33 thoughts on “Welp”

  2. Jeff Pettorino

    "…the thing behind the door" being what, if you don't mind sharing?
    I was very intrigued at first (got my invite about Nov. 10th or so), but quickly lost interest due to the imbalance of player commitment. We had several Enlightened here in ColoSpr who literally spent hours each day driving all over the city. I had not the time nor the gas money to participate at that level, and I was constantly behind the curve (couldn't attack, could barely hack, etc.)
    I slowed down for awhile, and things shifted 180 degrees. Now its mostly resistance dominating in my area, and while it  makes my casual play easier, it is no more fun.
    The code breaking stuff is great, but I don't have that much time to waste everyday, either. *shrug*

  4. Brian Van Meter

    Understandable.  I'm warily keeping an eye out for another dimension to the game, but at the moment I have enough IRL friends playing that it's still fun.  Sorry to see ya go, but glad to have met you!  Catch you around the internets…

  5. Lillith Sullivan

    I stopped playing Ingress a couple months ago after I noticed it was turning ordinary, likeable people into raging assholes. (Or maybe they were already raging assholes and Ingress displayed true colours? I don't know…) BLEH. :

  9. Jonathon Barton

    The thing behind the door being that it has exactly zero depth to it.

    Farm/Destroy/Build/Farm
    Once you hit L8, you don't even get the little dopamine hit from watching the progress bar advance to the next level.

    Add to that

    …The fact that Niantic is a MAPPING company (the founder is the Google Maps guy, and before that he founded Keyhole, one of the first companies to buy time on commercial mapping satellites), and decidedly not a GAME company…

    …The fact that they're shutting down player-made tools with an RIAA-like aggression, rather than a Blizzard-like "Hey, that's cool! Can we integrate it into our base client?" just appalls me.

    …The fact that some people I might really enjoy being friends with IRL (+Brendan Dillon and +Moriah Fremd), and haven't, and likely wouldn't otherwise, because they play on the opposite side of some stupid game…

    It's just…enough.
    I've said it from the very beginning – #ingress  competes with every other form of entertainment out there, and at this point, just about anything is more entertaining…

  10. Doug Dunfee

    Most of #this  ^
    Wary of hitting 8 myself.

    1. Zero depth
    2. Super-actives ruin it for everyone
    3. Portal quality is still garbage
    4. Playing with people from other side is frustratingly pointless.
    5. Becomes a part-time job…

  11. Kyrie E

    I have heard this sentiment echoed by my husband, I'm inclined to agree. If not for the community we have going in Ann Arbor, I would be bored shitless with this game.

  12. Sam Hetchler

    I think the better question is to ask how it can actually be improved. What changes would you want to have put in place?

    I am only a Level 6, but I have found the socialization to be very rewarding.

  14. Jonathon Barton

    Overall Game Balance
    * Self leveling playfield – Flip the output of portals so you get The Good Stuff from hacking enemy portals. This results in a dominating team becoming starved for gear, while an underdog team is buried in gear…that they use to become the dominating team…and it goes back and forth and forth and back naturally…

    Reducing the Jackass Factor
    * Create (and implement in game mechanics) a reason for the two factions to work /together/ to accomplish things on a regular basis.

    Gameplay 
    * Consult with some actual game-developers and managers from indie and AAA titles.
    * Realize your best developers are people who will work for free because they love your product. Don't shut them down, roll the best of their ideas into your product.

  15. Jeff Pettorino

    Awesome, Jonathon. Very good points that I agree with completely. I hadn't thought it through to this degree, but you are right on each count. Hopefully they get a clue.

  17. Laura Klein

    I've been seeing a lot of people leaving, threatening to leave, getting angry, getting bored…

    I don't see it so far, but the time available for me to play is pretty limited, and most of what I do is with my boyfriend and no one else so maybe that limits my exposure to things a bit.

  18. Clayton Murray

    I actually disagree the game has been anything but boring since I hit 8.

    You can be friends with the opposite side look at me and Scott / Joel / Vishal. We give each other a hard time but shake hands chat and get along pretty well. I'd love to get together with them for a beer. Timing is difficult though.

    Player made tools that allow another player to specifically watch only one other players movements are a violation of the TOS not to mention more than a little creepy.

    If you can't seperate in game hostilities and out of game interaction then augmented reality games probably aren't right for you. Nor RPGs for that matter.

    I wish you well in the future.

  19. Jonathon Barton

    Wow. 

    If you can't seperate in game hostilities and out of game interaction then augmented reality games probably aren't right for you. Nor RPGs for that matter.

    That's reading an awful lot about me into "Ingress turns people into jerks". I can separate in game actions from out of game interaction. HOWEVER, I also am an aboslute "un-fan" of smacktalk. I'm a social co-op gamer, and smacktalk is (to me) insulting and hurtful.

    Which is, essentially, OK by me – it's SUPPOSED to be insulting and hurtful. But it's also my belief that being willing to engage in smacktalk makes you an insulting and hurtful person.

    Not a fan of insulting and hurtful people who couch it in "but it's just a game…I don't mean it".

    If you don't mean it, don't say it.

  23. Robert Andersen

    Still plenty of portals available. My travel is really 1/10th of what it used to be. Portals have almost quadrupled since the game started. My activity is less now, however I still play every day and bring my wife along when she can go as she's enjoying the exercise, especially at the parks. I've lost 15 pounds since starting, met countless new individuals, networked, and remind myself daily that it's just a unending game that i can't win and I can't get obsessed with it.

  24. Clayton Murray

    It was this line that led me to believe it was a difficulty "…The fact that some people I might really enjoy being friends with IRL (+Brendan Dillon and +Moriah Fremd), and haven't, and likely wouldn't otherwise, because they play on the opposite side of some stupid game…"

    I'll honestly have to say I've never seen smack talk that way.  When I get smack talked I see it as the opposing sides form of encouragement, it makes me want to play harder, and makes the accomplishment that much more fun when I do make it.  On the flip side when I give someone a hard time it's generally focused on the game such as "Rezdog I thought we were never going to take those portals during the week, they look pretty blue!" it's being proud of the accomplishments of my team.  Since I don't work with Rezdog I couldn't know he was out sick, and as soon as I did I sent him a message wishing him well.

    Godzilla5280 and I have a pretty strong rivalry in game, but are trying to sync up a time to grab coffee, chat, and get to know each other this week.  I feel like this game is an opportunity to network with people regardless of faction.  There are many folks that share similar interests with me in my own faction from Teratogen who shares a gaming interest, to ValeoSTL and MacWildKat who share a different gaming interest, to Haszlsack who is into making his own mead (and good at it too).  I'm learning more about them every time we play together.

    This game isn't just a game, it's a managers wet dream.  It's about networking, team building, organizational skills, communication, and much much more.  +Linda Besh probably could say it better, but I fully believe that this game is about so much more than just leveling up.  It's about community, and friendship.

    I can be an asshole, and I recognize that some people might see it that way, but the truth is if I was out playing Ingress and someone from the other side put in all chat that they needed real life emergency help, I would try to get them help, the same for my own faction.

    Any "jerkiness" you perceive on the behalf of others is just that, your perception.  If you haven't met the folks before you can't understand the context with which they mean something.  "Damn you" could be perceived as a curse or if said with laughter as a joke, either way I seriously doubt the individual truly wishes you damned forever.

    Smack talk has become a part of video gaming, now when it moves from game topics to real life topics in an augmented reality game that can be crossing a line.  I honestly enjoy a little smack talk from the opposing faction, I enjoy the challenge of overcoming the dominant side, even more so when the odds are highly stacked against me.  It makes the accomplishment that much more satisfying.

    Personally I'm sorry to see people push to 8 only to quit, but it's whatever make them happy.

  25. G. Hussain Chinoy

    I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't really get to have an actual conversation about gameplay dynamics, but that's how it goes.
    There is a difference between in-game behaviors and out-of-game behaviors, but if people are being honest with themselves, those two aren't really that far apart. This game, unlike a lot of other MMxPGs, has a lot less rules which means the "trash talk" gets much more easily mixed in with rule interpretation – but if one can't have the discussion verbally or textually, it can very easily be interpreted behaviorally. Some people say one thing and do another. The only way to determine whether they are the behavior or the expression is to meet them and figure it out, or keep watching their actions and their "talk."

    To me, this game is putting the game development and experimentation in the most indie game developers hands directly – us (and, of course, the Niantic team, who clearly is adjusting the game – maybe not at the pace you'd or others'd like). It's local, regional, global – it's ability to be turned into contextual and organizational analog really does show off networking, team building, and communication skills as both Linda and Clayton have expressed. There's a different game played where I am than where you are, most definitely, yet, it's the same game. The thing behind that door is opportunity.

    Have fun with Tetris.

  26. Linda Besh

    +G. Hussain Chinoy  When I get together with the more advanced technical players on our team, I am amazed at the game dynamics that i never thought of.  We use the mumble app and talk to each other on the road and some at home are on mumble to check the intel map for us or give us tips on where to go next.  We use latitude so if I need help upgrading a portal, i can check latitude see who is nearby and gtalk them to see if they can come help me.
    On the night I went on a quest to score 200,000 AP in one night, I had guys who calculated for me exactly how many portals I would have to hit to get that score and where the portal dense areas were that would get me there…and it worked!
    And one person took all our "resonator destroyed" emails and wrote a script that recorded how many times each portal was hit so we could avoid building farms in the "hot spots" that were turned over often.
    The strategy we built to use on the anomaly event in Lake Geneva was weeks in the making, and as I read through instructions the more experienced players wrote to advise us, I was amazed at things I never thought of like how to walk together near a portal and not have one player grab up all the XM, and the advice i got on how to win a portal worked so well that I was defending a portal against 6 other agents who were constantly attacking it and using the tips i was given i kept that portal through the entire event in my name and faction.  I have built lots of L8 flash farms in different cities, the trick is not to always play in your backyard, use ingress to get out with your friends and explore another area.  I can't believe I had never bothered to go to Belle Isle in all the years I lived here, this winter thanks to Ingress i was there many times and grown to appreciate it.  It's forced me out of my comfort zone and because of fellow players who knew areas I didn't I learned about those areas when I would play ingress with them.  We become ambassadors and tour guides to other ingress players who visit our city. A week ago I was taking a player from Arizona around town, he was referred to me by another ingress friend I only knew online.
    I enjoyed showing off my favorite portals in my town, and realized how much I have learned about my town in the few short months I've played.
    I have been working on a database of community leaders from around the world so that if you or I want to travel to another city and play ingress we can contact that person and see if any local players would like to take us on an ingress tour and play the game with us.
    Several people have told stories of the ingress players offering more than just a tour…they end up traveling and staying with ingress players in the city they played in, I myself have been invited to dinner as I pass through a town and taken on ingress tours through cities I've visited by ingress players. There was this really cool circus town in Wisconsin and Chinatown in Chicago was cool, too.  

     It's only boring if you stay in your backyard.

     Ingress is about getting out and exploring the world.  And its the cool art, history and cultural things you learn as you go that make it fun. Not to mention the great friends you make from all over the world if you spend time on the ingress threads and talk to people.
    I have a full time job and still find time to play. And my vacations this summer just got a whole lot more exciting because i will be meeting new people in the towns I visit because the ingress players are also at the portals you visit and will also come see you if you call out on the COMM.  Then you have a local person who can point you to all the best spots to see in a town, so much better than spending hours on a computer reading tour guides.

  29. Linda Besh

    I know tl;dr but I want to answer +Clayton Murray .
      I have to agree with you. I have good friends on both factions and we meet up for a beer at least once a month. We recently had a competition in Lake Geneva WI and both factions from Detroit even stayed at the same hotel and hung out.  

    As you know I wrote a lot of articles about ingress and earned invites…I used those invites to help teams form and made friends from all over the world.  As I got this notification to this thread as I was pouring over world time maps trying to find a time a group I work with on solving clues to the mystery could have a hangout together because we are so far spread out around the world.

    I also took a minute to smack talk with my enlightenment friends nothing more than saying I haven't played as often as I used to and noticed the map got too green in my absence and so I was going to work to try to win it back…they said never..the gauntlet thrown it makes it more fun when you can hear your completion saying…'just try it and see what I do'  Our smack talk threads have a going joke with enlightenment players always beer-jacking my thread for a break to discuss beer making and they often go more than 100-200 comments we are having so much fun.

    I got some great candidates for jobs my company is hiring for from my local faction community.

    Here are the much needed skills I was able to sharpen playing the game…not by myself but always with others.

    Event planning for cross faction meet ups and travel to other cities for operations to help team members who were outnumbered in their city.  

    Teamwork is a given…but also team building and recruiting new players…I've recruited around 200 players around the world..including a team in China…you meet some interesting people on the ingress threads!  

    Collaboration with outstate teams to build giant fields takes lots of planning and getting people from at least two other geographic areas to work with you on planning and timing.

    Leadership skills in helping to build your community and inspiring others to become leaders, as ingress is so big the way you manage it is each person leads in an area of their expertise.  Leadership is a shared responsibility…in our community some check maps and let others know where the AP is, others plan fields, some plan events, others watch the story to see if it will affect play…no one person can do all these things and hold a job. That is why participating in a community makes it less of a job and more of a team sport.

    The back story is purposely made complicated that you have to work with others to keep up with it, I am a member of a book club like group that splits up parts of the stories and then get together and see if each of the parts we worked on fit together there are 23 in the group and we still don't get to every clue…Ive come to appreciate just how much time and effort was put into the story. Next Tuesday April 2 there is a 'The Alignment Ingress' eBook coming out written by New York Times best selling author +Thomas Greanias  check out his G+ page.  I have been collecting characters with a G+ profiles for months now and it has several dozen names now…the time spent building those profiles and you tube accounts and placing all the rabbit holes around the web we've found, it definitely took a professional team of ARG writers to come up with it.  Today's trailer for the eBook is a good example
      I build my research skills working on the back story and learn a lot about the world and history in doing so, its more fun than just sitting around watching the history channel on tv.

    Conflict resolution amongst players within your area or even online on a thread is another skill you can work on and improve.

    The networking is fantastic, and when you play together after a few months you really bond with your team they become good friends. I've seen people lend their tablets, phones, even cars to team mates and help one another out when someone is in need.

    Strategy, I've never been a good strategy person, but I am learning from my teammates who take the strategy part of the game to an extreme that makes it exciting and more chesslike.

    Now think of all the college kids playing this game…these are great skills for them to be building to prepare for the workplace. Ingress players tend to go the extra mile, go for one more portal, one more field, they are driven. When you consider all the skills gained playing the game you can't help but think it is going to improve skills that are valuable to your employer, or future employer.

  32. Jeremy Ellwood

    +Linda Besh  – Well… I will actually be able to buy ingredients relatively soon!  
    But still won't be able to brew until Denise and I get into the house.  

    However… whatever day we move in, there will be beer one month later.  😛

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top