Netizen: Upper West Side

Showing posts with label Upper West Side. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Ingress: State Of The Game: New York City (2)

It is fair to say the green team right now dominates Manhattan. Only a few week back they were at 50% of the territory. Now they are past 50 and still have momentum. Columbia University is solid blue, it is home territory to the top blue agent in the city. Upper West Side is also solid blue. It is home territory to the top attack agent on the blue side. But blue is shaky everywhere else on the island. I believe the green team is approaching 60% of the island by now. That is not worrying. What is worrying is they still have momentum.

When that happens there is the spillover effect. They start pouring out into Queens, Brooklyn, New Jersey perhaps. Already Kogent is talking about New Jersey on the All COMM. Manhattan is not enough territory. They are still hungry. I don't see a slowdown on their side.

West Village has become the green Bayonne. It is home to a permanent L7 farm for the green team. Only Bayonne has many fewer agents harvesting the goodies.

Queens used to be solid blue. By now it is 50-50. Downtown Brooklyn was always fiercely contested, as it is now. But southern Brooklyn is solid blue. Staten Island continues to be JPNasty1 territory: solid blue, the most unchanged part of the city for the game.

When I had a fallout with the current organized team in the city the blue team owned 66% of the city. As long as that team will focus their energies on faction chat in engaging in personal attacks on me, the other side will keep their momentum. If they still have momentum at owning 60% of Manhattan, they still have ground to cover in Queens and Brooklyn, and New Jersey is all open to crack. Arbitrage wants to buy a subway pass, Kogent wants a pass for PATH. The East Village and West Village are no longer enough for them and they are still hungry.

New Jersey's strength came from the numerous L8 farm events that NYC agents organized there. But by now New Jersey is self sufficient. It does not need NYC agents to stay strong. But I would still worry about Kogent.

Derp by now has his own private farm. It is the most efficient farm in the city right now: small and tight.

Forest Hills in Queens is one green 30 portal L8 farm in Jackson Heights taken to burnout away from being wiped out. Astoria, Flushing and Forest Hills all depend on Jackson Heights, the top Ingress destination in the borough by now.

Bronx is 50-50 like it was months ago. Not much change there.

rmazzara has done a good job of turning Long Island over 50% blue, it used to be almost 70% green, and he is not from Long Island. That change goes unnoticed. He might be the top blue agent in the city in terms of the sheer number of hours he puts into the game. Frankly, the number of hours he puts is scary to me. Maybe he is on Niantic's payroll.

What could the blue team do? What are the options?

(1) Make a team decision to stop personal attacks on me and my new, small team.
(2) The idea of me building a team is not alarming. And it is not at cross purposes. And the credit does not go to me. There are only two global teams possible. That is just the way the game has been designed.
(3) My team - The Squad - could sit on top of the organized team that exists already. The existing team was able to go to 66% of the territory in the city. Together perhaps we can go past 70% if we do it right.

Otherwise the green team could carry this current momentum for two more months at least.

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Ingress: State Of The Game: New York City

There is no accurate way to measure, but I think right now the city is looking over 50% green. Only a few weeks back the city was the bluest I had ever seen since I started playing the game on February 1. The city looked 66% blue. Bringing about a split between huze and me was a green political move. ("Oh, we have been getting intel from his pictures!") Huze got used.

The green team has major momentum. I have a feeling they will go all the way to 66% green. At that point arrogance sets in and the team starts making mistakes. Then the pendulum swings again.

We all know portals are not for keeps. Portals flip, all the time.

Staten Island, Bayonne, Southern Brooklyn, Bushwick, Upper West Side, Columbia are still solid blue. You can't shift those regions without cultivating local players. Visits don't do tricks in such solid regions.

I am riding out this storm. And I am glad I am.

Instead I have been making portal submissions: over 220 made just this weekend. I think I might have made over 500 so far, most of them in the past two weeks. One day 20 of my submissions went live and that gave me a jolt to submit more. And so I did. Central Queens will look very different in two months.

Once the green team hits 66% -- heck, if they play it right they might even hit 70 -- and there are five times more people playing the game in the city I am going to start building a new Resistance team called The Squad. For now I am on a sabbatical.

It has been my contention derp is the top Ingress player in the world. And AP is the only way to measure it. Right now I want to see if the guy will break that 66% barrier. It is very hard to do.