Becoming a blockchain gamer – your first steps

Fast becoming a disruptive force in the gaming world. Blockchain gaming, while incredibly interesting, isn’t the easiest thing for someone to just ‘plug and play’. We break down how you can get started.

Taking the first steps to become a blockchain gamer

 

For those of you that have seen, read and heard about what’s going on in the world of blockchain gaming. You’ll find that it’s a fast-moving, rapidly developing landscape for developers looking to make their mark on the industry.

Rapid is an understatement, new games are being put through development and being rolled out on a massive scale. For those curious about how these games work and what’s out there, playing is the first and best step to take.

Unlike traditional gaming, however, it’s not so easy as just plugging in or getting on Steam. And for many, that fact alone can sometimes be a deal-breaker.

With this guide on how to take your first steps, you can push forward and see what the blockchain gaming world has to offer!

How on earth do I get started?

1) Get a wallet

So some of the first steps, if you’re brand new to the cryptocurrency world as well, is to set yourself up with a wallet. What do we mean by that? It means that using your computer or smartphone (or both), to find a functional and secure wallet.

Programmes like MyEtherWallet allow you to set up an online wallet to hold your cryptocurrency. For the vast majority of blockchain games (for now), they use Ethereum, because that’s what the lion’s share of these games are built using.

Why? Because many of these blockchain games involve buying and selling in-game characters, items, even Kitties if you’ve heard of them. So you’ll need a wallet to make these transactions happen.

2) Download MetaMask

MetaMask

Now, it sounds like I’m making this up, but I’m not, so why download this? It’s because if you’re looking to play a game that uses the Ethereum blockchain, you won’t be able to do this without either having MetaMask or being fully involved with an Ethereum Node.

MetaMask allows you to access these games and acts as the method of giving and receiving payments on any game you play. It

3) Buy Crypto

Now, if you’ve selected a wallet like MyEtherWallet, you’ll find that there are HUNDREDS of different cryptocurrencies to choose. First of all, in the words of Douglas Adams ‘Don’t panic’; all you need to pick right now is Ethereum.

Now, getting Ethereum is another thing, and to buy some, you’ll need to get signed up on a coin exchange. There are a lot of these, by the way, but for those that are brand new (and want to side-step buying a wallet at the same time), you can always sign up to Coinbase.

Coinbase acts as a way of buying, selling, sending and receiving cryptocurrency. For those more experienced in this area, more ‘hands-off’ exchanges offer some advantages like narrower buy and sell thresholds.

Once you’re all set up on the exchange of your choice, you can buy any amount of Ethereum you want to send across to your wallet or directly to MetaMask.

4) Sending your Ethereum to your Wallet or MetaMask

Now that you have your Ethereum and you have both your MetaMask account and wallet/exchange all set up. All you have to do is send your Ethereum over to your Metamask, which can be very straightforward.

To start, bring up your MetaMask account, you can select ‘Copy address to clipboard’ or ‘Show QR code’. Either of these will allow you to copy out a long [secure] sequence of number and letters. That long line words and letters is is your Ether address; the end destination you want your cryptocurrency to arrive at.

From there, using your chosen exchange, or Coinbase if you preferred, it’s going to your Ethereum account and selecting ‘send’, pasting in your MetaMask address and waiting for it to enter your account.

5) Let’s play!

Once that Ether’s arrived in your account, you can access your game of choice and start playing! Let’s use EtherDungeon as an example; when recruiting your hero in the game, it will prompt you with a transaction through your MetaMask account.

Accept the transaction and congratulations; you’ve officially become a Blockchain Gamer! From here, keep an eye on our news feed to see what’s new in the Blockchain Gaming sphere for anything that you’ll want to get involved in!

Have fun!

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