Addictive personalities can be good and can be evil. I have one and I’m usually okay at recognizing that and when it’s kicking in and not losing self control, but I’ve never had an opportunity to easily spend my cryptocurrency before and so I completely let myself fool myself about what I was doing when CK launched. I fell into a cycle of buying and breeding kitties at market rates, not wanting to sell them, finding “great deals” on the marketplace, buying and breeding those... Of course the “great deals” were really a crashing market after an unsustainable bubble right at launch. I was destroyed by incorrect mental pricing models and easy access to a source of funds. And what’s more, those funds were internet magical funny money that I’d gotten for free anyway, so it was really hard for me to see spending $40 worth of Ether as losing out on the opportunity to buy $40 worth of real world goods. And when the thought crossed my mind, I hand waved it away with the thought that I could always sell the kitties and get my ETH back, with no critical thinking attached.
All of which begs the question, why am I a fan of the game? There’s the fact that I feel now like I’ve invested a couple grand in the game ... but that’s my irrational brain again. Some slightly more rational reasons include that working with the community to crack the genome and build tools to help make smart breeding and buying/selling choices has been a ton of fun and very educational. Also just deep diving into the game mechanics in a way I couldn’t have truly appreciated from the outside looking in has been a revelation: many people complain that this is not much of a “game,” and of course they’re right, but there’s still a ton of careful consideration that went into developing each aspect of what exists, including how new genes are gated through release of new kitties and a breeding algorithm with special mutations that require particular gene pairs to breed. And then there are fancies, which a cat becomes when it meets certain minimum requirements such as being Cloudwhite, with a Scarlet pattern, and having a beard along with a hidden “wild” trait: all of which, when combined on the same kitty, produces a (relatively) valuable Santaclaws kitty.
Also, I really don’t need a new crappy old car. I’ve already got one of those. And man those kitties really are adorable sometimes.
All of which begs the question, why am I a fan of the game? There’s the fact that I feel now like I’ve invested a couple grand in the game ... but that’s my irrational brain again. Some slightly more rational reasons include that working with the community to crack the genome and build tools to help make smart breeding and buying/selling choices has been a ton of fun and very educational. Also just deep diving into the game mechanics in a way I couldn’t have truly appreciated from the outside looking in has been a revelation: many people complain that this is not much of a “game,” and of course they’re right, but there’s still a ton of careful consideration that went into developing each aspect of what exists, including how new genes are gated through release of new kitties and a breeding algorithm with special mutations that require particular gene pairs to breed. And then there are fancies, which a cat becomes when it meets certain minimum requirements such as being Cloudwhite, with a Scarlet pattern, and having a beard along with a hidden “wild” trait: all of which, when combined on the same kitty, produces a (relatively) valuable Santaclaws kitty.
Also, I really don’t need a new crappy old car. I’ve already got one of those. And man those kitties really are adorable sometimes.