
Ingress - superchink
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/12/08/Ingress
======
huggah
+1 on the community aspects. There's a Resistance cell in South Bay (of San
Francisco Bay Area) that's pretty highly organized and set us up meetups to go
item and experience farming, posts "target" lists (high-value portals to be
taken down) and the like. There are meetups for all kinds of things of course
---Hacker News, Less Wrong, Reddit, whatnot, so this is just one more, but
it's nice getting together with a bunch of strangers that you end up getting
along with.

The game enforces this subtly; higher level players (I'm level 7) need high
level items, but the way to get those is from (equally) high level portals.
Players can't make a high level portal on their own---a Level 7 player can
make a level 5 portal on her own, two can make a level 6 portal, and 8 are
required to make a level 7 portal. Since a high level portal hands out
excellent items, it's a target, and it makes sense to build it, exploit it
immediately, and not try to hope that it stays up long. Community building!

~~~
jayzalowitz
Where is the cell, I am down in mtv?

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secure
I just came back from another 2-hour session of ingress in my local town (≈ 10
minute bus ride from my home to the area with lots of portals). That’s the
third 2-hour session this weekend, after another one on Thursday :).

I definitely like the game, it’s fun to play, especially with friends. When
playing together, you can achieve much more: set up stronger portals, bring
down enemy portals quicker, etc.

I noticed that people are getting to know each other via the game.

Also, Ingress is the reason for the most time I’ve spent outside (apart from
traveling) in the last decade. My friends share this experience.

Before anyone asks: unfortunately I don’t have any invites to hand out.

~~~
harryf
Also like how it doesn't reward obsessive / addictive behavior.

Burning additional hours and mileage won't get you that much further then a
few well-timed hours a week. And staying up all night playing Ingress will
cost you the way sitting awake in a chair all night won't.

~~~
secure
I think this strongly depends on the area and the enemy faction. When they are
quick to re-capture the portals, you have an incentive to immediately put in
2-3 hours again, depending on how many portals there are.

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jkaljundi
Is it just me, or is Ingress a rip-off of the Finnish Shadow Cities iOS-only
game [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/arts/video-games/shadow-
ci...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/arts/video-games/shadow-cities-a-new-
iphone-video-game-review.html?_r=0)

~~~
lysol
I thought the same thing when it came out, to be honest. Even the aesthetics
are similar.

~~~
harshreality
Shadow Cities has been out for over a year based on the NYT article, and still
has no android client. Who can blame someone for developing a reality overlay
for android, particularly when Shadow Cities is more fantasy-focused
("spells")? Is every reality overlay going to be called a Shadow Cities rip
off? In that case both Shadow Cities and Ingress are a rip off of the reality
overlay concept in Vinge's _Rainbows End_ (which itself is a departure, but
got some of its inspiration, from previous fictional virtual environments,
like the one in _Snowcrash_ ).

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pkulak
Wait, people are driving to play this game? It doesn't seem right to burn gas
to play an online game. If you walk or ride a bike it's a great way to get
some exercise. But driving?

~~~
awolf
Disagree. There's nothing wrong with driving for enjoyment or to accomplish
enjoyment.

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mfringel
My first thought: Could I put my phone in a radio-proof room, and externally
synthesize the GPS signal to put my phone wherever I wanted, complete with
robo-play as necessary?

My second thought: If it's possible at all, I have to assume this is already
being done.

~~~
codeka
Yes, there's already some people cheating. I'm not sure if it's in this
specific way but there's reports out there, for example I saw this one this
morning:
[https://plus.google.com/106910446343644147596/posts/JYaepWnd...](https://plus.google.com/106910446343644147596/posts/JYaepWndVQ7)

As far as I can see, the only real way to prevent this kind of thing would be
to have checks in the backend. E.g. if you've "travelled" hundreds of
kilometers in a couple of minutes, that's a pretty strong indication that
you're cheating.

As long as it's constantly recording and reporting on your GPS location, I
think it should be possible to come up with heuristics for when you're
actually moving and when you're faking. But it seems they're not doing
anything like this at the moment.

~~~
aetherson
I think it'd be reasonable -- for more than just cheating reasons -- to make
your scanner move at, say, a maximum of 25mph. So if your "actual" location
is, say, 50 miles from your last location, but it's only been an hour, your
scanner is disabled for an hour.

That would probably disable most "war-driving" strategies, while making most
(but not all) legitimate strategies still available. And, I think that war-
drivers probably detract from the game overall.

Or you could choose a higher maximum speed if you wanted to -- 40mph (as the
crow flies) would probably only disallow cheaters for the most part, though it
might disable your scanner for several hours after a plane flight.

~~~
devicenull
And you'd make the game _completely_ unplayable for everyone that doesn't live
in a big city. A lot of people don't seem to realize that unless you're in a
densely populated area with a lot of history, there is really no choice but to
drive.

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Groxx
For anyone playing it: is there any real-money attribute to the game? That
seriously kills e.g. Shadow Cities for me, and will probably kill qonqr as
well. For Shadow Cities for example, it's not _necessary_ , but it is
extremely important for owning locations, which progressively increases in
cost (some > 500 'potions', which is roughly equivalent to $30 [1]), or you
spend many many hours earning small numbers of them. Yeah, it helps hosting
costs, but it ruins the game.

[1]: <http://shadowcities.wikia.com/wiki/Potions>

~~~
secure
You don’t have to spend any real money on the game directly. The closest thing
that comes to mind is travel cost.

~~~
ChuckMcM
But 8 of you could get together and charge real money to create a Level 7
portal apparently :-)

------
jborden13
I played Ingress for a bit. Love the concept - seems to be the Pong of AR
games (not a dig, just the first of its kind that I've played and the
potential for future games in this genre is exciting). After a few days I quit
playing because IMO it seems better suited for concentrated urban cities. My
city is a sprawl and I don't have the time to drive all day looking for the
different components/interactions of the game.

Just one guy's opinion.

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gojomo
As experiences like Ingress arrive, Vernor Vinge's 2006 novel "Rainbows End"
looks more and more like a checklist of inevitabilities.

For a relevant sampling, the short story 'Synthetic Serendipity' is online at:

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/synthetic-
serend...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/synthetic-serendipity)

------
rasur
Some of the guys at work are raving about this, but.. I guess it depends on
your priorities. I'm unable to get excited about yet another online thing that
wants to claim my time (or rather, might claim my time if I had an Android
phone).. Kids/Family-life and other projects take up time too, aside from
work.. Where's the incentive?

~~~
aw3c2
It is a game. Fun is the incentive.

Damn smart idea of Google to get infinite GPS track point data.

~~~
diminish
it may turn out to be the biggest gamification success until now.

~~~
gailees
it's amazing how much it even changes my daily routine and how I walk
around....no longer is it the fastest route; it's now the route where I can
hit the most portals haha

~~~
aetherson
Yeah, it's been pretty successful at driving additional walking for me. I'd
been meaning to get more exercise, but finding difficulty getting motivated --
now I pretty routinely walk a couple extra miles per day.

------
gailees
This such a game-changing experience that will have forever affected the way I
intend to interact with massive multiplayer gaming.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Can you elaborate on that? In what ways do you (or anyone else who has played
Ingress) think it will change MM games?

For example, is there a possibility it will affect future MMORPG design?

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sprokolopolis
A friend and I have really been enjoying this game. There is a good bit of
strategy in active cities with how links are made and blocked for other teams.
The community is certainly a huge portion, because you really do have to
coordinate with people around the city. Many portals are too strong to take
out alone, so it is great to bring a buddy or group along.

I have discovered so many cool things around the city that I never knew about.
The game leads you out on a site-seeing adventure into pockets of the city
that you may no frequent. Many of the portals are real places of interest that
deserve a little attention. Furthermore, some portals aren't accessible in a
car, so you are forced to do a bit of walking or cycling. My bike has seen
plenty of use in the past 2 weeks and today I was walking around town with
friends for about 7 hours.

~~~
brazzy
Conversely, I have been pretty disappointed by portal locations. Near me,
there is one sports store, one tyre store, one butt-ugly highrise apartment
bulding, a view from the top of that highrise, and a featureless sunset.

At the city center, on the other hand there are at least 5 portals based on
pictures of the cathedral from different perspectives...

~~~
shurane
Is that because of the city you live in? I'm not familiar with Ingress, but
can't players also create portals?

~~~
brazzy
You can submit new portals (I have done so), but that takes time to get
reviewed (4 to 6 weeks according to the FAQ). To kickstart the game, they
obviously just used pictures scraped off flickr or something - how else could
they get a good coverage of the whole world (or at least the major cities),
which requires at least tens of thousands of portals.

------
gailees
Still very very heavy on battery though.

~~~
huggah
This is an understatement.

"Ingress is causing a surge in mobile power pack sales." Might hit closer to
the mark. A majority of the high-level players I know are tethering a Nexus 7
to their phone, and attaching their phone to a mobile power pack. My phone
gets slightly less than 1 hour on it's own.

~~~
sprokolopolis
I recently lost my extended backup battery and have certainly had battery
drain issues. I was thinking that I might steal this guys idea:
[http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
snc6/201097_1015128278...](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
snc6/201097_10151282789563966_565749521_o.jpg) from this
post:[http://www.reddit.com/r/Ingress/comments/14f4xw/power_for_ye...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Ingress/comments/14f4xw/power_for_years/)

------
unwind
This sounds ripe for playing on Project Glass, if/when those come out.

The glasses will be running Android according to the Wikipedia page, and I'm
pretty sure they'd work to make the game run will on them.

Sometimes the future is so close to being here! :)

------
thefreeman
I was really excited, and played avidly for a few days, but quickly grew tired
of it. It sounds like its a lot more fun in more densely populated areas so
that could be my problem.

------
spacesuit
I like the idea of games that involve getting out of the house and meeting new
people.

That said, how do the makers of games like this prevent location spoofing?

~~~
brazzy
The most obvious thing would be to sanity check each player's location data.
Someone who moves 100 miles in less than a minute is obviously cheating.

------
GVRV
Any idea when people down under might be able to try it out? Any other regions
apart from Australia that are not supported as of yet, as well?

~~~
lengarvey
If you have an invite you're able to play in Australia. I don't own an Android
but a couple of my friends are playing already. There was an article in the
Sydney Morning Herald about the game too but I can't seem to locate the link
at the moment.

------
networkjester
Very cool. Another noteworthy AR game: <http://qonqr.com/>

Full disclosure, I'm not affiliated with the company but I knew the team that
started it at a Startup Weekend a little over a year ago. Great guys, cool
game.

------
diminish
Does anyone know a way to get a quick invitation to Ingress?

~~~
huggah
Brandon Badger (<https://plus.google.com/114800310452543164210>) is the
Project Manager. He's been running contests on Google+; submit artwork
relating to ingress, stories, etc. hashtag them #ingress, and if he like it
he'll reshare it and give you some invites.

I didn't even know about the contest when I wrote
[https://plus.google.com/110847385311561387629/posts/ePGPdJCS...](https://plus.google.com/110847385311561387629/posts/ePGPdJCSaCQ),
but apparently it got to him anyway and he gave me some.

Check out his feed for examples of the things he's reshared.

~~~
orangecat
You may be a misguided pawn interfering with the advancement of humanity, but
that was awesome.

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thechut
Man, now I really want an invite code. Definite marketing ploy by google

~~~
pavel_lishin
I have an invitation.

I do not have an Android phone, yet :)

