Mar 12, 2014
My sweet new Droid Razr Maxx came with a this weird game called Ingress. And, I made it a mission to get addicted to it. It's going ok.
What is Ingress?
Ingress is a global, multiplayer, real-time game you play on any Droid. And soon on any Apple type phone.
You start by picking a faction to join - there are two: Enlightened (green) or Resistance (blue). You don't know much about either when you first load up the game, you have to pick one and you can never switch factions.
The goal of the game is to find portals of Exotic Matter (XM) which can be used to. .well. .do stuff. Portals are generally public places like historic sites, arty-farty things, train stations or houses of worship.
How Do You Play?
By walking around. You actually need to be close to the object. You can't play from a couch or something unless you are lucky enough to be close to a portal.
You will mostly be walking around with the game loaded on your phone watching yourself (represented as a little triangle on a map) toward these bright gray, blue and green sprout like things known as portals.
When you find a portal, you hack it. Hacking it is how you get inventory items to play. The core inventory items are resonators and xmp bursters. You deploy resonators on portals - up to 8 of them - to claim a portal and secure it. Then you use xmps like bombs to destroy the other factions' resonators.
You get some other cool types of weapons and then items you can put on your portals like shields and turrets and whatnots to make it harder for the other faction to destroy your stuff and claim the portal.
You also want to link portals together - you can do this when a portal has all 8 resonators attached and you have a portal key. When you have linked portals making a triangle shape, let's say, you have created a control field - which is super awesome.
You can also use a computer to check out portals that are in your area to figure out what you want to do or how good your faction is doing in a certain area by going to Ingress.com/intel
Is it Complicated?
Not really. The game has a built in tutorial that gives you the basics.
If you need a little more complexity to keep you going, there is a whole community around the game - a mythology and story. You can dive as deep into that world as you want.
What Have Your Learned?
It's really cold out.
I learned there is an intense community around this game. They all hang out on G+, of course. There is an in-game communication system that lets you send messages to anyone playing the game. (So much good banter!) and it's pretty safe because you only have a handle or In Game Name (IGN) which doesn't identify you with anything beyond your faction and agent statistics.
People actually have formed real-life communities and work on how to work together to take over portals and cities.
I actually was surprised about the intense community around this game and the way people mobilize. I think at one point, one faction had covered all of Norway or something with a control field. Impressive. I think it's a cool way to meet people - if you are safe, of course. It's a fun hobby and it does get you out there walking around and discovering gems in your community and others.
Never know where there is a portal.
It's not complicated at all and nor is it winable. If you ever do any reading up on successful games, the ones most likely to have long-range success are the ones that have no way to win. There are two factions going back and forth in an endless trench-warfare type game. Even if you claim all the portals around, they will decay over time and revert to an "unclaimed" status or the other faction will come in and take it over.
Are You Addicted?
I think the social aspect would require an addiction. I enjoy walking around and having something to do - getting items and blowing up stuff and whatnot. I wanted to join some of the groups at the start, then I remembered, I don't like fun or people that much. I just want to get imaginary junk.
I also got agitated when people were trying to be "helpful" by telling me very basic things like, "Have you turned on your phone?"
Then I had more fun talking to the people on the other side - some nice banter - that never happened with those on my faction. I don't want to meet people.
I'm not addicted - but I am curious and I want to become a Level 8 player. I'm currently a Level 6.
Image Credits
Ingress images from news.cnet.com/
The Adventure Continues
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something and write about it? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions
What is Ingress?
Ingress is a global, multiplayer, real-time game you play on any Droid. And soon on any Apple type phone.
You start by picking a faction to join - there are two: Enlightened (green) or Resistance (blue). You don't know much about either when you first load up the game, you have to pick one and you can never switch factions.
The goal of the game is to find portals of Exotic Matter (XM) which can be used to. .well. .do stuff. Portals are generally public places like historic sites, arty-farty things, train stations or houses of worship.
How Do You Play?
 |
| Phone view |
You will mostly be walking around with the game loaded on your phone watching yourself (represented as a little triangle on a map) toward these bright gray, blue and green sprout like things known as portals.
When you find a portal, you hack it. Hacking it is how you get inventory items to play. The core inventory items are resonators and xmp bursters. You deploy resonators on portals - up to 8 of them - to claim a portal and secure it. Then you use xmps like bombs to destroy the other factions' resonators.
You get some other cool types of weapons and then items you can put on your portals like shields and turrets and whatnots to make it harder for the other faction to destroy your stuff and claim the portal.
You also want to link portals together - you can do this when a portal has all 8 resonators attached and you have a portal key. When you have linked portals making a triangle shape, let's say, you have created a control field - which is super awesome.
You can also use a computer to check out portals that are in your area to figure out what you want to do or how good your faction is doing in a certain area by going to Ingress.com/intel
Is it Complicated?
Not really. The game has a built in tutorial that gives you the basics.
If you need a little more complexity to keep you going, there is a whole community around the game - a mythology and story. You can dive as deep into that world as you want.
What Have Your Learned?
It's really cold out.
 |
| Looking for portals |
People actually have formed real-life communities and work on how to work together to take over portals and cities.
I actually was surprised about the intense community around this game and the way people mobilize. I think at one point, one faction had covered all of Norway or something with a control field. Impressive. I think it's a cool way to meet people - if you are safe, of course. It's a fun hobby and it does get you out there walking around and discovering gems in your community and others.
Never know where there is a portal.
It's not complicated at all and nor is it winable. If you ever do any reading up on successful games, the ones most likely to have long-range success are the ones that have no way to win. There are two factions going back and forth in an endless trench-warfare type game. Even if you claim all the portals around, they will decay over time and revert to an "unclaimed" status or the other faction will come in and take it over.
Are You Addicted?
I think the social aspect would require an addiction. I enjoy walking around and having something to do - getting items and blowing up stuff and whatnot. I wanted to join some of the groups at the start, then I remembered, I don't like fun or people that much. I just want to get imaginary junk.
I also got agitated when people were trying to be "helpful" by telling me very basic things like, "Have you turned on your phone?"
Then I had more fun talking to the people on the other side - some nice banter - that never happened with those on my faction. I don't want to meet people.
I'm not addicted - but I am curious and I want to become a Level 8 player. I'm currently a Level 6.
Image Credits
Ingress images from news.cnet.com/
The Adventure Continues
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something and write about it? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions
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