Splatoon 3 with a side of salt 

I feel like this game is just on the brink of becoming an industry standard, but even I, a diehard Spoon fan, feel like they are still saving “the best stuff” for later, but who knows if that’s the case

For a game with no real microtransactions, it sure feels like it does.

The Splatfest Hostility that you mentioned was something that really shocked me as well. Before the main event had even begun, people had gotten so heated that they were reporting posts cheering on teams that they weren't on, which soon became a big enough problem that other people had to make posts telling people not to do that. From what i saw, the banning/reporting issue died down as the actual splatfest started up, but that didn't stop people from spreading needless anger in other ways. I could literally sense the genuine anger and tension between teams as the event was happening, and i gotta say it kinda disturbed and ruined the fest for me.

For a game whose motto is "stay fresh" They sure don't

Honestly it’s refreshing to hear criticism of splatoon 3 with no aggression and minimal copium. We have seen the best of what splatoon has to offer and we just want the best for the series.

"Early access preview" at full price...yes. this is true for several games....and some died bad. Glad this game is still ok.

When it comes to the charger and splatling issue, hammerhead bridge makes it feel like you might have well already lost when the opposing team has those weapons since there's none existent cover and the map is literally a straight line

Not to mention there’s basically 0 customization because all the good/unique items are locked to a battle pass that takes a eternity to grind while the shop is stuck with the same crappy cloths I’ve even bought pretty much all of them

I'm so glad to hear a big youtuber call this format out. It's become impossible for me to get invested in lots of titles I actually care about the last few years because it takes YEARS for the game to actually feel complete because of them relying on "FREE UPDATES EXTRA CONTENT UWU"

It’s crazy to think that we only have another year of Splatoon 3 until updates for the game stop. Wild that it’s already been one year already!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hates the catalog. It was a pain. I remember specifically last season I was one level short of an item that I wanted because I was actively moving into college during the last month of the season when I could have pushed for it. Also, I hate how hostile the splatfests have become. And it's really funny because over in Japan and Europe, they aren't seeing a lot of it. When I was interacting with someone from Japan they straight up didn't believe me that Team Frye was actively spawn camping and special bombing Team Shiver because they hadn't even seen a fraction of the NA threats going on :(

The more i hear pointed out about this game, the more I come to realize I'm willingly keeping my eyes closed to have fun with the game.

The "challenges" should be an entire new mode. Adding party modes in constant rotation would add so much value to the game casually.

WITH A SIDE OF SALT

Really shocked about the fact that you called out how chargers and splatlings are worse than the Aerospray. I definitely agree with you on that part. Dying constantly by these two weapons every single time is annoying to the point that I feel like I’m playing in a Wii U Splatoon match all over again (before it became unplayable with hackers).

I wasn’t sure if the reason that I was getting constantly splatted the moment I stepped near the middle of mincemeat metalworks was because of weird stage design or just my terrible skill. I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks the stages need improvement

I completely agree, it's nice to hear this from someone who loves splatoon knowing the criticism is more out of love instead of hate

Ive heard very good things about how this game handles work life balance, which is why I've been giving this game much more leeway than I normally do. Employee health matters way more to me than content speed. My two big worries are 1, is most of the remaining updates really only going to be focused on limited time events that'll go away at the end of the game's life cycle, and 2, on that note, how much content will be available at the end of the life cycle. I'm guessing they realized later on they want to extend the amount of time this game will get updated, because if they don’t, we maybe have two or three updates left, which is, bad.

2:50 THIS!! As a carbon roller deco main, these new maps have been practically IMPOSSIBLE at times. Once you get to a certain rank (I’m at S+, for example), players get good enough that it’s near impossible to dodge chargers past using ninja squid to sneak around, and even then some players know to look for the trail that’s still there. The best experience I had playing was a few weeks ago with the challenge mode that was brushes and rollers only because it actually felt like a fair fight.

Scott put some of my feelings into words I didn't have. I was non-stop grinding this game until TotK and Pikmin 4 came out. After that I dropped off pretty much completely unless there was a Big Run. I didn't even participate in the last two Splatfests.

I like Splatoon 3 overall. It’s a fun game, but it definitely is still rough around the edges. I do acknowledge the low points (especially things like the Splatfest hostility and the online servers) and respect why people address them as such. The past couple of major updates to Splatoon 3 have made me cautiously hopeful it’s heading in the right direction… I can SEE a finished game! I WANT Splatoon 3 to do well.

I can handle early releases with add-on content as things go on if there's two things. 1. An actually fun base game 2. A type of game that is able to be put together like a puzzle over time seamlessly

I have many gripes but I think my biggest is definitely how drinks are handled. They don't stack with a gears brand. In fact, you're just as well off using ANY brand with a drink, because your drink ability is rolled behind the scenes first and the game is coded that if your drink role ISN'T the selected ability, your given ability will be anything BUT the drink ability, even if the brand normally increases the odds. I always felt that at the very least, the drinks would be guaranteed to give you the chosen ability on the last slot. The second slot would have a 75% chance and the first slot would have a 50% chance. JUST MAKE DRINKS WORTH IT! Also, I don't need money or levels. LET ME TRADE MONEY AND LEVEL TICKETS FOR CHUNKS!

The analysis in this video is spectacular. As much as I love Splatoon 3, there's a pretty big reason why for a while I only played the single player and then fell off. There simply hasn't been enough content until now for online, and even now it's a limited bunch.

My biggest upset with 3 is that they barely do anything with the Chaos theme. And the one thing they do with this theme (Big run) is one of my favourite things in the entire series and thats saying a lot since I've been playing since splat 1. I honestly would have taken some ripped t-shirts or the Chaos headgear we got for the Splatocalypse. My second most upset is that the weapon kits just arn't enough the earlier seasons like Chill and Fresh season was amazing but it's been an entire year now and theres still weapons with no second kits like the Squeezer, sure barely anyone plays Squeezer but the Big Swig Roller gets barely any use and that has a 2nd kit. I get that they want to get new weapon types out like the Dread wringer and Edit Splatling but I feel like they should have prioritised getting every weapon a 2nd kit 1st before rolling out all these new weapon types. Also fun fact: Side Order was supposed to be released this season for the anniversary but was delayed twice due to not being ready yet. I honestly don't mind though having a big run, a splatfest and a new story mode all in 1 month would be a bit too much to handle.

I always felt BAD that I stopped having motivation to play this game after like a month, and even when I did, it was only for splatfest events. This video kinda listed ALL the things that were bothering me about it. It's really hard to pick up a game that only rewards you when you spend an unholy amount of time grinding. Not everyone's got the free time for that.

Splatoon 3 has probably been the game the hyped me up the most. I got into Splatoon 2 half through its cycle. So playing Splatoon 3 from start has been so much fun

Totally agree with the battle pass points. I grinded that first pass because it was new and exciting. I was going to be playing the game anyway. But by the end of the first season, I was so tired of dealing with the grind. Plus, my respet of solo mode was complete by that point and Pokémon Violet soon consumed my time. When the second season launched and catalog levels were just as slow to grind, I lost all motivation. Side Order will bring me back, but unless they adjust some of the regular game aspects, they will lose me again. They need to adjust for us casual players. And trust me... I WANT to love this game. I dressed as an Octoling last Halloween! I love this franchise!

1:16 HE FINALLY SAID THE THING

You hit the nail on the head for so many points. That’s exactly how I feel about the grind.

I really wish that Nintendo adds some variety to the map layouts. Hopefully, with Part 2 of the dlc coming up, we get something like that

I decided to go back to Splat 2 while last weekend's Splat 3 splatfest was going on because of how toxic they can be, and I enjoyed Splat 2 SO much more. The maps were much better, and everything just felt more fun. I even encountered some people from earlier groups of matches because of the small player pool, but I really don't mind. At least with my matchmaking luck, I usually got a full group of 8 within up to a minute.

I think the main thing that really bothers me is that it feels like they revealed side order way too early. Like unless it gets a release date after this next splatfest or sometime before the year ends, I don't see the reason for revealing it other than combining it with the inkopolis dlc. If they're really, REALLY taking their time with it, I hope it's insane. also I feel like it would've made more sense to reveal it during this splatfest or like you know, closer to being done :)

Somehow I'm still drawn back to the game despite agreeing with every point in the video. It's kind of impressive how long I (and many others) have managed to keep playing

The grind for splatoon definitely is my biggest grievance love how well you worded the problem as well. Like why does the silly squid game expect me to play nonstop it’s unreasonable 💀

The whole thing about talking about how aggressive Splatfests have gotten really made me wake up a little. I started on Wii U with Splatoon 1 in that small pocket of a community, but 3 is an entirely different story. there’s plenty of people now, and a lot of them new. I’m as casual as a X Battle player gets and don’t really interact online much so I don’t really consider such a massive change as something possible.

the real question is if Scott is gonna call his dlc video "side order... with a side of salt."

I remember the days when buying a game was the entire game and it took a good length of time to come out, and it was like getting the pristine quality. Like a slow-cooked steak with it prepared perfectly with all the care of a professional chef. Now it feels like games are equivalent to Fast Food. Sure, they give you what you asked for but then they forgot things, messed up the order and then you have to wait even longer for them to fix what should have been there from the beginning.

Scott is so right about the "premade of 4 training for their next scrim sporting their one-tricks they have 500 hours in." A majority of these players just... have no life (Not sorry, it's true). I can't even enjoy the game casually anymore, speaking as a guy who has a graphic design day job. I don't even want to be a pro, I just want to... like, play the game but it's practically impossible when the game thinks the best way to make teams is to pit squads up against solo queue players. I mean, what a joke.

I honestly liked S2 update format better. Not only we had 3 new stages every 3 months (as opposed to 2), but having one each month gave me a reason to come back every single month instead of having the game stay the same for 3 months. Also, we used to get new weapon kits every week, keeping the game fresh at all times

You are completely correct in everything about this game. It's an amazing fun time gated by the developers blocking features and releasing content in odd waves. It's sad that this is the new norm for games

4:57 HOLY SHIT it's not just me! All of my friends told me I was being hyperbolic whenever I tried a new weapon in turf war and got stuck with deadweights while playing against X-ranked players. I feel vindicated! (Maybe i shouldn't tho cause the weapon that broke that long streak was... a Splatling)

its crazy to go back to splatoon 2 and see the sheer amount of variety you have in your kit choices, there are so many kits in that game. they gotta ramp up kit production to give us more than like, 6 every 3 months.

Also another thing for side of salt, the way that the inner mechanics of the game work, it’s more common for those who have an early year switch (2017-2018) to be disconnected

Technically, it’s been _under_ a year since Splatoon 3 released 🤓

This feels like a therapy session to me and the rest of the burnt out splatters who feel the need to keep playing this game we love in the face of boredom/burning out. Thank you for validating my dried out desire to play through 2023 Drizzle Season.

I got so hyped up for splatoon 3 and after a few months of playing it, I got sick and bored of it. I thought I was weird for not playing all the time, only completing like two catalogs and seeing everyone else with better weapons, clothes and victory dances. After watching this I realised that it was completely normal to have just stopped playing, ty.

I agree 100% with EVERYTHING in this video. Also, note that we're getting 2 years of content updates, 3 if Nintendo says so... And we're already a whole year in. Ugh.

As a Big Splatty Fan since 1 on the Wii U, all these points hit SO close to what I think about the game as well. I have like 500 hours in the game and even then I stopped playing after season 2. There just wasnt enough. Period. I wish so much that Nintendo would drop their. "Hey we are a special snow flake so we do things differently." Mentality as skipping out on Quality of Life things and good buisness practices sure makes you unique but the games and communities suffer SO much because of it. I kind of hope this video reaches a larger audience as a PSA of sorts about the state we Sploon fans are in atm.

Scott, my beloved. ❤️

The chunk system makes the grind for abilities so much easier now. I'm so happy for that. In Splatoon 2 I didn't even get my optimal gear at all, while now I have it completed for multiple weapons.

This was the first splatoon game I was able to get into at release and frankly, I agree with everything you said. I was so excited to play when it was new and after like a week, I was bored, tired of the grind, and just flat annoyed at being booted from every other multiplayer match. I still love the game but I don't play it as often as I would have liked.

Dang, I'd love to see the timeline where scot actually became a splatuber.

YES A SEQUEL VIDEO FOR A SEQUEL GAME!

I played the story mode and it was incredible. I paid extra for online so I could run the matches because I love Splatoon. I was matched against people who had grinded it out from day 1, couldn't get ground due to chargers in the back, and I was kicked out, basically everything you said. I got bored of it immediately, and once I 100% the story-mode I uninstalled and started waiting for the new story-mode DLC to drop.

I adore Splatoon 3, been with the series since 2, but yes I agree with everything you've said to a tee. Really hope things are going to improve in all aspects going into it's 2nd-year.

The "battle pass, free content updates, please play our game forever" and the more toxic community is a symptom of the game industry itself, not just Sploon. And while Nintendo has put their own spin on those concepts, I worry that Nintendo has taken too many notes from other multiplayer games at the moment instead of focusing on what makes Salty Spoon unique. I adored the game at launch, but it just isn't sticking with me as long as 2 did. The big broad changes to 3 are fantastic, like the hub, lobbies, extra modes, locker, and movement changes etc. But the more specific design decisions, like the map quality, lackluster salmon run / tabletop support, and large gaps between content drops, makes it hard to get excited about the game's future. I came to Splatoon because it offered what I loved about multiplayer shooters while providing a new fresh take on the genre. Now, especially with the the grinding for content issue like in many other modern shooters, I'm finding it not as unique as it once was. Thank GOD there's no microtransactions though. And I do think many of the issues you talk about apply to the industry itself not just sploon, but they're still valid and I hope Nintendo finds a way to provide a new twist on the game when the DLC drops and in the future. Like they did before with the previous games.

I’m honestly amazed that they take winning for these three seriously.🐱

To this day, I’ll still argue that they should’ve waited until the Switch 2 to release Splatoon 3 & let New Horizons have an extra year of support (since both are made by the same division of Nintendo EPD). I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Splatoon 3’s legs in the West seem to be mostly gone regarding sales.

Sploon 3 is my first Sploon. I owned 2, but because shooters were never my bag AND I had ladder anxiety (look it up) I never played it. I tried out the Sploon 3 testfire and because it was a splatfest, I played because I wanted to join this awesome ingame party. I went back and played Sploon 2 until 3's release, but focused on 3 when it launched. The catalog is meant for you to play (and win at least once) daily. I normally don't have a problem finishing the catalog, but since this season has everything "new" in the first 50 levels, I might not bother. I finished the solocampaign, got ruler of splatfest, and generally have a lot of fun. I've gone back to 2 and played through the story and the Octo expansion, and it hits differently than 3. 2 is more of a "jelly bracelets and counterculture edginess" whereas 3 feels more "Grown up." Maybe because i'm older than the playerbase, but that kind of endears 3 to me more than "glittery ink" 2 does.

I love me some Splatoon that it’s basically the game I would play everyday, but you do have a point. Quite a few actually, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Gave me a lot to think about.

I'd say, that besides the maps, Splatoon 3 has been the best Splatoon game to date. Most weapons have really fun kits. Also a majority of the balances make Specials, abillities and Main Weapon more fun while not taking away what makes them special.

I legitimately think that Splatoon 3 was a finished game from launch, or at least a $60 game. At launch, you got: -Online multiplayer mode with 12 stages each playable with 4 different ranked modes and a casual mode, playable with 55 different weapons with 14 different sub weapons and 15 different special weapons. -Story mode campaign with many different levels, bosses, upgrades, and more (that also isn't a repeat of the previous game's campaign). -Salmon Run upgrade with QoL changes, new stages, new grizzco weapons, new special waves, and new boss salmonids (and no time lock). -Tableturf and locker decorating side modes to complement shell-out machine and catalogs. -Seasonal catalog with variety of new gear, emotes, and extras. -Tons of headgear, clothing, and shoes with 26 unique gear abilities to customize with. -Way too much music with new bands and Deep Cut. -Smaller QoL changes and extras. To me, this seems like a complete game (It also seems like a good excuse to restart the terrible meta game created by Splatoon 2). oops this was a long comment

as someone who never got burnt out on the game and has played it at least once a week since launch, this is an interesting perspective for me. i don't relate to most of your points (except the one about maps, a three map rotation would have been supreme- especially when undertow spillway is on rotation, lord have mercy), but this is also the first splatoon game i have gotten the chance to play after loving splat from a distance for YEARS. when i feel like i'm getting bored i just... try a new weapon. or rebuild a kit from scratch. or i rotate my primary game mode. i don't know, i feel like the game still has a lot to offer, especially for new players like me. but i can definitely see where your coming from with pretty much everything, i wish we were getting a longer update cycle at least. or that i had any hope that the update cycle would continue to be exciting. but we'll see! (also, apologies from a team big man member to everyone on team shiver. last splatfest legit made me so tired, i think everyone should try having fun while playing the squid video game next time)

100% agree with all points brought up. ESPECIALLY regarding chargers. These maps have made chargrs wayy overtuned, there's so little risk for them now, and honestly seeing an elitre on the enemy team just kills my morale, because now I have the fun police tracking me every time, even flanks barely work because the map is so small that eliters cover the majority of it. Basically, if the enemy charger is good, you're almost locked out of being able to play. The sniper class has always been OP in any shooter game, but it's the map design that tunes them down and forces repositioning and snipers always having to watch for flanks. These Splatoon maps (and redesigns) remove all that, allowing a charger to perch and never move, only for the occasional special weapon and sub. The biggest problem with Splatoon is Nintendo. A lot of potential in this game is lost to a company that just doesn't know how the online gaming world works. Nintendo excels at SP but fails miserably at MP. This is NOT how a shooter should be handled, and I wish Splatoon were born under a more competent company that actually know the ins and outs of online play. I love this game but it's so held back by incompetence and poor decisions from a company still stuck in the 90's.

This feels like a bucket of salt and I'm not even halfway through.

Well I mean if they just release everything on spot instead of gradually adding to it, people would complain that the game got boring within three months.

I’m happy to see you go back to stuff like this because that means you’ll eventually go back to cover Sunbreak so I can’t wait to see your reaction!

There's a lot great with the game, especially competitive and balancing wise, but I totally agree we need more stuff, great vid

Man, you always find a way to perfectly express how I feel about a game in your salt videos! Great vid as always!

I kinda share most of these grievances too. I was super excited for this game at launch and played it a lot but now, I just kinda play every once in a while for the splatfests and big runs.

This is genuinely the realest splatoon video of 2023

There are some days that i feel that S3 does have a Block of Salt serving. Cant wait to play it again soon ish

5:55 THIS at first I had my doubts, since it was only the Deserted Island one and everything else seemed pretty subjective, but when I saw the Triforce power I knew i mean, i knew i was Team Power, but yeah, the splatfests can be pretty damn unbalanced. there's also certain groups that follow each Idol no matter the theme, I genuinely wonder what effectthey have on the outcome.

This is honestly such a good video Scott! Tbh i have my fair share of grievances with splatoon 3, like they basically havent made a alternate kit for splatana Stamper mains, and have essentially buffed regular splatana so that it does what stamper does but better, including increasing the size of the swipes and buffing its specials! Really sucks to have almost a hundred new blasters/shooters but then stuff thats ACTUALLY NEW WEAPONS in splatoon 3 get shafted

You have to remember: Splatoon 2 was like this in the first year and it got so much better in the 2nd years so it will probably get better.

7:29 I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this issue. It's bugged me since the the first one how confused Big Run is thematically, and it honestly feels like the composers were given a completely different description of Big Run than everyone else

Squid Surge in a game with stages that lack inkable walls lol The stages are the worst of the series and the worst aspect of Splatoon 3 imo but the two new stages are better.

I do agree on the matchmaking, it's been horrendous. I still struggle to hit my shots, meanwhile my opponents constantly hit the perfectly angled shots from low ground, or chargers doing 180° flick shots or jumping trickshots with levels of accuracy I couldn't dream of.

The drinks part is LITERALLY SO TRUE

I don't much care for the multi-player outside of Salmon Run. But they were working with some new stuff and it is possible that they wanted to be sure the new stuff would mesh well with the old. It's like Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The ability selection was heavily limited, but this was also something very new for the series.

I think this was all a lot more obvious on launch than we gave it credit for

Yeah, I sorta dropped off the game after completing the first catalogue, figuring "I'll come back when there's a good amount of weapon variety, maybe when my main gets a special I'm hoping for or even an alt kit at all." None of those conditions have happened yet.

You know you did something right when you piss off Maple Miles. 😂

I honestly think the update format is good, we just need more content from each one

Seriously this is exactly the problem I was having with this game, I've been playing Splatoon since the first one and while I was able to play the first two games for months on the regular, I burnt out on 3 after season 1. While I LOVE the changes and additions to the main systems of the game, it really feels like they did everything in their power to make this game not playable on a casual level. Even Turf war seems to be constantly filled with high rank players looking to level up their gear since that takes so much time to do. The maps make Chargers and Splatlings, some of the most frustrating weapons to play against on a casual level, just dominate. With the maps we have now these weapons often take a coordinated effort to take down and that's not something you can rely on when your with 3 randoms. I never feel like I can relax when playing this game anymore as every game I play feels like competitive, I understand alot of this is due to turf war being inherently unbalanced and I would LOVE more casual versions of competitive modes, the half step with have right now is... ok, but its still a ranked mode. This was a issue I never had in 1 or 2, yet in 3 no matter where I go I feel like I drowning in a ocean of sweat. I can't blame anyone for trying to be good at the game, god knows I still try, but I feel like the design of the game has started to encourage this as the only way to really play. The combination of little content, bad map design, a sweaty community, and grindy rewards, just killed my love for this game. Which is a a SHAME since it easily could have been my favorite game in the series, as its mechanicaly very solid.

AAA companies releasing incomplete games at full price has been the norm since companies realized they could just add the missing content and fix the major bugs slowly over the course of a few years and still make millions doing it. With that being said, it is *not* unreasonable to hold full priced AAA games to the standard that a multimillion dollar company should have.

Happy First Anniversary Spoon! ❤ I LOVE SPLATOON ❤

This is very interesting. I couldn't really explain why I felt exhausted just launching the game after season 1, but this explains it... This is unfortunately very accurate.

yeah this sums up how i feel about splatoon 3 tbh i love this franchise so much and i remember being a little worried about how much of a grind this game seemed to be when they were first showing us the game and i really didnt want to feel discouraged by that after the first season i barely play now and the amount of disconnects were very demotivating :') i played a bunch of salmon run back then but the rng on the scales are ridiculous and it kinda sucks that i'll probably never unlock most of the collectibles cause of that might come back to the game when the dlc comes out, for some reason ive always been a huge enjoyer of the singleplayer cause that's all i used to play in the first game when i was like 10 lmao

If you want to complete the battle pass, just play once a day. The first win boost is enough to get a level and the big run and splatfest allows to speed grind

Way before 3 was showed off I made these two Octarian characters with Lava lamp ink hair from Sunshine that were a part of a new game mode called Splatboard. The idea being to use a board to get to the finish line of a wacky track while turfing it in the process and doing stunts while fighting the other team with it being down to the wire with all 3. It feels like it would work with only just a few adjustment to special abilities and could incorporate the 3 teams than what the game did in having the 3rd team being somewhere in the middle.

I agree and I feel like one of the big let downs in salmon run is the reword system. The only way to get anything good is with the scales and those are awefull to try to earn after an hour of playing you face a boss salmon and loose and only get like 4 brons scales it makes it impossible to really get anything for a casual player I play a ton but without voice chat and being matched with random people makes it just that much harder.

My heart was with you the whole time, thank you Splat3 feels to me like it’s punishing you for wanting to play and enjoy it right now

its good to see the community criticise the game out of love. there's so much fun to be had with splatoon, and i absolutely LOVE the series, but some frustrating issues mentioned in this video are definitely sabotaging what splat3 could be

4:47 “Iheartyaoi” 😂

I honestly agree with your standpoint on updates. I’d rather wait longer for a more polished game then all the “we added a new stage just like the past 15 now pls leave us alone” If anything, a new ranked mode would be a great way to do this! Yea, ranked is good and yes, challenges were added but challenges are rarely open and ranked feels dry sometimes. I think a new ranked mode would atleast help somewhat with this issue.

I completely agree with everything this man said

I totally agree I'm tired of half finished games being released but to be fair Splatoon (1) was also an early access game, we had like 5 stages in the base game back then😅

I really hope they add some way to reliably get exclusive gear from old catalogues, even if it’s like 50 gold scales or something else crazy. I stopped playing last winter bc I realized I was playing for FOMO instead of for fun, and that really soured my whole experience. And from what it seems, they haven’t fixed that. The game itself is so much fun to play, but when they release gear so infrequently and the best stuff is locked behind a limited time wall of grinding, you just lose the fun incentive to play.