The world around is not what it seems…. At least that’s what the people from Niantic Labs wants us to think.

There is an energy of unknown origin seeping into our world – it is known as Exotic Matter. This mysterious energy has been unlocked by a team of scientists in Europe and is spreading around the world. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think…. Agents are required to identify the portals through which this energy is entering our world, capture them and control them for ultimate control of the energy.

This is the best description I can put together of a game I started playing in January. The game is called Ingress and it has been created by Google and Niantic Labs.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNvz-2ErRp8&w=640&h=360]

Ingress is an augmented reality game that is played on Android devices only (there isn’t an iOS app yet), in the real world. You don’t get to sit on your backside with this game, you have to get out and about if you want to play.

Augmented Reality

What’s “augmented reality” I hear you ask… great question! Wikipedia says:

“Augmented Reality is a live, copy, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.”

I like to think of augmented reality as the real world overlaid with a digital layer. Like walking down the street and seeing all the landmarks, but having little “speech bubbles” appear to tell me about them. Totally geeky, but totally awesome! Ingress isn’t exactly like that, but it’s similar.

When I decided to share my Ingress experience, I asked a number of other female Ingress players (agents) to share their experiences and thoughts to give different perspectives to my own.

Becoming an Ingress Agent

Firstly, Ingress is only available on Android devices (sorry iPhone users, but you can’t play yet).  Your phone (or tablet) needs to have GPS and data services – if you’re using a tablet that only has wifi, you can use “tethering” through any type of phone (as long as it has GPS and data services).

Visit the Google Play Store and install the Ingress App.  When you first load the app, you get to create an account and select your faction.

There are two factions: The Enlightened (the green team and the faction I joined) who seek to spread the influence of Exotic Matter; and the Resistance (the blue team) who struggle to protect what’s left of our humanity. I choose The Enlightened because I believe that evolution is inevitable and we should be investigating all new things… Within the game we’re known as Frogs and Smurfs.

Before I go any further, I should explain what a portal is.  A portal is, simply, a point of interest within your area. They could be objects in parks (swings, slippery dips, signs); cultural, artistic and community centres; public art (graffiti) or anything that is of local significance. Part of the background behind developing Ingress was to create content for another Android App known as Field Trip.

When the Ingress app is active your phone becomes a ‘scanner’ and shows you the portals nearby – green for Enlightened held portals; blue for Resistance held portals; and Grey for uncaptured portals. When you identify a portal, the idea is to neutralise the other factions hold on the portal; and capture it for your own faction. I could go into descriptions about XM Bursters and Resonators; but it’s best to experience all this through the actual game play. The thing is, is that you need to be within metres of the portal to interact (neutralise and capture) with it.  Your scanner screen will look similar to this:

The portal (the green pillar on the screen) is a National Park sign, that I get to walk to on my journeys around Canberra.

Getting Moving…

From my point of view, the best thing about starting Ingress was that I got moving.  I haven’t been all that active in many, many years and found walking any distance painful; which meant I was not keen to try and had little enthusiasm for exercise.  However, after installing Ingress I found that I had walked over 20km in my first week of playing. I simply put the app on my phone, found portals at the Tuggeranong Lakefront and started walking. By the end of the first ‘go’, I had walked about 6km…. and I wanted to do more. As my dear hubbie says, it’s “exercise with a purpose” that makes the difference… the exercise is actually coincidental to the doing. Yes, my feet hurt; my calves were cramped and I couldn’t move by the end of it – but it was fun and I had a purpose!  Now, 350km later, walking 8km at a time is easy and I feel fabulous!

Seeing Your City In New Ways

I’ve seen parts of Canberra that I’ve been meaning to see for years and never got to it; and when I travelled to Brisbane in March, I connected with locals who were more than happy to be our guides and because we had “portals” to visit, I saw more of the city than I would have normally. I should also mention that I’ve seen parts of Canberra at all hours of the day and night – as well as being in Tuggeranong Park (near the Skate Park) when the sprinklers came on – thankfully, I didn’t get wet!  Ingress isn’t just limited to Australia or major cities – some of our players have been all over the world.

Ingress has taken me to the most amazing places, led me to investigate secret paths and hidden art work, and made me much more aware of the objects around me. It’s taken me on adventures around five continents and improved my fitness immensely. It’s also brought me some of the best people in my life – people who I know will still be around me years from now when Ingress is long gone.  ~ taliesinsmuse

Playing Ingress I have found some hidden treasures, those little known places of interest close to home. Things that I would normally just drive past and not notice. ~ Llamaspit

It’s funny I have never been that concerned with the safety aspects of the game but in saying that, I’m so busy usually that I only have minimal opportunity to get involved in the group play aspect of the game. The most exciting aspect I found is the fact that it has opened my eyes to the world around me. I moved to Queanbeyan about four years ago and never extended myself beyond locating the shops and nearest pubs. Ingress has shown me some incredible landmarks and walks all in my own backyard. ~ Sharnee

The Community

I was a little worried about playing this game and meeting “the enemy”… in fact, I was a bit worried about meeting anyone related to the game. However, when I started playing I received a lovely welcome from Enlightened Agent delta284 in the “in game comms” and not much later was congratulated by another enlightened agent for “great work on the fielding”. I started to suspect that these people might be ok… so applied to join the Ingress Enlighted Canberra Google Plus community. There, I connected with players local to my area (I play mostly in Tuggeranong) as well as agents all over Canberra.

Since joining that community, I’ve been to an Enlightened BBQ in Gungahlin, caught up with agents all over the town for coffee and get togethers and expanded my friends circle to an awesome group of people who have at least one thing in common. Oh yeah, we’ve also met “the enemy” in the field and had a “cross faction” dinner for Tuggeranong players.

One of the biggest concerns that I’ve heard and had myself is the opportunity for players to bully and “troll” within the game. This wasn’t a concern that was limited to Ingress – it is one of the reasons I’ve been cautious about playing many games. I’ve seen the bullying, abuse and general poor behaviour that can occur in games (online and offline) and really didn’t want to open myself up to any of it.

So when I started the game, I was careful to not go out on my own and was really careful about how “public” I was – always a good thing to be – however, I have found that the local Ingress community is amazingly strong and has very high standards for behaviour to each other. Trolling, abuse, bullying and other inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated by either faction and if an agent is seen to behave poorly in this respect, their own faction will speak to them about it. Having played some online games, the way the game moderators respond to poor behaviour sets the tone for the game.

As a newbie player, I was impressed and grateful when the “senior” players offered to come out and help us “take down enemy portals” and became general mentors in how to play the game.   However, it sometimes isn’t all “rainbows and lollypops” and some of our agents share their thoughts:

There have been ingame incidents: male players making threats outright, aggressive swearing in game and in other online forums. The community response is not always enough to counteract that. On the whole, though, despite the occasional jerk, the players locally are really intelligent people, and the cross faction behaviour is – in the most part – really good, even to developing other social encounters such as table top and whiskey clubs ~ Jinshei

For me, Ingress is as much about the social community as about the game itself, and it’s a community I’ve come to love, filled with diverse people who share both a love of the game and a kind-heartedness I’ve rarely found elsewhere in such numbers. I met my partner through Ingress, and I’ve formed many friendships which I already consider to be lifelong. It’s not all rainbows and light though – the game is dominated by male players, with an underlying edge of sexism, and gameplay can lend itself to stalking or threatening behaviours. But I play it safe, and I enjoy the occasional butting of heads on gender issues – quite frankly, it’s one of safest ‘sexist’ environments I’ve ever been in. ~ Kahrys

I have played many online multi player games before but this is the first one that connects me to local people and has a lovely community and cooperative feeling. It is a little addictive and I need to be careful not to allow it to be TOO important. Its just a game after all?? I’m really loving the positive encouragement from other players and the variety of people in terms of both age and gender. ~Jeskia

What’s good: Finding out about my community through the artworks that are in unexpected places. Not being a native Canberran this is a pleasant way to find out about the `burbs.  ~ kweenbee

Leading from Jinshei’s comment about other social encounters, for an “online game” it is remarkably social if you want it to be and there can be “rainbows and lollypops”:

I resisted joining in with Ingress or “nerd noding” as I called it when my hubby and his mates would go out wandering all over the place. I eventually joined as I thought it would help him out where I could. What I found was that it opened me up to an environment full of art works and interesting places and monuments that I had never noticed before. The really unexpected part was the number of new friends that I have made, meeting up not just to play the game, but for social events as well. While I am not as active recently as I was initially, I still enjoy playing casually and have my favourite portals that I just can’t leave blue. ~ MoniQ

Although all the Ingress players I have met in Canberra have been extremely friendly, it has been the female players I’ve met out in the field that have vastly increased my enjoyment of the game. Our cross-factional ladies events put aside the usual war-like atmosphere and were really about the spirit of co-operation, allowing us to remember that Ingress is a social game. ~ vtghf

… Of course, it’s also brought bullying, verbal abuse, apprehension and frustration. Like many games and places, it’s not always female-friendly…but unlike many games and places, the community is often quick to condemn inappropriate behaviour and comments. We cooperate, we argue, we have wildly differing ideas about how the game should be played…Ingress is an amazing way to meet people, to exercise, and to discover more about your world. ~ taliesinsmuse

I’ve spent a weekend travelling around Canberra with other team mates, “Ingressing”, because we all wanted to work as a team. Sure, we could have struck out on our own and done our own thing but instead we met up and worked together.

There’s heaps of ways to play Ingress – from just getting out there and claiming portals to planning a manoeuvre that will “field” the whole of Canberra, Tuggeranong or Queanbeyan (or any other locale including Australia). Manoeuvres (or operations) take a heap of planning and as the “other guys” objective is to stop you doing that, sometimes there are disappointments.

Ingress is a fun way to get fit. Being a blue smurfy player is a real challenge as we’re heavily outnumbered but if you like a challenge there are great rewards. Highs – climbing Mount Majura; lows – having a giant field you’d worked days on going down in mere minutes. ~ Ausbookworm

Not so good: Having my hard work destroyed before I have even walked away. ~ kweenbee

Yes, every Ingress player has had these experiences and I have to admit, that as a low level player I experienced the disappointment of losing a portal (or more) within minutes of putting it up… This can be demoralising however, with the support of my faction, I learned to treat it as an opportunity to “level up” more quickly (yep, I made Lemonade from my lemons).

How Do You Get Started?

1. You need an Android device
2. Download the Ingress App from the Google Playstore; setup an account and choose a user name
3. Select a faction (Enlightened or Resistance)
4. Follow the tutorial that is provided
5. Connect with your local faction on Google Plus:
   1. Enlightened Community
   2. Resistance Community
   3. Ingress Canberra Community (both factions)
6. Start playing!