Once upon a time (about a week ago) a dear friend of mine introduced me to a game called Ingress. And now I have a confession: I am now hopelessly addicted to said game. Friend, you know who you are, I could totally kill you for getting me hooked on this! Ok, not really. It’s super fun.
There’s a long and complex back-story to the game, but basically every player in the world is either on the green team or the blue team. Ingress was developed by Google and uses GPS to plot your location. The teams, or “factions”, compete to take over the largest area of land by linking real landmarks together in a phone app. This mash-up of digital and physical worlds is called Augmented Reality (AR). The landmarks are “portals”, which the players need to physically be within about 10 yards of to “hack”. Players hack to obtain items from the portal, then attack to gain control of it. Sometimes in the reverse order. Anyway, It’s a lot more complex than that, but that’s my nutshell description of the game.
Here’s a map showing all the portals between my house and the riverfront.
And here’s what portals look like on my phone:
When you tap a portal, you can tap the corner of the landmark’s image for more details about that location. Here’s an example:
This is the first portal I gained control of; it’s the Freedom Eagle at Veteran’s Memorial Park on Lake Monroe. I was so happy to have my name on this portal! Then a few hours later I got a notification on my phone that my portal was under attack… then neutralized… then claimed by the other team. This was the moment I became hooked.
The cool thing about this game is that you cannot play it while sitting still; you actually have to GO places – often places you may have never noticed before! Even if you lived right next to a portal, there’s a limit to how many times you can draw from it so hacking it from your sofa wouldn’t be enough to make any progress, plus you have to be moving to refuel your energy/health in the game. Most places it’s easiest to bike or walk between portals, but some are far enough apart that driving is a better idea.
Here are some photos I’ve taken in the last few days – some on bike, others on foot. These are all taken in Sanford and all are walking distance from my house. I also hacked some portals in Lake Mary a couple times, but I didn’t get any photos of those. I’ve only lived in Sanford for about 5 weeks now; what a fun way to discover this cool little town!
This is a cool park a couple blocks from my house.
Another nice day on 1st Street!
It was absolutely gorgeous this morning – 72 degrees and clear skies. 
It rained this evening, but once it cleared up I went down to the waterfront to catch the sunset, then found this cool alley while walking down 1st Street.
I also discovered a pathway at the end of Marina Island that runs along Lake Monroe – I never knew it was there! I’ll have to go back during the daytime to check out the view. Especially because there are 2 portals there, muahahaha!
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If you’re interested in playing the game, visit ingress.com for links to download the app. Join whichever team you’d like –Â the strategy and game play is exactly the same for both. I’m on the Enlightened team, which is green.
(Yes, I did make a decal for my phone.)
I’m still holding out… I can’t even imagine how much activity there is going here in Seattle! Knowing me I’d be jumping out of bed in the middle of the night, and re-routing my already ridiculous bike ride to work just to do battle!
This sounds intriguing! Just like geocaching and Munzeeing! Might have to give this a try! Thanks for sharing! Really sounds like you are enjoying Sanford!
Tom – beware. It’s stupid crazy how much my life has changed since I started this game. I can no longer go directly from point A to point B. EVER. 🙂
The game is good in the sense that I’m getting outside and walking/biking more than I normally would, but it’s also an intense strategy game so I’m constantly thinking about which portals can be joined to make fields – and how I’m going to get there before the other team does.
I love how much Google has integrated the game with reality, too. There are characters in the story line that have g+ pages, and they post things as if they’re real people. Crazy!! The video briefings that come out are a little over-the-top but it’s always fun to hear where the next big event (Anomaly) will be located (see https://www.ingress.com/events). Orlando is an additional cell for the main event this Saturday, so people here are starting to gear up (hack portals, stock up inventory). Social groups are planning huge meets and building their strategy. There’s an ongoing g+ Hangout with 70+ people in my local area, we all just turn off notifications and pop in and out of the chat as needed. The Hangout was created for new players to get answers, which has helped me tremendously. And you don’t have to be social or ever see these people in person, they’re happy to help you from afar.
Summary: It’s crazy fun. It will take your life away. 🙂
Cindy It’s sort of like geocaching or munzeeing except that nothing is hiding and the portals are easy to find. It’s more of a strategy game than a hunt – it’s a constant balance between offense and defense. If you decide to try it, here’s a page that was very helpful to me in the beginning: http://crannellweb.com/ingress/
You’re welcome!
[scowl]
Oh! Love the logo you made for your phone! We are going to turn Coronado green this weekend!!
See, everything you just said makes me want to avoid playing even more! I got really involved with Geocaching for a while, so I know what I’m capable of! On top of that, I work with the I support team in the same building… so I might even get tempted to ask for “favors” at times!
Andrea, you hear that? We have a friend who might have the power to ask for “favors” at time. 😛
Seriously though Tom, if you know any of the developers, ask them to plant some classic Google-style easter eggs in the game. Like, make one of the portals be something absolutely ridiculous – something that will really crack people up. Maybe 1 in each major city, or something.
Andrea I made several 2″, 3″, and 4″ decals – I’m selling the 3″ and 4″ ones to the local gamers for their phones (or cars or bikes or mailboxes or whatever) but I have a pile of 2″ decals that I’ve decided are too small to sell… I’m bringing them to Epcot Saturday and hope to plant one at each country. 🙂
Thanks, Lori! Looks kinda complicated. If I join a faction and not know what I am doing, will I mess anything up?
Cindy you won’t mess anything up! The links should be placed strategically since you can’t cross lines, but if you place one that cuts off potential links for your teammates it’s not a huge deal. No one really minds, and you’ll be at such a low level that your portals and links won’t last long anyway.
I assume you already know this… but just in case… (I think it will generate plenty of “Easter Eggs” for you!)
http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/25/googles-mobile-game-ingress-enables-7m-players-to-create-user-generated-missions/
I didn’t know that. Very cool!
We have done some hacking today! But haven’t the slightest idea what we are doing! But can see it becoming really fun!
Awesome!
Cindy Day Griffiths how’s it going with your Ingress adventures?
Lori we are hacking portals today at Epcot and Magic Kingdom! But we still don’t know what we’re doing! We might need a tutoring session from you! 🙂
I was hacking at Epcot on Saturday! Just got to Lvl 6 today. Did you look at this page? It’s full of great info. http://crannellweb.com/ingress/
Here’s more good info (flip through the 17 photos): https://plus.google.com/107182934091248519851/posts/XhvzDtW5ZcN
Let’s get together soon and we can visit some portals together. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m starting to get the hang of it. 🙂