The Possibilities of Land and the Splinterlands Real Estate Market

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Splinterlands is an ecosystem and Plots of Land are just the start.

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Admit it. You checked out Zillow, Redfin, Metrocuadrado, Fincaraiz or anyone of those related Residential Real Estate sites in the past two years. Maybe you were looking for a new home, getting an idea of the pricing in your area, fantasizing the "what-ifs" or using these sites for market research in a different capacity. It's engaging and often is a great start to making that transaction happen. There's a lot involved with Residential Real Estate from shopping to ownership. The realities entailed are coming to Splinterlands and it means a lot of opportunities for people not even interested in playing the game, if the development team is committed to the decentralization of the ecosystem.

The Vision of Land in the Current Sense

What is publicly available and known about Land in Splinterlands is the following:

  • Land enables you own the resources on the plot(s) of land that you own. You can build on the land with the resources that you have.

  • The natural resources can be harvested, sold, traded or refined.

  • Items and spells can be crafted for a "2nd Look" in gameplay action. These items and spells can be sold on the secondary market for a profit.

  • There are 14 different terrain types: Plains, Hills, Tundra, Swamp, Bog, Mountain, Canyon, Caldera, River, Lake, Forest, Jungle, Desert, and Badlands. Notice, there's no beachfront property. The dream of Lir Deepswimmer getting into the sand does not exist yet.

  • There are three categories of Land with different values. (1) Natural Land, which is for harvesting natural resources on the land. Grain (we can be distillers, nice!), wood, stone, and ore. (2) Magical Lands have splinter magic associated with each of the six splinters to mint spell and item cards. (3) Occupied Land, these lands have wild monsters to battle in order to extract essences that can be used to create spell and item cards.

  • There are rarities involved as well based on abundance of resources, which would be Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. So the plots are essentially packs with Land.

  • Summoners and monsters are put to work in the buildings to produce items, spells, and do construction. These buildings are upgraded like the way Guild Buildings are and it will burn DEC.

  • Land is intended to serve as an addition to the game mechanic rather than take on a life of its own.

It's a very spoon-fed process much like Guilds. But what if Land can be transformed further and truly accomplish goals of decentralization?

Taking Land to the Next Level: Decentralization

Rarities matter, but what makes Land a special sort of NFT is that it can be altered. If decentralization is the aim, the owners of land would want to be able to do as they wish with the property. This means creating the ability to construct buildings in a bespoke fashion, create rare non-game items, and make unique experiences that can go well beyond the game. This would have to take place in a second release of Land Plots.

These experiences can be programmed by the Land Owners through the Splinterlands API to have custom made processes, buildings, and structures. The rarities and foil type can impact the amount of resources (CPU, RAM, API calls) that is used on the plot(s). It opens the door to marketing relationships with companies like Lowe's, Home Depot, Black & Decker, etc.

Titles in their present form confer no value beyond the novelty that they can be sold. The creation of novelty items and goods that could potentially have value in the game itself may eventually be important (food, alcohol). These novelty items could have sponsorship or potential vouchers for purchase in the real world. Imagine being able to create your own ice cream on your property and each tokenized ice cream in the ecosystem can be burned for an exclusive Häagen-Dazs coupon. What if you can make pizza on your plot and the tokenized pizza can be used to purchase a Domino's Pizza?

The proposed "Splinterlands Casino" does not have to be a monopoly. It can be literally built on these plots and players can choose to go to the plots and play. Build the structure and make the virtual environment.

There are so many possibilities. From charging admission for events on your plot to virtual conventions. This is not Land 1.0, but the next stage of how Land is going to be.

@yabapmatt spoke of the creation of apartment complexes and renters of apartments on Land plots in a recent Town Hall. This certainly has crossed the development team's minds already. Even the concept of adverse possession has come up.

Custom builds mean non-player developers (the construction teams) can participate in the ecosystem without playing and be compensated in SPS, DEC, cards, Vouchers, packs, and/or Level 1 or 2 cryptocurrencies. Properties can be fixed and flipped, just like real life!

The first iteration of Land is exciting, but a second bespoke iteration will be transformative. Not only are there different foils, rarities, and property locales, but there would be ZONING! Plots for commercial, single family residential (Two summoners can create summoner and monster babies! Fixed life NFTs. Summoner and monster schools.), rural plots, multi-family, mixed use, and Houston-style "no zoning" properties. Yes, it is a form of metaverse, but it enables more possibilities and variety within the ecosystem and the game. There's whimsy and possibility, the introduction of non-card items means greater flexibility within the game and gives more dynamism to the market.

Splinterlands Banking and Property Management

This opens the door to financing for already developed plots of land, new buildings, renovations, and additions.

Landlords can turn their properties over to Property Managers to ensure that vacancy rates are low and that the tenant experience is smooth.

Introducing the possibility of perils and risk (natural and man-made) into the ecosystem through RNG may be a bit over the top, but this can create an insurance industry within the Splinterlands ecosystem.

It's Not on the Road Map, But Maybe It Will

Land presents possibilities. It opens up the game to new possibilities and the ecosystem will be more dynamic. The first iteration of Land (150,000 plots that have already been sold) will be limited in scope, but it provides insight into how a second iteration would go and how much flexibility will be enabled.

It would be fun to see Zillow or LoopNet like listings for Splinterlands properties. It would also be a bit too real for many, but for some, the reality (economy) is far more enjoyable than the lore and fantasy. This may be the bone that is thrown to those not necessarily interested in a Splinterlands franchise or table-top gaming.



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