Ingress

A few months ago my boyfriend found a pretty interesting game while browsing the Internet. It’s called Ingress and it is a kind of a augmented reality game. What you have to do in the game is establishing “portals” at real places all over the world, for example places of public art, landmarks, famous buildings, nice places in the nature, and then you can link these “portals” to create virtual triangular fields over geographic areas. Does it sound a little bit confusing? It may indeed, but as soon as you have played it a few times, you will easily get the hang of it! J

The game makers’ idea behind the game is that the Earth has been seeded with what they call “Exotic Matter”, in short XM. This XM is associated with the Shapers, a mysterious phenomenon or alien race which is not described or which has anybody ever been able to see. The people who are playing the game are divided into two fractions. When you start playing the game, you can choose to join either the Enlightened fraction or the Resistance fraction. The Enlightened believe that the Shapers are working toward a powerful enlightenment which will be positive for mankind. The Resistance fraction believes that the Shapers do no good to mankind and for this reason the Resistance aim to protect humanity from Shaper ingression.

What do you have to have in order to play the game? 

All you need is a mobile phone on which you have to install the mobile app of Ingress. After downloading the app you can see a map representing the area nearby. On the map appear portals, Exotic Matter, links, control fields, portal keys, and items that have been dropped from a player’s inventory. In order to interact with one of these objects, you have to be physically near them. For every action you take in the game you are rewarded with “Access Points”. If you get enough Access Points, you will get to a higher level. There is a range of level one to level eight.

What can you actually do with these strange “portals”? 

The portals, which are in fact all over the world, are colored green, blue, or grey, depending on whether they are controlled by the Enlightened, the Resistance, or have currently no owner. A portal which has no owner at the moment has no resonators. If you want to claim a portal, you have to deploy at least one resonator on the portal. If you have done so, the portal is then yours and will appear either in green or in blue depending on which of the two fractions you joined.

What is the aim of the game? 

The intended purpose of the game is that either the Enlightened or the Resistance will seize power any time in the future which means that they will have claimed the average of the portals. If any of the two fractions will succeed in this task, the average of the world will then be colored either in green or in blue.

When my boyfriend tried the game a few months ago, it didn’t take him long to persuade me of the game. In Graz, you have a large variety of portals. In fact, you can almost find a portal at every corner of a street and therefore you have a lot to do when you are walking through the city and want to achieve some Access Points. To my mind, the game is a great opportunity to get out of the house and get around in your city.

I like the game pretty much, although I have to admit that I don’t like it when people playing the game tend to only look at their mobile phones and not recognize their environment any more. For this reason, every time I play the game I try not to forget to enjoy everything what is around me. In my opinion, although it is necessary to look at your mobile phone while playing the game, the greatest and most important thing of the game is in fact to observe all the great landmarks or buildings where the portals are located. J