Ingress: Team? What Team?

Dutch F-16 Demo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are hundreds of people who have signed up to play Ingress in New York City over the months. Of those less than 200 have signed up for this or that G+ group on both teams combined. Of those less than two dozen are active in both the game and on G+. The blue team is slightly ahead and does more L8 farm events. The green team mostly does L7 events.

My point being the vast majority of Ingress players act solo. Even those hard core ones who meet to create their L8 and L7 farms mostly act solo. They might meet for some farming, but mostly they go out to play solo.

You can think this is about territory but this really is an AP (Action Points) game. A lot of L8 agents will tell you it is not about AP anymore. And what they mean is there is no Level 9. But strictly speaking it is about AP. It is about fun, and it is about AP. If your idea of fun is playing solo, that is your game. If your idea of fun is teaming up and doing events together, that is your game.

But there really is no team. The global score keeping makes it even less so. Vaguely speaking you do choose one of the two teams. But actual teams that have coalesced are not necessarily essential to the gaming experience.

I do think the game is more fun through the team experience, but with the right kind of team. Many team types are possible.

In New York City currently blue is the slightly more dominant team, but the top agent in the city is on the green side, and by a wide margin too. Actually both of the top two agents are on the green side. And I think that is not accidental. Perhaps that top agent needs to belong to the team that is not dominant. It goes together.

The majority of agents are free agents. Even the tiny minority of agents who are part of loosely organized teams spend much of their game time in solo action. That makes team a rather vague, unessential concept in the scheme of things.

But when there are 10 times more people playing the game, and there are many types of teams moving around trying to put together spectacular events the game is going to be more fun.

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Ingress NYC Resistance "Secrets"

Ingress is not a complex game and the two teams have ended up with pretty much similar strategies independent of each other. L8 farms get attacked as soon as they show up. And so maintaining "radio silence," as in doing nothing that shows up on the COMM -- something both sides do -- makes sense to an extent. But I have yet to hear of a L8 farm built by either side in Manhattan that lasted a long time because, guess what, "radio silence" was maintained! As soon as your first L8 portal pops up, it shows up on the map. And by now I believe the map of the city gets "watched" pretty much 24/7. So no matter how much "radio silence" you maintain, your L8 farm is not going to be a secret, it never was. And for some reason both sides are leery of trying something obvious: like, how about looking for farm spots outside of Manhattan! But then derp and Das did show up at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park at one in the morning when Queens built its first ever L8 portal! And Kogent drives over to New Jersey as necessary. On Staten Island there is one guy hacking the blue L8 portals, so it probably makes sense for the green team to let him hit his 2,000 limit instead of bothering to take down his portals.

This is tic tac toe. The make believe I have no patience for. And there are green agents who are like, don't tell me your secrets, because if I know your secrets, my fun vaporizes. The idea of L8 farms: no secret. The idea of "radio silence," not a secret. But wait, maybe the idea of a G+ group is a secret. Maybe the green gremlins organize conference calls, and if they found out the blue smurfs instead use G+ to organize their L8 agents, they might copy the practice, and then where are we! The advantage has been lost!

Event venues and times are secrets that should not be revealed. I buy into that. But the last L8 farm I hacked to burnout I found on the Intel map! Maybe others can do it too!

And there are the really obnoxious agents. They end up suggesting nothing less than that you are maybe playing t-h-e-i-r game! Oh, really!? Elected leadership would make zero sense, and unelected leadership is heresy. Basically the point is, Don't tell me what to do.

What it really boils down to is that this is a game, and it is supposed to be fun. Your Ingress operation is not a CIA operation. All you can hope for is spectacular events. Even there you don't build anything permanent. All you got is not a lousy T-shirt, tomhuze, all you got was a few screenshots. But wait, those can not be shared!

Al Gore invented the Internet and tomhuze and rmazzara invented Ingress! Give me a break. Mazzara is not even at 1.4 million AP. Wait, the guy might have hit 1.5!

This whole thing about helping low level agents level up is also on the weird side. My observation is and has been that there is a reverse pyramid out there. There are way more high level than low level agents. So just go duke it out.

Some people's idea of the game is, oh, you play Ingress? Me too. Wait, you  are Resistance? Me too. Let's go have beer for four hours. Today, tomorrow, and the day after, and what is your schedule looking like next week? Nothing wrong with that. It's just that I believe there are other gaming ways possible. And by the way, don't let the other side know we are having beer. All secret societies have secrets.

For my squad membership starts at 2.4 million AP but is not automatic. And for leadership positions you need 4.8 million AP, which I don't have, which I am now working towards. And so when I harvest and deploy an endless number of L1 resonators, maybe I ran out of L8 ammo (NOT) or I am just trying to hit five million in AP, or maybe I am helping low level green agents level up! The game has more than two sides.

This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. And it is not supposed to take too much of your time. It is just that intense fun asks for an elite squad, I think. Niantic, open up the floodgates, let in 10 times more people.

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Ingress: The Game Changes

I don't understand people who hit Level 8 and then give up. I can understand slowing down because you are pressed for time, you have other obligations. But plain giving up? Why did you get started in the first place?

Not only am I in, at four million action points I feel like I am just getting started. This is a game. And it is great fun. That is the starting point. It is a great game.

In 2010 I wrote a blog post called Mobile First. Fred Wilson read it and wrote a blog post echoing the theme, and that blog post of his became his top post for that year. Ingress is futuristic, in that it it about mobile, about gaming, about location, and a few other things. So for industry watchers it is a great way to get into the action. This is not a waste of time.

It also allows you to get to know a neighborhood like a local. It opens up the city's geography. And that is a big part of the game for me. Seeking opportunities to deploy Level 1 resonators still has appeal for me, and this is a big reason why. I am at a point where I can get any amount of ammo of any level. Ammo is no constraint. Time is. And you use up low level resonators like anything when you go for it.

The point of having high level ammo is to have the option to use it when it makes sense to do so.

This is a simple game like a knife is a simple weapon. I don't think a knife is a simple weapon, if you know how to use it. Some very complex strategies will become possible when there are 10 times more people playing the game, or even 100 times. The velocity of the game increases and more options open up.

Most people who play the game think there are two sides in the game. And the mind unit count makes that suggestion as well. But I think that is the simplistic version. More than two sides are possible. There are many many sides in the game. The AP count is the compass, and many, many sides are possible. Small, agile teams can do more, I believe, than large, scattered teams that waste a lot of time "socializing" on G+.

You still have two basic tools, you have the app, and you have the Intel map. And you are good to go. Time is the only ammo worth counting.

I am at a phase where I need 10 times more people playing the game in New York City to seek the next level of fun in the game for me. Until then I practice the basics, get to know the terrain better, get more intimate with the city's geography, make good use of the two tools and, yes, socialize.

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Level 8 farming for Level 8 ammo is probably the top collective activity in the game right now. And it is no secret. A secret is something that only one side knows. If both sides are doing it, it is not a secret. Both sides build and harvest L8 farms. Both sides try to be as secretive about it as possible. My observation has been most of the harvests get used for vain claims to territories. People use up a lot of ammo to keep what I call their vanity portals. I wish more of that high level ammo were used to create spectacular events. You are not building anything permanent in the game. All you can hope for is screenshots. And perhaps event reports when the screenshots do not do justice.

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Ingress And Complex Strategies

Ingress is not a complex game and I believe complex strategies are not possible. This is more tic tac toe than chess. But it is fun and that's the point. It is futuristic. It is global. I expect mass adoption. Frankly I expect it to hit Gmail like numbers in two years. I hope the game goes public as soon as possible. Why wait? The game is good to go.

Secrets are details that the other side does not know. My experience in New York City has been both sides have gone on to do similar things pretty much independent of each other. Not because there are moles, but because this is not a complex game. You play solo. Then you hit Level 8. Then you meet a dozen others who are L8. And you wonder, what if we all got together? You end up with L8 Farms, which are my favorite Ingress events, only by now you can find it on the map pretty much, and L7 Farms give you pretty good ammo too. The idea of L8 agents coalescing is no secret, because both sides are doing it. The idea of L8 Farms: not a secret. Both sides do the Alerts thing on the enemy's L7 and L8 farms. The idea is to destroy as soon as possible. Some top players get major thrill out of it.

I just happened by two L7 farms in my neighborhood and took them down both times pretty fast. Then I got to take down a L8 farm in Battery Park attended by none other than derp, who I claim is the top Ingress player in the world. I think they had managed not even two hacks yet. That's a score. Could not have happened without tomhuze's intel. The dude also paid for the cab.

In this game a car is a tank, a fighter jet. The other night Kimon, I and sma were claiming back some blue territory at and near Grant's Tomb, in a car. It was fun.

The game does not need more complexity, I think. You don't want L1 agents feeling too helpless and you don't want L8 agents feeling too powerful. The recent changes that cause XM drains for actions taken create a more level playing field. The game is good to go. Now complex strategies are all about increasing the number of people that might be playing the game. I want to live in a city where more than 10,000 people are playing the game.

The next challenge I have set for myself is to build an elite squad. Beer bores me. Agents with less than 2.4 million in AP need not apply. And that elite squad will get built once 10 times more people are playing the game. So Niantic, open up the flood gates. The larger the number of people playing the game, more complex the strategies possible.

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