Anomaly Report for #Helios 09 & 10 – September 27, 2014

Outcome of the #Helios 09 and 10 Anomaly
Decode Ingress.

Resistance have won the anomaly series!

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.

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. 

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.

Bring a battery / power-brick
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

Video: Our Investigation Begins | INGRESS REPORT - EP1

I've Downloaded Ingress, Now What?

Ingress App - Once you've downloaded the Ingress app to your smartphone, spend some time getting to know the app. 

GPS Connection - Your phone must have GPS location on. When you open the Ingress app, it will locate you via GPS and it will show your closest portals. 

Scanner - After you've downloaded the Ingress app, your phone is now known as your scanner. When you open the app, it will download your location. Touch the "Ops" button and review the following:

• Inventory - Where all of your gear will be found. 
• Agent - Set up your agent profile by pressing 'Agent' on the top bar, or by pressing your insignia on the top left corner of your scanner. Pressing your insignia from the home page will also bring you to your agent badge and statistical page. You can see the badges you've collected, how much Action Points (AP, the points you need to move up levels) you have and different stats based on your play: All Time, Month, Week, Now. 
• Intel - Statistics on the global and regional leaders. For the  regional scoreboard follow this pathway: Intel --> Select Regional Scores --> Select See Other Agents. Sometimes it may not come up as its refreshing. 
• Training - Complete the training in the app as it will provide you with a beginner's understanding of how the game works.
• Device - This is where settings are for notifications, linking to your G+ account etc. 

Comm - Located at the bottom of your scanner, if you open Comm you will see three different channels: 

• All - shows both factions actions in the field and messages shared in open Comm. 
• Factions - Technically is just supposed to be for members of your Faction. However this is not a secure channel and you should consider that the other faction will have access to what is shared on faction chat. Never discuss faction plans or activities on faction chat!
• Alerts - This will tell you when one of your portals is being attacked by the other faction and what has been destroyed. If you have notifications turned on, you can recharge your portal if you have a portal key. This can be maddening and fun to do to the other team. 

Find a local Google + group -  Research whether there is a local group and ask to join it. You may be encouraged to to share and upload your profile within the local group. People will most likely send messages of welcome & greetings. This offers you a chance to connect with people who play locally and in your area. 
There may be Hangouts, or other ways to communicate within your local group. Once you've connected with others you may be invited to participate in those. 

The global Ingress group on G+ can be found here: https://plus.google.com/+Ingress/posts

Community activities - One of the biggest successes of Ingress is the social connection and local communities that are thriving in many places. Ingress is bringing lots of different people together to play, walk around in interesting places, to strategize and work togethers with others. 

• Farms - Once you get connected with your local faction, farm events will be held where everyone gets together to smash the other factions dominated areas, or just to build a faction farm so players can obtain gear, the lifeblood of Ingress play. 
• Social events - Farms and other social events may be available in your area. 
• Cross-faction (X-faction) - There may be local events, often involving libations and food, where members of both factions socialize and mingle. It is best to remember everyone must be careful about disclosing any information about play, because both sides are usually also there to gather intel on the other side and share it with other faction members. 
• Anomalies - These are epic, large Ingress community gatherings where the Enlighened and the Resistance will battle to control specific portals in various locations; create gigantic fields that cover large geographical areas and other feats of mastery over the opposite faction. 

#Helios 2014 will be occurring in Vancouver, BC @ UBC on Sept. 27th, 2014. Other locations around the world will also be hosting #Helios battles. There is also a global aspect to the battles. Factions create different teams. 

Data plan - Investigate how your data usage is going to be impacted by your Ingress play and how much you might be charged extra if you go over your data. Nasty extra charges will dent your wallet as you get into game mode. It is not uncommon to be swept away by Ingress Fever! 

Local and Meta Ingressing - You will need to get the bigger picture of playing Ingress by accessing the Ingress Intel map: https://www.ingress.com/intel. Start using the map to check out areas to visit, locally, a bit further afield, and plan out Ingress vacation adventures. There are other maps you can download, do some research, or ask local faction members about additional mapping and play resources.

Get Out into the Field! - Now you're ready to get out and see the world in a totally different way as you start to visit portals near and far. You will discover things you've walked past for years and didn't know existed, or ignored in the hustle and bustle of life. Public art, murals, historical and significant places. Libraries, community centres, local site seeing and community spots, signs and markers.

Play Ingress Everywhere! - Your family and friends will likely be bemused, confused and/or not understand your newfound obsession, er hobby. You will want to play it everywhere, capturing 'Uniques' or Unique Portals and engaging in play to "Level Up" (move up levels), earn various badges ("Ingress flair") and AP. 

Video: Ingress - Its time to move

From Niantic Project YouTube channel

Media: Ingress: The game that reveals Google's secret war to control London

Ingress: The game that reveals Google's secret war to control London

Google's intriguing augmented-reality game has dedicated players fighting to control locations around the world. We join the players in England's capital

Hatfield, T. (2014). The Guardian. 

We’re playing Ingress, a massively multiplayer augmented-reality game created by Google and Niantic labs and launched last December. Participants download the dedicated app, then use their phones to log into a Google Maps-based interface; this highlights "portals" around the world – almost always well-known landmarks – that the game's two factions must fight to control. When a player is near a portal, they can take it over, set up defences and then link it together with the rest of their side's territory. Over the past six months, players have managed to create huge fields of linked portals that span several countries. 

This is all happening all the time, everywhere. It’s happening right now where you live. Your city centre is probably a vital battleground between the game's two factions: the Enlightened (who believe aliens are using the portals to transcend humanity to a higher state) and the Resistance (who would rather they asked permission first). Your local town hall has probably changed hands three times today.