Fiat Lux
Ingress has become something of an obsession to the folks over on Google+ in the last month. Like many, I waited more than a little impatiently to see if I’d be one of the lucky ones to get an invite to the currently closed beta of Ingress.
And a few weeks later, I did. Lucky me! Now I’d finally be able to see what all the buzz was about.
The initial experience of Ingress is slick and well thought out. You run through a set of tutorials that show you what to do, and you choose whether to become one of the Enlightened or join the Resistance. Easy enough.
Then you’re out in the world, with your smartphone and the Ingress app, getting engaged in the battle. That’s where I ran into trouble. I found a number of portals quite easily – there are four within a block of my home, and two more by my office. The only problem is, the battle has been advancing while I was waiting to play. As a lowly Level 1 newbie up against enemy portals several levels higher than me, I haven’t much of a chance to successfully attack them, and successful attacks are necessary to advance in level.
That creates a frustrating Catch-22, and I don’t know whether I’ll keep trying or not.
I’m disappointed, because I love the idea of Ingress. A game that requires real-world engagement instead of sitting home in front of your computer is a great idea. The mythology around Ingress is a lot of fun. But the barrier to entry, especially for places like the Bay Area with a lot of geeks, is a real issue.
For me it’s about the ingress community and collaboration. Vegas has a great resistance community where the higher level players help the noobs advance. They went with me to a few portals, used their higher level bursters until the portal was about gone so I could destroy it, add in my piddly L1 resonators to the now gray portal, and even gave me some links to create a field. I will do the same for future noobs as I am now L4. So it’s about the community as much as it is about the game. As a loner, I would most definitely not be having fun.
It can help that you get AP when you hack enemy portals – and if my observations are true, you might even get more for hitting higher level portals. Maybe that’ll help balance? Also, if you happen to have chosen Enlightened, I know some “agents” in the area who would probably be happy to collaborate and help you level up.