Don't you love it? We're constantly surrounded by fun and exciting things, but as soon as something new and shinny pops up it gets all our attention. This is probably more so with games than anything else. At least I can feel the spoiled kid inside me falling head over heels for a game that's not even out yet but I can already see it will be quite amazing. Getting back to fighting Splinterlands battles? - Yeah, maybe tomorrow. Or how about checking in on RisingStar? - Please, a recipe FOR my boredom. Instead I bought my first pack of CraftInk today.

A New Play2Earn NFT Trading-Card Game

Have you heard of CraftInk? How could you have? After all it's been less than five months since they published its introduction. (Okay, so you may have! Congrats, you can consider yourself among the select few in this niche-of-a-niche!) Though there have been regular updates of the game's development since, and it seems like we should be able to play its first mini version soonish. From what I gather, it's the kind of game like Magic the Gathering, where you build a deck and play against each other. But instead of orcs and wizards you have... well, us Hive bloggers!

A Close Look at the Mirror

This may be the strongest selling factor, at least it's what got me convinced that this game is not only going to be a smash hit, but also fun as fuck! I mean, just look at us! Our communities, our interests, our archetypes and stereotypes. Just like how RisingStar uses up every cliche of the music industry from ambitious rockers to sleazy managers, in CraftInk you will find the various kinds of folks that post on our blockchain. Some may be in for the money, others are artists at heart. Some want to immortalize their travel adventures, while others are working on igniting a spiritual transformation. What we all have in common is the tool of the Hive blockchain, and now there is a game caricaturing us in a deliciously entertaining way. I mean, just check out the crazy card design!

Real Hiveans Among the Characters!!!

But this is not all. Among the many stereotypes, there are cards of real actual Hiveans you can own and add to your deck. Certainly the core development team of CraftInk are included, consisting of @smooms , @quekery , @mary-me , @bubblegif , and @ravenmus1c . - If these names sound familiar to you, you may be also aware that they are the same folks behind the @hiq magazine. I remember getting a few good laughs out of it, and for those of you who don't speak German, there is now an English version at @hiq.magazine . Yesterday I happened to be in a chat meeting with them, where I first heard about CraftInk. Certainly, language can be a barrier, but it is also a great connecting point if you speak it. Though as you can see, the game is fully in English, so nothing to worry about in this regard.

Though from what I understand, anyone can have themselves turned into a CraftInk card, as some of us have already done. The names @solymi , @balte , @tengolotodo , or @felixxx may sound familiar to you. You may have seen some of their posts, or who knows, you could be actually following them already! Can you see yourself as a character of a card-collecting game? You bet I can, but that's just me being my crazy self...

Getting in Early

What was that story about the early bird? Waking up way before sunrise, only to see the worm being snatched up by an even earlier bird? I remember when Splinterlands first came out I was in the middle of cycling down the West Coast. The news reached me, but suspending my realtime adventure to sit in front of a screen, even for an hour, in order to buy virtual cards for a game seemed insane to me (as I still think it was). So I waited until I got home in December, and guess what: the early adopters were rocking the show. No kidding! Of course it is all relative, and with my Beta cards I think I can still consider myself among the early ones today, and even in CraftInk there are tons of others who came before me. Still, I'm quite psyched at having staked a good amount of INK coin and having bought my first pack.

It cost me three bucks (3.013 HBD at the moment) to get me five cool looking cards: one Finance Blogger, one Crazy Rabbit, and three Foodporn Stars! Woohoo! I have still no idea what I can do with them or how good they actually are, but I'm super excited about them. There is supposedly a wiki about to be released on how the game works, and all that jazz, and I'm sure I'll get my head wrapped around it in time. For now I want more cards! Next time I'm going to buy a hundred packs, which gets me five extra ones, but first I need to reshuffle my finances. But getting 525 cards for $300 sounds... well, way better than getting them on the market. Plus there is the exciting card-opening feature. (I know, I'm a sucker for these psych gimmicks!) There are also giveways, cashback, and cool promotions like that, so visit the most recent post of @craftink to find out all the details.