vs a conventional game. In a conventional game, of course we would give out XP through play, we would give it out left and right because we don't have any assets with values to protect.
A blockchain-based game, or any project really, is about scarcity and value. That's the main innovation that blockchain technology introduced - digital scarcity. So, being a blockchain-based game, I see the scarcity and value of the assets as the primary focus and I don't want to compromise that by adding unlimited inflation to the assets through XP rewards.
Very valid point... and that one point may indeed be the one point to go against all the benefits that XP has over Packs.
Maybe there's a solution that gains the benefits XP has without the drawbacks of packs. Not saying I know what that is. haha
It seems to me that the real point you are trying to make is that the quest rewards should increase at higher leagues. Currently the same, relatively large reward is available for completing the quest at any level. The only solution with giving out packs would be to give out even more than 1 pack for completing quests at higher leagues, but that would be far too much.
The solution then is to give out portions of a pack at lower leagues, which is not possible now, but may be possible in the future.
I agree that the introduction of XP rewards would somehow compromise the approach that the Steemonsters card should be scarce and valueable in the long run. The combining mechanism should be the only method to level up cards. That said doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider a second income stream besides Card Packs rewards. I could see a system based on SMT that allow players to get "Game Credits" which are worth something in the open market. These Game Credits could be used to purchase more cards on the open market. This would nether inflate the BCX of Cards nor would it inflate the amount of packs given out. It something like peakmonsters did with introducing Credits for purchases its just another little incentive to purchase more cards.
I'm looking forward to this discussion and its crucial to the further development of Steemmonsters.