I am currently not playing. I am not out, but I am not active. I am waiting for my 1,000 portal submissions to go through. Then I am going to build a team, The Squad. For the longest time I thought I would keep mum about it. But I am at a point when I feel I should open source the value system I have written about The Squad. And so here goes.
June 6, 2013
The Squad Values
(1) We believe in Life/Work/Ingress balance. If you are playing for less than 10 hours a week, chances are you are not intense enough for The Squad. But if you are playing for more than 20 hours a week chances are you are messing up your Life/Work/Ingress balance. That is a no no.
(2) We believe in sportsmanship. The mark of true sportsmanship is that you truly enjoy meeting agents from both sides. You play as hard as you can, but then you truly enjoy meeting people from the other side. Be respectful of others on both sides. This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Don't take the game too seriously.
(3) The Squad is 100% AP driven. We want our agents to get to 10 million in AP as fast as possible. We constantly look for ways to help agents do that. So when we come across a green L7/L8 farm, our first instinct is to hack it to burnout, not to take it down. Because we are AP driven.
(4) Most agents prefer not to join teams. And even those who join teams mostly play solo. And so The Squad will have a very limited agenda.
(5) You don't talk about The Squad outside The Squad. You can say things like "I am a member of The Squad" to recruit people, but that's about it.
(6) When you play solo, you play any way you want. You have the option to tap into The Squad's knowledge base of tips and the collective wisdom of the top agents, but there are no rules. It is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Go have fun your way. When you play solo there is only one rule: We don't talk about The Squad outside The Squad.
(7) The Squad is focused around events it organizes. All socializing happens during Action Time. There is a formal start to an event. And there is a formal end to an event. When the event is over, we go back to Life/Work. We don't hang out, we don't have beer. But if members choose to informally hang out that is fine too, but that is not part of the formal event.
(8) G+ socializing is largely a waste of time. COMM socializing is largely a waste of time. This game is played out there in the field. Your 10 hours a week is about action time in the field not staring at the Intel map at home.
(9) The Squad is a thinking kind of team. We have our tips, our knowledge base, our tactics, and strategies, but all are subject to challenge, and all are subject to empirical evidence. We shift our tactics as necessary. And new ideas can come from anywhere on the team.
(10) We are part of the global Resistance.
(Image: my newest portal submission.)
