The Problem:
New players of Web3 games are used to being rewarded for play.
Bot Farms can capitalise on these rewards and drain the Splinterlands economy unfairly.
To stop the Bot Farms, a new player's gradual introduction and progression in the game has been halted, new players do not receive rewards for playing, get bored and leave.
Previous Solution - Ghost Cards:
Players use Ghost Cards to play the game, but Ghost Cards proportionately reduce the SPS battle rewards for winning. More than one or two Ghost Cards can reduce SPS rewards to 0, stopping the New player from gradually progressing and remaining a player of Splinterlands.
New Proposal:
The Ghost cards remain, but gain form as a new player wins a match.
If a player wins a match in the Water Splinter, the Water Splinter ghost cards become 1% less ethereal, until they become an account-bound card at 100%. The account-bound cards will earn 25% SPS rewards in Bronze III, 50% in Bronze II and 75% in Bronze I. In any other League, they earn no SPS.
If the new player has an account-bound card and buys a pack or purchases cards on the secondary market, receiving an unbound copy of the card, the account-bound card is burned and the CP in DEC is awarded to the player. This will only happen once per account, per Ghost card.
If the player replaces a Ghost card that has not yet reached 100%, once it does reach 100% the account-bound card is again burned and the player still receives the CP in DEC.
The New Player now has an unbound copy of the card from the pack they bought, and will no longer need the account-bound card to play.
As this incentive is limited, Bot Farms cannot abuse it, but the new player can earn modest rewards and build towards a better collection.
Alongside playing matches to make the Ghost cards soul-bound, cut scene tutorials including Splinterlands lore could be produced, these could be Splinter-specific and taking part could contribute 1%, the same as if the player had won a match.
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