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The Niantic Project (AKA Ingress)

NeitoNeito
edited January 2013 in Video Games
So, according to this game, reality is not what it seems. Portals are hiding out in plain sight, invisible to all but a few special people with the proper tools (being a Android smartphone and an invite in to the game). The ARG component is being pretty heavily pushed for the plot, but the actual game itself is basically a GPS-based game where certain locations are "tagged" as having portals. They seem to be largely places historical significance, plus post offices and libraries (in-game, the reason for that is something about how XM reacts with the human mind. Out of game, it's because they're the easiest significant sites to get geo-tagged information on, I bet).

Interesting is that the creators of the app (Niantic Labs@Google) have only created two things: Ingress, and Field Trip, an app that shows you interesting and significant historical or cultural events that happened near you. I wonder which idea begat which.
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Comments

  • NeitoNeito
    If anyone wants to get in on this (fairly recent Android phones only), I got an invite to my secondary email address if someone wants it.
  • trogdor9trogdor9
    I was really excited about Ingress until I got an invite and started playing the tutorial, and it told me to go down the street. That's when I realized I have zero interest in the whole idea.
  • RymRym
    I'm all about games like this once I have my AR glasses.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    I was really excited about Ingress until I got an invite and started playing the tutorial, and it told me to go down the street. That's when I realized I have zero interest in the whole idea.
    Great review!

  • RymRym
    So, imagine Ingress, but it's pokemon. And you can battle strangers in the street.
  • AprecheApreche
    So, imagine Ingress, but it's pokemon. And you can battle strangers in the street.
    Oh, you mean Pokemon.
  • johndisjohndis
    It would be cooler if the strangers were your pokemon, and you had to capture other people and breed them.
  • NeitoNeito
    It would be cooler if the strangers were your pokemon, and you had to capture other people and breed them.
    I..... I think you'r etalking about a different thing there, man....
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I started playing recently. There are portals all along my daily bike route and all over campus. It's fun!
  • AiyakiuAiyakiu
    I really want to play, but I have yet to receive an activation code. We have a couple friends who are all about Ingress and go on trips pretty continuously.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    edited April 2013
    If I get another invite, I'll send it off to you. :-)
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • AiyakiuAiyakiu
    Sweet, thanks Sonic =D
  • AlainChristianAlainChristian
    The game is soon coming out of beta and Invite codes can be requested from within the app now. They just added Jarvis shards to the game which really stress the teamwork and planning aspects of the game. If you were on the fence about the game now is the time to start playing.

    Make sure you join the Enlightened side, ha ha!
  • MattMatt
    I had no idea there were that many boring historical site markers within a few miles of my house.
  • ProfPanglossProfPangloss
    edited November 2013
    I was only passively interested in Ingress on the side, whereas my girlfriend got pretty into it for a while. Turns out the college Ingress community is really shitty. Some dude actually hissed at her for saying she joined the opposing team.

    My 1% interest is now flatlined at 0%.
    Post edited by ProfPangloss on
  • muppetmuppet
    Rym said:

    I'm all about games like this once I have my AR glasses.

    RIP Rym, struck by a Mack truck while battling hobgoblins from a portal that spawned in a roundabout.

  • muppetmuppet
    ProfPangloss said:

    I was only passively interested in Ingress on the side, whereas my girlfriend got pretty into it for a while. Turns out the college Ingress community is really shitty. Some dude actually hissed at her for saying she joined the opposing team.

    My 1% interest is now flatlined at 0%.

    Well, I wasn't there... but couldn't this be an attempt at some ironic humor? There's a running gag in Questionable Content where two characters who play on opposing sides in WoW routinely hiss at each other.
  • ProfPanglossProfPangloss
    No, apparently not. The dude was ridiculously hostile/defensive after that, and I know plenty of other students here who would probably behave in a similar fashion re: their favorite game.
  • Lt. ChibiLt. Chibi
    I've met similarly hostile people in the game, but only a few times, and mostly visitors from further away. Mostly it's just people getting mad, especially in a resistance-owned town like State College, and plenty of accusations of hax. The snowball effect in this game can get super frustrating.
  • RymRym
    Well, Resistance people are shitbirds. To be fair.
  • DaveDave
    muppet said:

    Rym said:

    I'm all about games like this once I have my AR glasses.

    RIP Rym, struck by a Mack truck while battling hobgoblins from a portal that spawned in a roundabout.

    As an nine year old nerdlet with no friends, my dream was to have a contact lens that would let me play Final Fantasy I in class.

  • Lt. ChibiLt. Chibi
    Rym said:

    Well, Resistance people are shitbirds. To be fair.

    I did have someone notice I was playing, walk up and show me his inventory filled with L8 bursters, tell me to stop playing, and walk away. So... yes.

  • ChurbaChurba
    edited November 2013
    ProfPangloss said:

    I was only passively interested in Ingress on the side, whereas my girlfriend got pretty into it for a while. Turns out the college Ingress community is really shitty. Some dude actually hissed at her for saying she joined the opposing team.

    My 1% interest is now flatlined at 0%.

    Really? I've been having some chill conversations with the two Enlightened chaps closest to me, and I often bump into one while walking the dog and we stop and have a chat. We even tend to warn each other when our portals are about to lapse, and we're all generally quite gentlemanly. Still, that's super fucked, some motherfuckers were taking it WAY too serious.
    Lt. Chibi said:

    The snowball effect in this game can get super frustrating.

    Yep. And it's also kinda pointless to try and fight anyone when you're low level - It takes something like 30 L1 XMPs to take out a level 1 resonator.
    Lt. Chibi said:

    Rym said:

    Well, Resistance people are shitbirds. To be fair.

    I did have someone notice I was playing, walk up and show me his inventory filled with L8 bursters, tell me to stop playing, and walk away. So... yes.

    Man, I just picked a team at random, figuring it wouldn't matter. All the Resistance(and enlightened) people I've encountered have been super chill.

    Still, if that dude walked up and did that, I'd have laughed in his fucking face, before getting his username and reporting him to the GMs, right in front of him. What's he gonna do, hit me? Good luck with that.

    Also, in the unlikely event that anyone wants to get in after all this, I still have two invites.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Lt. ChibiLt. Chibi
    Churba said:


    Man, I just picked a team at random, figuring it wouldn't matter. All the Resistance(and enlightened) people I've encountered have been super chill.

    Honestly, most of our resident opposition is great about it, despite being very difficult to fight against.
    Churba said:


    Still, if that dude walked up and did that, I'd have laughed in his fucking face, before getting his username and reporting him to the GMs, right in front of him. What's he gonna do, hit me? Good luck with that.

    Report him for what? He got all of those by really aggressively hacking portals all around the place, apparently, and I believe him. >.> I do find myself attacking his portals a little more aggressively, now, though. :3
  • ChurbaChurba
    Lt. Chibi said:

    Report him for what? He got all of those by really aggressively hacking portals all around the place, apparently, and I believe him. >.> I do find myself attacking his portals a little more aggressively, now, though. :3

    I'm pretty sure that fucking with people like that is a massive no-no. You're not meant to rock up and try to intimidate people in the flesh, no matter how good your XMPs are.

  • Nine BoomerNine Boomer
    I can't figure out why I want to play this. I walked up to some unclaimed portal, was a monument to something shitty. I put down some shit around it, then walked away. Is there more to this than that? I have very little incentive to do much when I have to bike everywhere and the weather is in the negatives. I don't see anything else to do.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited November 2013
    Nine Boomer said:

    I can't figure out why I want to play this. I walked up to some unclaimed portal, was a monument to something shitty. I put down some shit around it, then walked away. Is there more to this than that? I have very little incentive to do much when I have to bike everywhere and the weather is in the negatives. I don't see anything else to do.

    Apparently, it gets a lot more interesting once you get a few levels, enough to start battling with people. There's serious multi-day battles that go on in the CBD here, with people cruising through in groups and hanging out.

    That said, there's very little going on once you're in an established area. Once all the portals have been found, and all that, unless you've got enough levels to actually fight anything more threatening than a slice of wet bread, all that remains is to walk around, collect XM, and maybe claim a portal or two.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Lt. ChibiLt. Chibi
    Churba said:

    ...unless you've got enough levels to actually fight anything more threatening than a slice of wet bread...

    Unless you're in an area heavily controlled by the other team, where even slices of wet bread start getting feisty.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited November 2013
    Lt. Chibi said:

    Churba said:

    ...unless you've got enough levels to actually fight anything more threatening than a slice of wet bread...

    Unless you're in an area heavily controlled by the other team, where even slices of wet bread start getting feisty.
    Yeah, that happens. My entire area is controlled by higher-level Enlightened, I'm apparently the only active resistance member for about five or so kilometers around, and zero ability to fight back against anyone - and with only two portals, and no ability to fight, It'll take months to level up far enough to even start thinking about fighting. Which also kinda takes away any ability to get anything much at all out of the beta, since you have to be level five for them to give you anything for participating.

    I've got two portals, because they're the only portals around me that hadn't already been taken, presumably because no-one bothered - they're right in the middle of a massive area that's resistance controlled and fielded, and they're off bus routes and main roads, so nobody bothered.

    I think the only reason I even bother with it still is sheer bloody-mindedness, and the fact that it gives me something to do while I'm out for a walk, and a reason to take longer and more varied routes.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • MattMatt
    This morning has consisted of people messaging me to ask how I was able to deploy resonators at unclaimed portals inside a military base. Yeah, think I won't be launching this app around work anymore.
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