Axie Infinity - down the rabbit-hole

About two months ago I started playing Axie Infinity (thanks COV-19 quarantine!). In a nutshell, Axie Infinity is a blockchain trading card game. I’ve never played Splinterlands or Gods Unchained before but I think people who have experienced these games before would pick up the basics of playing Axie Infinity much easier than I did.

One of my Axies

Like Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, there’s definitely a rabbit-hole you go down on your Axie Infinity journey. The Axie rabbit-hole journey includes learning, investing, playing and engaging with the community. I am definitely not a gamer. Let’s get that out of the way first. Although I can’t speak for everyone, there is something about this game that appeals to non-gamers. At first it was the idea that one can earn through playing this game that piqued my interest. But after that folks on the Axie Discord server helped me get started, I soon got sucked in by the cuteness of the Axies (the characters in the game are called Axies) and quickly came to love playing (for short periods in a day) and learning little bits at a time about all the different parts of the ecosystem.

I don’t want to make this post too long - there are already lots of great introductory guides to Axie Infinity that cover a lot. My intention is to write a series of shorter posts on Axie Infinity from my perspective (as a relatively new Axie player - I’m certainly no expert!) so as not to overwhelm with too much information.

How did I discover Axie Infinity?

I subscribe to Ryan Sean Adams’ Bankless newsletter. Ryan is a guy who is very active on Twitter and is a big ethereum and de-fi bull. Once or twice a week in his newsletter he has a guest slot where others contribute content about their experience in their crypto niche. On March 17 there was an article in the Bankless newsletter contributed by 3xhuman about Axie Infinity and its play-to-earn potential. From there I did some further reading and watched some how-to-get-started videos on YouTube and decided that it was too complicated and put it in the too-hard-basket. However a few days later I thought about it again and couldn’t stop thinking about it so I joined their Discord server and started chatting with the folks in there. Before I knew it I had bought an Axie team and was ready to start playing.

I’m starting to ‘get it’

What is there to get? Although I’m pretty much obsessed with Axie Infinity now, I still see myself as an anti-/non-gamer. I could never understand the appeal of streaming platforms such as twitch, or watching YouTube videos of people playing and talking about games, or even Discord. Now I’m down the Axie rabbit hole, I understand that the games people play become a part of their identity. Streaming platforms and chat servers built specifically for this space serve the need for people to engage with others that share these niche interests. A few months ago I never thought I’d be saying this, but I have started mingling on Discord and twitch and other streaming platforms (incidentally I think theta.tv is a pretty exciting crypto alternative to twitch is just starting to take off!!) consuming Axie-related content. I think I get it now.

That’s all for this instalment of my new Axie Infinity series. Here’s my rough outline for subsequent posts in this series:

• How can I earn playing Axie Infinity and how do I get started playing?
• Breeding Axies
• Flipping Axies
• Wait, you can buy land?
• Who should I follow and what should I read if I want to learn more (HINT: start with Bankless article if you can’t wait for this post!)?

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