It's Saturday afternoon in late September. You know the kind. You can feel Fall is in the air, but it's also still unseasonable warm outside. The perfect day to be lazy.
In my case, I chose to be lazy in bed, phone in hand. The internet was boring that day my friends. Nothing of real substance. On a whim, I opted to take a look at crypto news. Ever since my dabble in BTC mining (which ended with a lost wallet key), I had been curious to see where the crypto markets and block-chain would go next. In particular, NFT. NFTs had intrigued me for two reasons: 1) the insatiable appetite for investors to find the next big thing and 2) the ability to own something unique, never to be created again.
Upon scanning the general headlines (art piece this, create an NFT that...), I came upon an article talking about how far block-chain tech had come, specifically with the introduction of a new trading card game known as Splinterlands (link to the original article HERE). And this is where I fell into the hole.
After a quick read, I hit up Splinterlands and began combing through the FAQ. I read the SPS whitepaper, learned about DEC, and jumped over to several of the third-party market card sites to actually see the cards. Approximately 30 seconds later (I'm embelishing a bit) I was out of bed, setting up an account, and getting my Spellbook. That was about 4 weeks ago, and I'm about +$70 in purchases (just recently picked up a gold foil Phantasm) and I'm itching for the public sale of Chaos Legion packs (not expecting to have enough SPS before the 30 day pre-sale is up). I see the packs as a way to boost my level in the game and it's what I think I've been waiting for. Between now and then, I've been doing much reading on the Hive Blog and watching some of the better players streams to better understand some of the more strategic mechanics.
For me, personally, there are three things I have enjoyed about Splinterlands:
It's a game. A collector's card game. My days of MtG are long behind me (although my nephew has recently gotten me into Keyforge), but I see a lot of potential in Splinterlands at a gaming level. Yes, it will require investment, but so does anything that is worth its while.
It's an NFT! The cards are mine and forever sealed in the block-chain (until I lose the keys). My initial search around NFT investments gave way to not just an investment vehicle, but one that I can enjoy along the way and actively participate it. By playing Splinterlands, moving up the leagues, winning rewards, I am actively helping it become successful and the value to grow.
The community. Just an absolute insane amount of help for someone who is new to the whole HIVE block-chain concept. Enough so that it encouraged me to write this very post.
So, if you're new here to Splinterlands, or you're just trying to learn about it, do what I did. Jump down the hole. There are bunch of people down here ready to catch you and walk you through the door into another world.
My newly purchased gold foil Phantasm. You can almost feel the weight...
