Ingress, Part 2

Okay, so previously I gave a primer on Ingress, and now it is time to go into a bit deeper detail.

If you get into Ingress, you will learn that there is a big story that goes with the game, and that has been playing out for the last five and half years.  Niantic has tried to engage the players by creating a story that is pushed forward by periodic videos that often look like News Reports.  During those five and half years many things have been added to game, both story and mechanics.  You will learn all about that if you play, and you won't care much if you don't

So, the game actually plays like this.  You drive around to different portals and hack them, and then attempt to link them to other portals.  Now, you do not do the hacking and linking while moving…at least  you shouldn't, and in Austin, Texas, where I live, it is actually against the law (no hand held devices while driving).

Portals are far enough apart that you will almost certainly have to drive to find more than a few.  The game really should play out by driving to an area, parking your car and then walking around to hack all the nearby portals. 

As an example, there are at least a dozen portals within a mile of my house.  However, there are only two  within 200 yards of my house, so it depends on how far you want to walk.  I find that most people drive into an area with a lot of portals, and then walk to hack those portals.  Some parks and churches will have several portals in a small area, so it becomes easy to hack many portals with minimal effort.

Ingress is largely a loner game, but not necessarily a lonely game.  You go out hacking when you have time, and that often means you do it alone.  You don't need other people to play the game.  However, there is a Comm function in the game that allows you to talk to other players.  It can be filtered to your Faction and a distance, so you can talk to local players on your side.  That means you can find other players near by and work together. 

The Austin Ingress community is pretty good, and the Austin Enlightened group even has a webpage, and they use Google+ and Slack to communicate outside the game.  This allows the local group to coordinate efforts and create local events.  There are also game wide events, which center on specific cities around the world, usually a few major sites, and then more minor sites.  Hundreds of people meet up and compete for the day.

Lastly, one of the things I like best is that while the Resistance and Enlightened are rivals, there is no real animosity between the factions.  Though the ingame story pits them as rivals struggling to control the destiny of mankind, the players are just playing a game and having fun.  That is probably the best thing about Ingress.

Five and a half years and still going strong.