It was high time for CATS to be all over the blockchain.
But who knew that they would clog the network and create a new obsession in less than a day? ( and make a few people rich while they are at it..)
Let a bunch of kitties play and you get a mess so at least that's par for the course. Now they have a new playground! the blockchain!
I'm talking, of course, about CryptoKitties game. What the heck is all this about though?
I'm gonna quote a lot from their FAQ as it is a very well put and easy to understand and I recommend everyone to read it all. But basically...
So yes, KITTIES that reproduce on the blockchain. Breed them, sell them and...well, that's about it. But the craze was on yesterday and going today and people kept buying and making new kitties and selling for profit. No kidding, a brand new - so called generation 0 - kittie was selling for as much as 10eth. 4000$ for a cat!
Besides this, there a few cool things on the site. The graphics are fun, reminds me of NeoPets and Tamagochi though they do not move. They are nicely drawn and fun to look at and each cat is slightly unique. Each has a fun description as well. I am a bit impressed with the copy on this site to be honest. Whoever did that and set the mood for the game did a very good job! ( he also might be rich as the gen 0 kitties income go to the devs and the team and they generate a new one every 15 minutes x 7eth or so....)
You can buy kitties in the marketplace and breed them and sell the new ones. If you are lucky you might get a FANCY cat that goes for a lot more money though I am not sure how you know what to breed to get FANCY or if it is even possible to guess. Maybe if you study the game hard.
Each cat starts with the possibility to bread fast and with each new kittie bred you need to wait longer and longer until she can bread again - a so called cooldown period. Each period has a name and you can identify and see it in the marketplace. Here;s how it looks when you see a cat and where to click to see the full list.
The purpose of the game could be to create FANCY cat that have special attributed that "emerge" from breeding. Which si really cool that there is a genetic algorithm at work. Right now, the purpose of the game seems to be:PROFIT!. People buy cats so they can breed and sell the offsprings. I don't think they pay much attention to attributed, but only to cooldown period and generation.
I suppose when the game will mature and the craze goes down we will see a real generation of "breeders" who will make a lot of money from Fancy Cats. For now, it's all about the ETH!!
With a cat with no cooldown going for so much ETH, it's difficult for new players to get in at a high level but I think this will pass.
It is easy to discount this as a fad, mass insanity, exploiting people's stupidity or a lot of others patronizing take on the fact that this is happening and that people pay money for something like this. But I think this is missing the point. This is an amazing idea and the first one reaps the profits but also shows new ways to use the blockchain and allows for much more creativity then maybe we thought possible. This will get new kind of people into the crypto-world and that is a good thing in my opinion.
No argument that it is kind of insane to experience.
Who knew this would be THE NEXT BIG THING? But now that we know, expect a lot of copy..uhm..cats to appears, games that take advantage of the technology and see the insane profits they could be making if they go viral. ETH networks, be aware, if ICOs put a strain on your tech..imagine 5 cryptokitties game in the same time! [ VITALIK to the rescue?! ].
I'm looking forward to see what's coming next.
The future is indeed meow.
