CryptoKitties was the first crypto game I ever heard of, which was around April 2018. I have always asked myself why is this game so super popular, is there any battle mode in the game? NO!!! Then why it is this addictive? I know you wanna find out, that's cool, that means you have to read this game review to know why(smiles). I would be sharing my honest review on this addictive game, that sits at number 29 (as at the time of writing this article) on State of the DApps ranking. CryptoKitties is one of the games in the world that have hit the Headlines of most newspapers in both 2017 and 2018 which allowed a whole lot of people to know about the Crypto world, but how? I would let you guys in on that as we go on, so I would kindly advice that you guys find somewhere quiet and sit back and read through super awesome game review, that I made just for you.(smiles & winks).
What Is CryptoKitties?
CryptoKitties is an Ethereum based online game, that allows you to buy, breed and sell your CryptoKitties to others playing the game for some cool money(smiles). To some cat lovers, this is like a dream game for them. They get their life cats which they love and a digital cat which is an asset to them as they can breed and have other Kitties which becomes an additional asset to them. As at now, the least cost to sell a Crytokitty is about $9-10, this is massive I must say. So basically, the game is all about buying, breeding, and selling of your digital virtual cats.
CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties are digital virtual cats which are owned by you and no one else, until you sell them and then they become that person's own completely. Each CryptoKitty has it's own unique characteristics and that's as a result of it's parents unique genes which were passed down to it. You shocked right? They are just like real-world cats with their unique genes. So when two differently unique kitties breed, they would definitely breed a super awesome Kitty. Breeding is a very important aspect of this game, because the outcome(the new bred) of the breeding process determines a whole lot about the value of your new bred Kitty. You can breed a very unique Kitty that could be worth over $1,000 or you can also breed a Kitty that is worth just $10, and that's because of the uniqueness of their characteristics such as their mouth, shapes, furs, colors and personality traits, they get from parents.
I know it's still a bit confusing for some of you, so I'm gonna go deep to explain this, and I'm gonna use us, humans as the example. Recently, we are seeing new breed of humans, like some humans with blue eyes, green eyes, yellow eyes and the rarest now are red eyes(oh boy!! are they sexy), all these different human eyes, are becoming more common of late because the cross genes passed down by their parents. If humans were crypto collectibles right, humans with red eyes would be more valuable than humans with black or brown eyes, I hope you are getting it now. We are currently seeing some super beautiful humans, and one saying has kept on ringing in my head, "The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born" the reason for this saying is the cross breeding process that's currently going on now. Nowadays, you would see an Asian man with a black African woman, what they would breed together would definitely be unique, and now imagine that half-breed getting old and gets mate with someone with a very complicated cross bred genes, for example let's look at only her father's linage, her grand great father was an Italian, that married a Spanish lady, her grand father who is a cross breed married a black African woman, and her father who is already a super half breed married a Swedish woman and her mother who is a Swedish woman, has her own complicated family linage. Then you can only imagine what this couple would actually breed.
I know I went off the game review for some seconds, the reason I did that was to help you guys understand the breeding process in the game and how it affects the marketplace. If your new born Kitty is very rare and unique, it's value within the game would be very high. So whenever you want to breed with other Kitties, make sure you properly check the parents lineage and see if it's unique and also look out for the unique characteristics of the Kitty, as this is where you make really cool money that can blow your mind away, if you are lucky to get a super unique CryptoKitty.
Breeding
By now you guys should know that, this is the fun aspect of the game, it's like battle mode for other crypto games. You guys now know how important breeding is in this game but you guys don't know how it is done. You need a sire and a dame before you would be able to breed. If you already have two adorable kitties, you would have to choose one to be the sire and the other kitty to be the dame, and then you give them some privacy and that's it. Unlike World of Ether that have gender i.e Male and Female, CryptoKitties doesn't. Any kitty can be a sire or a dame anytime i.e the kitty that was the dame today, can be the sire tomorrow. In a situation where you only have one Kitty, you would have to go to the marketplace to look for a sire to breed with your Kitty, and you would as usual give them some privacy and boom!!!, you gat yourself another Kitty of your own. Although, it isn't free. To breed, you would have to pay breeding fee which is set at 0.008 ETH, which is approximately about $5 and you would also have to pay transaction fee, which is always varying. And if you have only one Kitty and you have to go to the marketplace to get a sire, you would then have to pay the owner of the kitty, some ETH, depending on what you both agree on and after that, you would still have to pay for the breeding fee and the transaction fee again. But you should look at the bright side, you got a kitty from the deal, which might be worth over $20, and also you can place your kitty in the marketplace for anyone who needs a sire and also get a sire fee. So it's like an investment(smiles).
How Did CryptoKitties Hit Headlines
When a digital virtual cat is sold for over $110,000, definitely news headline must carry such story. It was in December 2017 that CryptoKitties hit the world, with a Cryptokitty named Genesis which sold for about $114,000(that's super expensive) which is about 253 ETH. In September, 2018, CryptoKitties hit the headlines again with another staggering sale of a CryptoKitty named Dragon which was sold for $170,000, which is about 600 ETH. That's just super expensive for a digital virtual cat. Some people are of the opinion that some mafias just used CryptoKitty as a means for money laundering. That's quite believable because I don't see why an individual would spend that much on a kitty, but who knows whether it was Bill Gates that just wanted add another piece of art to his collections, and opted for a Blockchain art(smiles, just my imagination). But in all, it was good for the Blockchain/Crypto world as it helped a lot to spread awareness to people who haven't heard of blockchain or cryptocurrency before.
This is how Dragon describes herself:
Salutations. I’m Dragon. I bit Rebecca Black when I was younger, but those days are gone. Believe it or not, spying on the neighbours is seriously exhilarating. You should try it some time. Let’s connect on ICQ. Source
How Can I Get Started?
It's the usual process with Ethereum based games, first, you have to create your Metamask wallet using either Chrome or Firefox browser, then if you don't have any ETH in your personal wallet you would have to purchase some because CryptoKitties runs on ETH(I recommend you use Coinbase exchange platform because of their reputation). After you have gotten some ETH in your personal wallet, you then need to transfer it to your Metamask wallet address. Now that you have acquired some ETH in your Metamask wallet, you should head to marketplace to look for any Kitty of your choice and buy it, then you are ready to start CryptoKitties(smiles).
Conclusion
It is indeed a nice game, but I must add, I think it's over hyped, because I honestly don't see how this can be addictive to me, there's no battle mode, no townhall/dragon castle, but it still got it's way to a whole lot of people that have spent quite a lot of money and I must say that's a big plus to the game. It got nice site design and the kitties are really adorable. And it's a massive crypto magnet to people that haven't heard of blockchain or cryptocurrency before. CryptoKitties has brought a lot investors and potential investors to blockchain and that's a super plus to the game. But it's transaction fee is way too much, for a game that has enough daily traffic to still want more money from it's players is not that cool and they also get a 3.75% transaction fee from the sale of your Kitties. Apart from that, the game is a very nice game and would still be one of the most popular and addictive crypto games in the world.