After the rousing success of the inaugural #IngressFS, or Ingress First Saturdays, its time for the next one.
Date: Saturday, Dec. 6th
Time: 10:00 AM - 11:45AM - Cross-Faction Coffee (see below for details)
12:00 PM - 2PM - Level Up Event Start and END at Grandview Park.
How it Works:
This is a cross-faction event where all local players are combining our AP gained during the event to compete with other sites around the world.
Each player will register their Level and their starting AP with a cross-faction organizer at the beginning of the event and will log it at the end to see what gains have been made.
Experienced players will partner up with less experienced players to help them level up and offer gameplay tips and information.
Organizers: alykat, catalystbc, dagknee, nagasakichow, tafl
Please visit the official G+ page below to RSVP so we can capture the numbers who attend the event!
Our numbers get reported to Niantic to demonstrate the success of our event and may play a role in being selected for future large events, including anomalies.
Official Event Notice: December #IngressFS Vancouver
We had a great turn out for the first First Saturday so let's keep that momentum going for December! This part social and part competitive event, bringing agents from both factions together to level up and have a good time! Be sure to dress warmly but there are also plenty of places along Commercial Drive to get in and hide from the cold!
Schedule as follows:
10:00 AM - 11:45AM - Cross-Faction Coffee to mingle and meet before the days events. Coffee available at Turk's (1275 Commercial Drive) Registration at Grandview Park of all participating agents from both factions including level and AP readings.
12:00 PM - Level Up Event Start from Grandview Park
2:00 PM - End of Event meet up back at Grandview Park with final reading of levels and AP, prizes to be awarded to top agents from each Faction.
Looking forward to seeing you all come out to our second Ingress First Saturdays event!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Darsana Global Event Results
Credit: mitallust
Darsana was a global anomaly played in many cities around the world in celebration of the second birthday of Ingress.
In B.C. Enlightened and Resistance factions battled it out for NR-13-Romeo-02 with some impressive BAF's (Big Ass Fields) going up over vast distances by both factions.
The Final Tally: Darsana Global Scores
IQ Tech Research: XM Anomaly Report: With a difference of just 5 (36 to 31), the Resistance have claimed the #Darsana Global Anomaly during the 2014.43 Shaper Septicycle:
Global Enlightened: 240,435,512
Global Resistance: 441,769,491
Aggregate Value: 68.2
Total for Enlightened: 31
Total for Resistance: 36 + 68.2 = 104.2
NR13-ROMEO-02 (Surrey, CA) [V] Value: 3
RES - 195,259 - ENL - 246,737
Background to Darsana:
INGRESS REPORT - Raw Feed Oct 17 2014 - #DARSANA BEGINS
INGRESS REPORT - Raw Feed Oct 23 2014 - #DARSANA - BRUSSELS and SLC
Updates from Decode Ingress:
Friday, November 7, 2014
INGRESS REPORT - YEAR TWO - THE INVESTIGATION
Join us next week for a continuing journey through the shared world discovered by and affected by each and every Ingress Agent.
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From Ingress on Twitter
Videos: Ingress Report: Ingress Year One - Part 1 and Part 2
Ingress Year One, Part 1 | INGRESS REPORT
Ingress Year One, Part 2 | INGRESS REPORT
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Ingress #FirstSaturdays #IngressFS
Update on Vancouver #FirstSaturdays Schedule
When: Sat. November 1st
Schedule:
10:30am - Those interested in coffee can meet at:
Little Mountain Coffee shop - 4895 Main St,Vancouver
- People can register their AP (see below) at the table there.
- People can register their AP (see below) at the table there.
12 to 2pm - Newer and more experienced players team up to earn AP (see below for more details).
2pm - People register their final AP with organizers.
Thanks again to @tafl for all of the organizing!
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What are #IngressFS: FirstSaturdays are an Agent-organized meetup that happens on the first Saturday of the month in those cities taking place around the world.
#FirstSaturdays Details for Vancouver:
Date: Saturday, November 1st
Schedule:
10:00 AM Cross-Faction Coffee: Join or invite new and seasoned Enlightened and Resistance Agents in this purely social Cross-Faction meetup. All Levels are encouraged to join. Grab a cup of coffee, meet local Agents face-to-face-to-face, learn how to play Ingress or teach a new Agent the ins and outs of Ingress and share Ingress stories.
***** Location is still being confirmed. It will be communicated soon. *****
11:45 AM Level-Up Bootcamp (Start):
We will convene at the Mountainview Graveyard - 5455 Fraser St. Vancouver, BC.
Register your level and AP with the opposing Faction lead. HiLVL Agents will pair with newer Agents working to level up. Note that the official Visur game mechanic will reward AP gained among low level Agents during #IngressFS most handsomely.
Plan:
- We will partner up newer players with more experienced players.
- Everyone will log their starting AP with the Team Leads for the opposing Faction.
- Experienced player will take portals down, newer player will build.
- At 2pm, both report their final AP to the Team Leads for the opposing Faction.
- Niantic will be creating scores based on cumulative AP. This will be reported by the Team Leads to Niantic.
- Niantic will tally scores for all participating sites and determine who wins this #IngressFS.
2:00 PM Level-Up Bootcamp (End): Agents will check back in with the opposing Faction Lead to record their final AP. Individual Faction prizes are included in IFSK-100's. Communities are encouraged to develop their own Faction prize/trophies.
Can Austin take Portland? Will Sydney top Aukland? Shall Buenos Aires rise above Rio? City v. city total Cross-Faction AP gain will be measured and reported back to#IngressFS for bragging rights and possible awarding of the next set of IFSK-100's for December 6, 2014 (48 cities).
Register your November 1 #IngressFS event via http://goo.gl/pNR7pI. On October 20, Niantic Labs will poll all registered Google+ event pages for RSVP "Yes" attendance and other factors. 24 selected cities will be shipped an IFSK-100 - designed to supply a total of 100 Agents.
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Thanks to @tafl for setting up the event page and taking the lead in organizing Vancouver's event:
From Google + Ingress #FirstSaturday - Vancouver, BC
The very first #IngressFS meetup will happen on Saturday, November 1, 2014.
So, Vancouver! We're coming up on 1 year of weekly cross-faction beer nights (WOW!) and now we have an opportunity to compete against other communities for an extra slice of glory! Let's take our friendly beer night to the next level and be amazing competitors!
To join in the event, visit the G+ Event page and click Going.
So, Vancouver! We're coming up on 1 year of weekly cross-faction beer nights (WOW!) and now we have an opportunity to compete against other communities for an extra slice of glory! Let's take our friendly beer night to the next level and be amazing competitors!
To join in the event, visit the G+ Event page and click Going.
*******************************************************
Ingress celebrates two year birthday with new monthly event 'First Saturdays'
Thorp-Lancaster, D. (2014). From: http://www.androidcentral.com/ingress-celebrates-two-year-birthday-new-monthly-event-first-saturdays
Real-world adventure game Ingress will be celebrating its second birthday this year, and it's doing so in style. Google's Niantic Labs,
which runs the game, will be kicking off the celebration with a new
monthly event series called "First Saturdays" which will serve to bring
new Ingress "agents" into the fold. The events will run simultaneously in 120 cities across the world, and will be entirely player-driven.
The first of these monthly events will kick off on November 1st. However, starting tonight, a special program will run for two weeks where agents will earn double AP points, triple rewards for portal hacks, and exclusive medals for reaching certain levels by November 15th.
The first of these monthly events will kick off on November 1st. However, starting tonight, a special program will run for two weeks where agents will earn double AP points, triple rewards for portal hacks, and exclusive medals for reaching certain levels by November 15th.
Media & Gameplay: Ingress Celebrates 2nd Birthday with Increase in Hacked Gear
Ingress Celebrates its 2nd Birthday
Cincur, B. (2014). Decode Ingress. Retrieved from: http://decodeingress.me/2014/10/23/ingress-celebrates-2nd-birthday/
To celebrate the 2nd anniversary, Niantic will award a special Innovator Medal to all Agents who reach Level 3 by November 15th, 2014.
Cincur, B. (2014). Decode Ingress. Retrieved from: http://decodeingress.me/2014/10/23/ingress-celebrates-2nd-birthday/
To celebrate the 2nd anniversary, Niantic will award a special Innovator Medal to all Agents who reach Level 3 by November 15th, 2014.
There are 2 tiers of Innovator Medal:
And that’s not all: for the next two weeks, AP gain will double. Also, hack output will increase:- Bronze Medal: Reach Level 3
- Silver Medal: Reach Level 9
- 3X more Resonators
- 3X more XMPs
- 3X more Rare Heat Sinks and Multi-hacks
****************************************
Ingress celebrates two year birthday with new monthly event 'First Saturdays'
Thorp-Lancaster, D. (2014). From: http://www.androidcentral.com/ingress-celebrates-two-year-birthday-new-monthly-event-first-saturdays
Real-world adventure game Ingress will be celebrating its second birthday this year, and it's doing so in style. Google's Niantic Labs, which runs the game, will be kicking off the celebration with a new monthly event series called "First Saturdays" which will serve to bring new Ingress "agents" into the fold. The events will run simultaneously in 120 cities across the world, and will be entirely player-driven.
The first of these monthly events will kick off on November 1st. However, starting tonight, a special program will run for two weeks where agents will earn double AP points, triple rewards for portal hacks, and exclusive medals for reaching certain levels by November 15th.
The first of these monthly events will kick off on November 1st. However, starting tonight, a special program will run for two weeks where agents will earn double AP points, triple rewards for portal hacks, and exclusive medals for reaching certain levels by November 15th.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Ingress Guardians: A Love-Hate Relationship
This post is dedicated to one of my dear, departed guardians, which was taken out recently. Prior to this happening, I began to draft this post about guardians since many of us seem to have a love-hate relationship with them, and with each other about them.;-)
What is a Guardian?
A guardian is when you control a portal for a specific number of consecutive days. In other words, you have at least one resonator on it, it doesn't get smashed by the other faction and it keeps accruing days toward specific badges.
From Decode Ingress:
A Guardian badge is achieved by protecting and maintain control of a Portal for an extended period of time.
Guardian badge has 5 tiers and each tear has a required number of days to achieve it.
How Does one Establish and Nurture a Guardian?
When you look at your Agent Stats for All Time, under the Defense section, you can see the first line: Max Time Portal Held. If the number of days keeps growing, you have yourself at least one guardian.
When I first started playing I didn't really think much about getting a guardian. I live in a fairly large, urban area and the chances of establishing and keeping one here was pretty much Nil. When I selected a couple of portals in my area and they promptly got smashed and taken out, I realized I had to put more effort into this whole Guardian thing if I wanted to be a successful Guardian badge hunter.
I then scoured the Intel map and found some places that would coincide with a visit to particular areas.
What makes for a good Guardian portal?
1. They were off the beaten track, so to speak. Not usually in high traffic areas. This is harder for some of us than others, depending on the area we play in.
2. They did not have a lot a other portals nearby.
3. They were not owned by anyone else at the time.
4. We have to be able to charge them from home. Depending on our Level in the game, if the Guardian is far away (really far) we may not be able to recharge it.
5. The more remote the better. These stand a really good chance of ticking through the days, since few people will get there and cell service is often very dicey once out in the back-a-beyond.
6. The time of year and weather might be your best friends. If you find a remote guardian and nurture it well, this could last enough time to get you your badges because the Guardian is so remote it is inaccessible at certain times of the year, or the weather just makes it really hard to get to it.
Other important stuff about Guardians?
How many resonators does one put on a Guardian - Most people put a single, or couple of resonators on their Guardian. That's how people often determine it is your Guardian. Its sitting quietly somewhere, with one or two resos on it and some mods.
Be discreet - When Guardian hunting, you may want to keep it on the down low and not announce to the local faction on the other side that you've been in the area. In other words, do not smash and wage war in the area you're establishing your Guardian. Quietly visit a particular area. If it is an unclaimed portal, even better. Sometimes we do smash and take a portal over, but if we do this, we should expect someone else is going to come and reclaim the portal, or take it away from us at some point.
Burn that Guardian portal out - Get as many portal keys as you can at the time you claim it. Almost everyone I've talked to has a story about deleting their portal key(s) at some point. I did it, but had backups. This is especially important if you have a remote Guardian you can't easily get to. If someone else has accompanied you on your Guardian expedition, get them to keep a key, or two for you. They may also help with your recharging.
Linking and Fielding from Your Guardian - It is often quite annoying when someone in our own faction links and fields from our Guardian. And making it an anchor is the fast-track to losing our Guardian. Some of us go out looking to smash people's Guardians for sport/fun. Others take them out while badge hunting for uniques. We want our Guardians to be out of the way, unobtrusive and just keep ticking and earning us badges.
What does one do when a team member links, or fields, from our Guardian? Well, some of us might Jarvis portals that have been linked to our Guardian so they can go back to being the anonymous little portal off in the distance. Its your call.
Don't get heartbroken, or angry if you lose your Guardian - This is easier said, than done. Your heart will most likely sink, or for some of us more aggro folks, our blood boil when we go to recharge and find our Guardian has been taken out/taken over. This is part of gameplay.
Keep it alive - I've heard stories about people thinking they had lost their Guardian due to decay, but when they visited it again and popped a resonator on it, or recharged it the portal caught up in terms of time, or just kept ticking along toward a badge.
What is a Guardian?
A guardian is when you control a portal for a specific number of consecutive days. In other words, you have at least one resonator on it, it doesn't get smashed by the other faction and it keeps accruing days toward specific badges.
From Decode Ingress:
A Guardian badge is achieved by protecting and maintain control of a Portal for an extended period of time.
Guardian badge has 5 tiers and each tear has a required number of days to achieve it.
- Bronze – 3 days
- Silver – 10 days
- Gold – 20 days
- Platinum – 90 days
- Onyx – 150 days
How Does one Establish and Nurture a Guardian?
When you look at your Agent Stats for All Time, under the Defense section, you can see the first line: Max Time Portal Held. If the number of days keeps growing, you have yourself at least one guardian.
When I first started playing I didn't really think much about getting a guardian. I live in a fairly large, urban area and the chances of establishing and keeping one here was pretty much Nil. When I selected a couple of portals in my area and they promptly got smashed and taken out, I realized I had to put more effort into this whole Guardian thing if I wanted to be a successful Guardian badge hunter.
I then scoured the Intel map and found some places that would coincide with a visit to particular areas.
What makes for a good Guardian portal?
1. They were off the beaten track, so to speak. Not usually in high traffic areas. This is harder for some of us than others, depending on the area we play in.
2. They did not have a lot a other portals nearby.
3. They were not owned by anyone else at the time.
4. We have to be able to charge them from home. Depending on our Level in the game, if the Guardian is far away (really far) we may not be able to recharge it.
5. The more remote the better. These stand a really good chance of ticking through the days, since few people will get there and cell service is often very dicey once out in the back-a-beyond.
6. The time of year and weather might be your best friends. If you find a remote guardian and nurture it well, this could last enough time to get you your badges because the Guardian is so remote it is inaccessible at certain times of the year, or the weather just makes it really hard to get to it.
Other important stuff about Guardians?
How many resonators does one put on a Guardian - Most people put a single, or couple of resonators on their Guardian. That's how people often determine it is your Guardian. Its sitting quietly somewhere, with one or two resos on it and some mods.
Be discreet - When Guardian hunting, you may want to keep it on the down low and not announce to the local faction on the other side that you've been in the area. In other words, do not smash and wage war in the area you're establishing your Guardian. Quietly visit a particular area. If it is an unclaimed portal, even better. Sometimes we do smash and take a portal over, but if we do this, we should expect someone else is going to come and reclaim the portal, or take it away from us at some point.
Burn that Guardian portal out - Get as many portal keys as you can at the time you claim it. Almost everyone I've talked to has a story about deleting their portal key(s) at some point. I did it, but had backups. This is especially important if you have a remote Guardian you can't easily get to. If someone else has accompanied you on your Guardian expedition, get them to keep a key, or two for you. They may also help with your recharging.
Linking and Fielding from Your Guardian - It is often quite annoying when someone in our own faction links and fields from our Guardian. And making it an anchor is the fast-track to losing our Guardian. Some of us go out looking to smash people's Guardians for sport/fun. Others take them out while badge hunting for uniques. We want our Guardians to be out of the way, unobtrusive and just keep ticking and earning us badges.
What does one do when a team member links, or fields, from our Guardian? Well, some of us might Jarvis portals that have been linked to our Guardian so they can go back to being the anonymous little portal off in the distance. Its your call.
Don't get heartbroken, or angry if you lose your Guardian - This is easier said, than done. Your heart will most likely sink, or for some of us more aggro folks, our blood boil when we go to recharge and find our Guardian has been taken out/taken over. This is part of gameplay.
Keep it alive - I've heard stories about people thinking they had lost their Guardian due to decay, but when they visited it again and popped a resonator on it, or recharged it the portal caught up in terms of time, or just kept ticking along toward a badge.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Media: Ingress Diaries: In the Cemetery, At Midnight, with the Flashlight
Ingress Diaries: In the Cemetery, At Midnight, with the Flashlight
How Agent ArielSkye Got Over Her Fear of Werecoyotes Eating Her Face Off (kind of)
Goodwin, S. (2014). The Mary Sue. Retrieved from: http://www.themarysue.com/ingress-diaries-in-the-cemetery-at-midnight-with-the-flashlight/
I startle easily. Really easily. And I have a vivid imagination. So,
when I’m parked in a cemetery at midnight and the wind makes a tree
rustle and drop acorns on the ground, I imagine that I’m being
surrounded by a pack of werecoyotes bent on slowly eating my face off.
Why then? Why would I do this to myself? What am I doing parked in a
creepy cemetery at midnight, gripping my cell phone in one hand and one
of those giant flashlights that doubles as a bludgeoning tool in the
other? Well… I’m playing a game called Ingress.
You see, the Smurfs took our farm earlier in the day, and I can’t stand seeing all of that blue on the Intel map. It’s gotta go. And Agent ArielSkye is just the badass level 10 agent to do it. (Yeah, my agent name is ArielSkye, and yes, I did name my badass level 10 Enlightened agent after my favorite Disney princess and Skye from Agents of Shield. Criticize me and watch me the-opposite-of-caring. :-)) If she doesn’t fall prey to the pack of werecoyotes first. And if she can find another Agent to join her to be coyote bait—I mean, a buddy system.
So… what the heck is Ingress, and why do I play it?
Ingress is a GPS-based augmented reality MMORPG that is played on a cell phone. Niantic Labs created it and marketed the concept to Google, with the game originally only being available on Android devices. Just this year, an Apple version became available as well. You can check out their official website for live events and access to the media files that explain the backstory.
But here’s my explanation: Ingress is like the love child of geocaching and Capture the Flag with a cool sci-fi backstory thrown in to appeal to Nerdmuffins like me. The basic premise is that this… entity, or alien race known only as “The Shapers,” has “gifted” our world with Exotic Matter (known as XM). This XM concentrates in areas of cultural, historical, or artistic importance, like parks, old cemeteries, statues, and historical buildings. Within the game, these places are known as “portals.” Gameplay involves going to portals in real-time and capturing them for your faction, of which there are two: The Enlightened (green, often called “frogs”) and The Resistance (blue, often called “Smurfs”).
A portal can be green or blue, indicating that it’s owned by one of those two factions, or a white-ish gray, meaning that it’s unclaimed.
In the game, there are resonators, which you can think of as the “flags,” and bursters, which are basically like the “guns.” If Agent ArielSkye is walking to a restaurant for lunch and comes across an unclaimed portal along the way, she can deploy resonators to claim that portal and turn it green. And she does. If Agent ArielSkye encounters a blue portal, she can use her bursters and blast the blue right off of it, deploy resonators, and claim the portal as her own. Which she will. She’s cool like that.
There are other aspects of gameplay—you can put mods on a portal that make it harder for the other faction to take it down, you can farm for keys and inventory, you can play cooperatively to create large fields or long links, or you can travel out of town and collect unique portal keys. You can also communicate with other players via an in-game chat, so smack talk is totally a thing. For example:
1) I walk more. I walk to lunch so I can play Ingress along the way. I park downtown and walk around to farm some inventory and level up. I meet up with other Ingress players to walk around together. Basically, it’s making me more active and helping me meet more local nerds to chill with, and those are some really good things.
2) I am now much more aware of parks, monuments, and general cool stuff in my area. There are statues here in my town I never knew existed. There are parks I have explored that I never would have been to before. And there are restaurants I eat in because they are portals, and I can put a multi-hack on it and hack away throughout my meal. And I do.
3) Local groups of players are supportive and generally cool. The Bloomington Enlightened communicate with each other via the in-game chat and also via Google Hangouts. We rush to the rescue of other Agents who are trying to make something or take something down. We have parties and cookouts. We help noobs level up. When my awesome cat Valentine passed away a few months ago, the local Enlightened group got me an official Ingress poster, and everyone signed it (real names and game names) with their with condolences. Seriously.
4) When I first started playing, I was one of only a few lady players in town. Now we are many, we travel in packs, and we plot strategy. Diabolically. To quote Kefka, “Bwa ha ha!”
5) Gameplay is vastly different depending on whom you play with. One of my friends likes to take trips out of town and use the game to direct us to places of interest. A couple of friends and I like to walk around downtown and reinforce existing green portals and make links and fields. When I play with my brother, he likes to plot out ways to make giant fields that cover the Intel map with green. My mom plays sometimes as well, and she enjoys the local history aspect—submitting new portals for consideration and writing good descriptions of historical places. There are official events called Anomalies that players can engage in as well.
6) I have a lot more weird phobias after dark than I ever thought I did. I’m a night owl, and I do a lot of my Ingress playing in the wee hours. I never knew that I was a person who worried about wild animals leaping out of the forest and into the open window of my car. Now, I know this about myself. I keep the window up to block werecoyote access to my face. Problem… solved?
7) I take the long way to get places. By the “long way,” I mean “the way with the most portals along it.” Ingress obsession can cause some delay in getting from point A to point B. Especially if you encounter a blue portal and have to pull over to take care of things. :-)
8) Generally, I play smart—I don’t climb fences and trespass or tempt fate by crawling into potential werecoyote dens. If I’m going to be out in the dark for a long time, I tell people where I’m going. It’s usually more fun to play with friends, and you waste a lot fewer resources if you’re not using all of your own resonators and bursters to deal with enemy portals. Two of my friends have serious safety concerns about the game, but so far, I have not ended up dead in a ditch or been turned into a faceless werecoyote. Just be sensible and don’t do stupid things like hiking alone in a thunderstorm while holding a metal rod aloft, challenging Zeus to strike you down.
9) The game is played internationally. There have been some really cool images created with both factions cooperating. Especially in Ukraine:
10) I chose Team Green. You don’t have to. Even if you decide to be a Smurf, you’re going to have fun, make friends, and explore. And, without Smurfs, us Frogs would be kind of bored. It takes all kinds.
So, if you decide to become an Ingress Agent after reading this article—have fun! Explore, make friends, and carry a big flashlight. In case of werecoyotes. Just because they’re not real doesn’t mean they’re not lurking behind a tombstone, ready to leap out and eat some faces!
You see, the Smurfs took our farm earlier in the day, and I can’t stand seeing all of that blue on the Intel map. It’s gotta go. And Agent ArielSkye is just the badass level 10 agent to do it. (Yeah, my agent name is ArielSkye, and yes, I did name my badass level 10 Enlightened agent after my favorite Disney princess and Skye from Agents of Shield. Criticize me and watch me the-opposite-of-caring. :-)) If she doesn’t fall prey to the pack of werecoyotes first. And if she can find another Agent to join her to be coyote bait—I mean, a buddy system.
Ingress is a GPS-based augmented reality MMORPG that is played on a cell phone. Niantic Labs created it and marketed the concept to Google, with the game originally only being available on Android devices. Just this year, an Apple version became available as well. You can check out their official website for live events and access to the media files that explain the backstory.
But here’s my explanation: Ingress is like the love child of geocaching and Capture the Flag with a cool sci-fi backstory thrown in to appeal to Nerdmuffins like me. The basic premise is that this… entity, or alien race known only as “The Shapers,” has “gifted” our world with Exotic Matter (known as XM). This XM concentrates in areas of cultural, historical, or artistic importance, like parks, old cemeteries, statues, and historical buildings. Within the game, these places are known as “portals.” Gameplay involves going to portals in real-time and capturing them for your faction, of which there are two: The Enlightened (green, often called “frogs”) and The Resistance (blue, often called “Smurfs”).
A portal can be green or blue, indicating that it’s owned by one of those two factions, or a white-ish gray, meaning that it’s unclaimed.
In the game, there are resonators, which you can think of as the “flags,” and bursters, which are basically like the “guns.” If Agent ArielSkye is walking to a restaurant for lunch and comes across an unclaimed portal along the way, she can deploy resonators to claim that portal and turn it green. And she does. If Agent ArielSkye encounters a blue portal, she can use her bursters and blast the blue right off of it, deploy resonators, and claim the portal as her own. Which she will. She’s cool like that.
There are other aspects of gameplay—you can put mods on a portal that make it harder for the other faction to take it down, you can farm for keys and inventory, you can play cooperatively to create large fields or long links, or you can travel out of town and collect unique portal keys. You can also communicate with other players via an in-game chat, so smack talk is totally a thing. For example:
AgentSmurfyWhinypants: You destroyed my Guardian Portal! Whyyyyy!!!!Some cool things about Ingress:
Agent ArielSkye: Your “Guardian Portal” was in plain sight. Off of a highway. In a parking lot. Do better next time. I’m helping you grow.
AgentSmurfyWhinypants: I’m going to find your portals and turn them blue!
AgentArielSkye: Go ahead. I’ll take them back and get more points to level up. You’re so helpful! Thanks, man!
1) I walk more. I walk to lunch so I can play Ingress along the way. I park downtown and walk around to farm some inventory and level up. I meet up with other Ingress players to walk around together. Basically, it’s making me more active and helping me meet more local nerds to chill with, and those are some really good things.
2) I am now much more aware of parks, monuments, and general cool stuff in my area. There are statues here in my town I never knew existed. There are parks I have explored that I never would have been to before. And there are restaurants I eat in because they are portals, and I can put a multi-hack on it and hack away throughout my meal. And I do.
3) Local groups of players are supportive and generally cool. The Bloomington Enlightened communicate with each other via the in-game chat and also via Google Hangouts. We rush to the rescue of other Agents who are trying to make something or take something down. We have parties and cookouts. We help noobs level up. When my awesome cat Valentine passed away a few months ago, the local Enlightened group got me an official Ingress poster, and everyone signed it (real names and game names) with their with condolences. Seriously.
4) When I first started playing, I was one of only a few lady players in town. Now we are many, we travel in packs, and we plot strategy. Diabolically. To quote Kefka, “Bwa ha ha!”
5) Gameplay is vastly different depending on whom you play with. One of my friends likes to take trips out of town and use the game to direct us to places of interest. A couple of friends and I like to walk around downtown and reinforce existing green portals and make links and fields. When I play with my brother, he likes to plot out ways to make giant fields that cover the Intel map with green. My mom plays sometimes as well, and she enjoys the local history aspect—submitting new portals for consideration and writing good descriptions of historical places. There are official events called Anomalies that players can engage in as well.
6) I have a lot more weird phobias after dark than I ever thought I did. I’m a night owl, and I do a lot of my Ingress playing in the wee hours. I never knew that I was a person who worried about wild animals leaping out of the forest and into the open window of my car. Now, I know this about myself. I keep the window up to block werecoyote access to my face. Problem… solved?
7) I take the long way to get places. By the “long way,” I mean “the way with the most portals along it.” Ingress obsession can cause some delay in getting from point A to point B. Especially if you encounter a blue portal and have to pull over to take care of things. :-)
8) Generally, I play smart—I don’t climb fences and trespass or tempt fate by crawling into potential werecoyote dens. If I’m going to be out in the dark for a long time, I tell people where I’m going. It’s usually more fun to play with friends, and you waste a lot fewer resources if you’re not using all of your own resonators and bursters to deal with enemy portals. Two of my friends have serious safety concerns about the game, but so far, I have not ended up dead in a ditch or been turned into a faceless werecoyote. Just be sensible and don’t do stupid things like hiking alone in a thunderstorm while holding a metal rod aloft, challenging Zeus to strike you down.
9) The game is played internationally. There have been some really cool images created with both factions cooperating. Especially in Ukraine:
This is just… neat!
10) I chose Team Green. You don’t have to. Even if you decide to be a Smurf, you’re going to have fun, make friends, and explore. And, without Smurfs, us Frogs would be kind of bored. It takes all kinds.
So, if you decide to become an Ingress Agent after reading this article—have fun! Explore, make friends, and carry a big flashlight. In case of werecoyotes. Just because they’re not real doesn’t mean they’re not lurking behind a tombstone, ready to leap out and eat some faces!
Agent ArielSkye’s Scanner (aka her cell phone)
Videos: Ingress Game Play
Guest post from @sidetracked:
Video Tips From the "Ingress Report"
Early in the life of the "Ingress Report" they had a series
of video tutorials to help agents level up. Here are the first eight
episodes.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Video: Playing Ingress: Capture, destroy, link and field
Capture, destroy, link and field. Discover nearby Portals and make new friends from around the globe. #Ingress, explained by Agents.
From the Ingress YouTube channel, shared by @sidetracked
From the Ingress YouTube channel, shared by @sidetracked
Playing Ingress
For those who can't access the embedded video:
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Media: Google’s Ingress Takes Mobile Gaming to the Streets
Google’s Ingress Takes Mobile Gaming to the Streets
Andersen, M. (2014). Wired. Originally posted at ARGNet. Excerpts below. Click the link to read the whole article for background on how Ingress started, game specifics and the convoluted storyline.
Google has encouraged Android users to wage a silent battle for global domination focused on locations of cultural relevance, through its mobile game Ingress. For over a year, “field agents” in the game’s invite-only beta have pieced together a deep narrative hiding just beneath the surface of the geolocative gameplay. The game was recently opened up to all Android devices, with an iOS release rumored for 2014.
It’s been over a year since Google introduced the world of Ingress. At its core, the project is a locative mobile game spawned out of NianticLabs@Google, an internal skunkworks team based out of the search giant’s San Francisco office. In Ingress, players compete to capture and connect virtual portals situated at real world locations to control the globe for their team.
Finding Community in Competition
In the past year, the Ingress community has blossomed, with blogs and a subredditproviding regular updates on the game’s progress, Wikis documenting the minutae of the game’s story, and a weekly in-game web series produced by NianticLabs drawing attention to some of the game’s highlights, focusing in equal parts on the narrative and gameplay. And there are quite a few highlights, like when one passionate player got a tattoo of the game’s logo.
Each of these serve as practical windows into the world of Ingress for the outsider, but the most vibrant community can be found on Google+. While Google’s efforts to integrate its social network across everything from YouTube to Gmail has been met its own resistance from the company’s existing user base, Ingress may serve as Google’s strongest case study for providing a compelling reason for people to actually use the service for its intended purpose. Ingress‘ gameplay is inherently competitive, pitting faction against faction. However, inter-faction collaboration is also essential for regional planning, so players have turned to Google+ Circles to manage tactical planning while still participating in cross-factional conversations.
The friendly localized rivalries have even led to some unexpected and unprompted instances of geo-locative artwork. Given a palatte of geo-locative points on a map, Enlightened and Resistance field agents teamed up to engage in not-so-random acts of field art, carving out virtual bat signals, woodpeckers, and sailboats to decorate the game’s interface.
Media: Pennsylvania man arrested on warrant while playing Ingress game in Warren County
Pennsylvania man arrested on warrant while playing Ingress game in Warren County
Bultman, M. (2014). The Express-Times. Lehighvalleylive.
While a Monroe County man was trying to capture landmarks in Oxford Township, police captured him.
John Randall, 55, of Eldred Township, and another man in the early morning hours of Sept. 13 were outside St. Rose of Lima Parish playing an interactive cellphone game called Ingress, according to police. Similar to capture the flag, the game requires players to visit historical or cultural places and claim them for their team.
A Washington Township, New Jersey, police officer -- the department provides coverage to Oxford -- was on patrol about 1:50 and became suspicious of the two men in the church's Academy Street parking lot, police said in a news release.
The officer discovered the men were playing the cellphone game but also found Randall had a $290 outstanding warrant out of Riverdale, N.J., police said.
He was arrested and released after posting bail, police said.
Matthew Bultman may be reached at mbultman@express-times.com. Follow him on Twitter @NWJerseyCrime. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
John Randall, 55, of Eldred Township, and another man in the early morning hours of Sept. 13 were outside St. Rose of Lima Parish playing an interactive cellphone game called Ingress, according to police. Similar to capture the flag, the game requires players to visit historical or cultural places and claim them for their team.
A Washington Township, New Jersey, police officer -- the department provides coverage to Oxford -- was on patrol about 1:50 and became suspicious of the two men in the church's Academy Street parking lot, police said in a news release.
The officer discovered the men were playing the cellphone game but also found Randall had a $290 outstanding warrant out of Riverdale, N.J., police said.
He was arrested and released after posting bail, police said.
Matthew Bultman may be reached at mbultman@express-times.com. Follow him on Twitter @NWJerseyCrime. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Reflections on Ingress Community
I've been inspired to write this blog post as a result of my experiences playing Ingress thus far and from some of the post-anomaly dialogue taking place.
I have really appreciated reading the post-anomaly
reflections and opinions of people and will weigh in with some of my own as a newcomer, and someone who knows a lot about community development and capacity building within organizations and community.
Community
Community is defined in the
following ways:
1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a locality inhabited by such a group.
3.a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing commoncharacteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usuallypreceded by the):the business community; the community of scholars.
4. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.
4. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.
5. Ecclesiastical, a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.
6. Ecology, an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area.
7. Joint possession, enjoyment, liability etc.: A community of property.
When I started playing I was very fortunate to have a built-in social circle of people I already knew. I also met some people who lived in my local neighbourhood. Some of these people were really helpful by teaching me some of the nuts and bolts about how to play the game, inviting me to go out and play, and loaning me equipment to increase my game play, such as external batteries. I was able to level up much faster due to all of this support and mentoring.
I was also invited to join various online communication groups, such as local Google + group and others. The increase in communications was overwhelming to start with, but I acclimated and determined what was necessary and what was just noise.
Observations and Analysis
Once I started to become involved some other observations began to come up about the local culture and community. In no particular order, these were some of my observations and some of my analysis:
- There are players who have been around for a long time. They have a lot of information and context about the game including history, local play and bigger picture knowledge. Some of them are also very vocal, very negative, cynical and dominating of discourse and dialogue in the local community.
- The local Ingress community (both factions) appears to be insular, lacks diversity and there is no sense of inclusiveness, or real community.
- Beyond a superficial sense of welcome it is up to individual players to find out where there might be space to be included, or form game play and social connections.
- This game is entirely dominated by males. Female players are vastly outnumbered and appear to have little voice, or inclusion in any type of local leadership, which appears to be exclusively reserved for male players in both factions. There are few exceptions to this.
- Assumptions are made that females start playing Ingress as a result of being "encouraged" to play from male partners. There appears to be an attitude from some male players that females who have partners are subordinate to their male partners and relegated to things such as being mules and supporting the play of their partners. Other dynamics, such as jealousy arise when the female partner is a better player/levels up faster. These observations have been informed by the many comments I've read on communications platforms and from conversations with some people.
- Event planning and organization, especially for #Helios, was dominated by a small core of people (males). Communications were extremely restricted, secretive and the majority of local members were excluded from being involved in planning and in communications surrounding the event.
- Suspicion, paranoia and negativity between factions and specific faction members is endemic and toxic.
- Cross-faction events and engagement is viewed as suspicious, unnecessary, and possibly threatening to some parties. Those who are involved in cross faction events and communications may be questioned as to their motives and may be seen as suspicious.
- Little emphasis is being placed on creating a strong community of support and mentoring for ethical game playing within and between factions.
Culture
I have successfully avoided the culture of gamers/online/geek communities etc. for my whole life until playing Ingress. I say successful because everything I always suspected about this culture has been demonstrated to me within my short time playing Ingress (see above).
This is a male-dominated culture in which activities such as trolling, personal criticisms, attacks and trash talk are not only condoned, but considered part of the culture.
For instance when I introduced this blog, I was met with resounding criticism (not constructive), nitpicking and negativity. I have a tough skin, but this just reinforced the lack of inclusion and voice for those perceived as not part of the "in group." It is quite clear to many that only certain people are apparently allowed to have voice and that message was received and reinforced loud and clear when this blog was introduced.
Some well meaning people contacted me privately to "mansplain" others' behaviour. I appreciated the efforts, but what communities benefit from is instead of explaining away social incompetence, trolling and poor behaviour to those who have been targeted, is for those people who shut down inclusion and voice and efforts to become more involved to be called on this behaviour. Cultures cannot and will not shift until this happens. Bottom line, people with privilege within any group have more power, more voice and decide who will be allowed to be included and to what extent that is allowed. This kind of power and insularity destroys the ability to build healthy, strong and inclusive communities if it is allowed to continue. Fundamentally, groups and communities are weaker and cannot grow in a healthy way when they are this insular.
When this happened I also heard from other female players who told me about their own experiences within this male-dominated culture and community. Not one local player commented positively (in the larger group) at the effort I made to put this blog together to serve as a source of information and support, primarily to new players, and those who remain on the fringes due to some of the apparent insularity of the larger community. There is a reason many of us prefer to be "lone wolf" players. Some of those reasons are reflected daily in various communications.
Recruitment and Mentoring
It is putting the cart before the horse to
focus on recruiting, which continues to happen quietly. The starting place for any community building has to to critically reflect on and examine what kind of community exists already and what kind of community does the local community want to build and maintain?
I've heard a valuable criticism that there is little focus on creating local faction events and more effort put into cross-faction events. I think both are equally important for different reasons. How are local factions and communities building an actual sense of inclusion and engagement within?
When people are recruited, or join a local faction, what ways do community members reach out and create a space for inclusion? I was able to benefit in this game, and elsewhere, because I had people reach out and offer me mentoring. I have been a mentor, formally and informally, to many in my professional world.
I know there are people who are quietly mentoring others and they should be applauded. I would ask some of the players who have been playing for some time what efforts they go to to mentor new players in their areas? What ways do you open things up and what ways to shut things down? What are you doing to contribute to creating a positive, inclusive community, or do you even see the need for that?
Gender Issues in Ingress Play
Going back to the gender issue, there are live issues for women that impact our game play. Safety is first and foremost. Meeting up with strangers in the community, going to play and the time of day we play has real safety implications for us. I've heard about women harassed and made to feel unsafe within local game play. I've also seen male players call people out when this has occurred publically. I wonder how much of this has happened without people being aware of it since I would suggest that at a societal level aggression and violence toward females is normed and when people do challenge this they are usually attacked, trolled and sometimes even threatened.
Another issue that impacts female player's ability to connect with local players is interest in joining others in game play being misconstrued as interest in something more. This is an issue women may have to deal with that is probably not on the radar of most men. It can be very difficult for women and men to "just be friends" without some strange dynamics coming into play. Since the majority of people playing this game are male, there is a lot of mentoring that could be done that frankly isn't happening.
One of the ways I've tried to step into this gender issue is to create a women's communications group to create a space to organize female missions and outings, for people to ask questions and build local community. I am committed to trying to increase this space, because our entire community will benefit from more inclusion and recognition of these issues, of which gender is only one, but an important one.
Leadership and Capacity Building
A group, or community is only as strong as its local leadership and its local capacity. This should not be perceived as a criticism, or attack on the local leadership, who are clearly doing a huge job and we should all be thankful for what they are doing in both factions.
Community strength occurs when the right people with the right knowledge, skills and abilities are involved in using these things for the benefit of the larger community. When communities lack diversity, inclusion and opportunities to expand beyond the insularity of status quo leadership, they suffer, they limp along and sometimes, they fail.
Having met quite a few people in my short time playing, being a keen observer and having a lot of knowledge about organizational culture and community, I am aware that the local Ingress community (in both factions) has a great many smart, knowledgeable and skillful people. In the labour relations vernacular this is referred to as "talent."
Recruitment and retention of top talent is one of the biggest indicators of a successful organization and community. I see little, or no, reflection on this within the local Ingress community. The same people dominate day in and day out, while there is little, to no opportunity for others to be brought in and have their knowledge, skills and abilities identified and utilized.
Disclaimer
My observations are primarily based one what I have seen in the Metro Vancouver area. I am not aware of the play and communities around BC and I'm sure there are things to be gained by looking at what other ways local communities are organized and functioning.
The Way Forward
I want to thank everyone from both factions who makes the BC Ingress community and game a lively, interesting and fun game to play and learn from. I want to end this rather long post with a request for people to think about how they can contribute to community capacity building, improving relationships, inclusion, diversity and game play within our own factions, local communities and between each other. I look forward to getting back to regular play and meeting more of you out in the field.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
How to prepare for an Ingress Anomaly
How to prepare for an Ingress Anomaly
Connor Tumbleson, (2014).Since there seems to lack any information for what to do at Ingress events / anomalies. I present my version, in hopes to help you.
How to prepare for an Ingress Anomaly.
No matter your phone. I doubt it'll be able to run Ingress and other team related apps for four hours straight. Clusters run back to back, so you won't have time to run home and charge. Plan ahead, bring a mechanism to charge.
Bring supplies
These events use supplies and that is no stretch of imagination. I'd expect to use in the range of 800 - 1400 items.
Have lots of Power Cubes
Without XM, you are useless. You might as well have a dead battery. You can't deploy or fire without XM, and even scoring the cube here and there off hacks will only give you another 30 or so seconds.
Go in with a team
There are people who start planning from the instant they know the event is coming. There is nothing worst than thwarting a massive team effort unintentionally, because you didn't know something. Find your team when you arrive for instruction or get involved early to make sure this doesn't happen.
Keep it clean
At the end of the day, this is a game which is suppose to be fun. Don't do something you'd regret. There is no need to sabotage bikes or injury the other team. Keep it cool.
Play as teammate
Going rogue in an event is tough. The splash damage in any cluster from 100+ people will destroy everything within 150 meters. You will have zero luck going rogue. Don't do it.
Understand the scoring
While these are different for each event / anomaly. The general time it is more points for volatile portals and for a field covering the cluster, and a small amount of points for non-volatile portals. There is no need to fight over non-volatile portals. Leave those for the lower levels.
Use supplies in a smart way
The only important parts (score wise) of the event are the measurements which occur in each cluster. This is when a "snapshot" of the area, portals and fields are calculated. Thankfully you know the "5 minutes" this measurement will take place. This is when you will be deploying / firing non-stop. If its not that time, don't engage those who will be wasting supplies.
Don't multitask during a measurement window
If you are in a 5 minute measurement window, the worst thing you can do is leave Ingress. You have no idea when the measurement is coming. Save the notifications for afterwards. Every agent is needed for these 5 minute segments.
[Editor note: Measurement windows for #Helios are 10 minutes].
Play to your abilities
If you don't have the supplies to withstand a constant deploy/fire L8 race at a portal. Take your efforts to where they will count. Find non-volatile portals away from the action and link / field. (Assuming there is no huge field being made).
Understand a volatile showdown
What happens when you get to a volatile portal and 40 other people are standing around it? The measurement window opens around +- 5 minutes from the top of the hour. Its an all out fire / deploy from both sides. Defending is easier, since you just have to mash the deploy button. As an attacker, remember to always have agents trying to deploy as well as attacking. For a split millisecond, it may be a neutral portal, and that's all you need to claim it and switch to defending. (HINT: Put the person with the fastest connection as the deployer, not someone balancing 3G on their Nexus S)
Get intel!
If you are individually browsing Google Plus during the event to identify the volatile portals, then you are making a mistake. Get someone who can't attend physically to do that for you.
Understand the location(s)
The instant one cluster ends, the next one is underway. Thankfully you have 30-45 minutes till the volatile portals are announced for that cluster, but you still need to relocate to that cluster. Sometimes they will be in walking distance. Sometimes not. Get an understanding prior to the event how you will travel among the clusters.
Plan ahead
If you are planing to come to an event. Today is the day to begin planning. Find the Google Plus groups, start farming / keeping supplies. An organized agent is a smart agent.
#Helios XM Anomaly - Satellite: Vancouver
#Helios XM Anomaly - Vancouver - Satellite location
#Helios 10, Final #Helios Anomaly
SEPT 27
Munich (Primary) http://goo.gl/oAMo3h
Gothenburg http://goo.gl/WbSI9n
Riga http://goo.gl/keILjw
Tacoma (Primary) http://goo.gl/4i8g6b
Sacramento http://goo.gl/EAJCev
Vancouver http://goo.gl/8OVx1h
#HeliosVancouver is being held @ UBC. To view the list of all 4 clusters of portals, visit this page.
Vancouver Measurement Times are in-sync with #Helios 10 Tacoma, the primary site.
2:00 PM: Measurement 1
3:00 PM: Measurement 2
4:00 PM: Measurement 3
5:00 PM: Measurement 4
Helios Artifacts
- Visit this page for a full list of the artifacts that have been released and transported around the world during #Helios.
Chapter 16: #Helios - List of videos
#Helios Begins - Ingress Report - Raw Feed Jul 10 2014
Ingress Report - Raw Feed Sep 18 2014 - The #Final15Artifacts
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