I am … Enlightened

Yes. I am

… one of …

… Those People

… who …

… play Ingress.

The game is still in closed beta — invitation only (and, no, I don’t have any invitations to pass on) — but there are a decent number of people playing already.

On one level, Ingress is a simple territory-capture game, with the unique quality of being grounded in the Real World.  Portals are located at a variety of interesting public locations — post offices, museums, unique buildings, public art (and players can submit similar landmarks to become new portals).  Using a Google Maps-based interface on an Android smartphone, you can find where the portals are — in the Real World — and then try to co-opt them for your team, harnessing their strength and linking them to other portals and defending them against the other side …

… well, yes, of course, there’s another side.  Because there’s a higher level game, involving CERN and Higgs-Boson research, and the release of strange energies that lead to (maybe) some folks from Elsewhere (the Shapers) pushing into our world (through portals) to shape the minds of humanity.

So you have the Enlightened (Green) who welcome these efforts as a way of enhancing and impr0ving humanity.  And you have the Resistance (Blue) who are against any tinkering with human development.

And when you start to play, you choose which side to be on. At which point you and yours can start tussling over portals, helping defend them, attacking the portals of the other side, and either opening up human minds to Shaper activities, or protecting them from same.

Or, as Margie so eloquently puts it, “pissing on things to mark your territory.” Poetry in motion, my wife.

And at a level above all that, Ingress has all sorts of conspiracy / mystery / WTF-figuring-out bits to put Fringe and the X-Files to shame.  I’m not doing those bits, because life is too short, but some people hang on every word that comes from Niantic Labs about what’s actually going on.

So … about me.

I’ve been playing about a week, and having fun. I do a bit more vigorous walking at lunch, as there are all sorts of portals in downtown Denver that need boosting, refreshing, attacking, co-opting, linking. Plus the community of other folks in the Enlightenment, with our own G+ group for Colorado, discussing plans, activities, issues.

Some of the folks are a lot more into them game than I am. I’m not the “Let’s go on a group raid tonight, in real life, and turn all the Resistance portals on the Auroria Campus into Enlightened portals” type. On the other hand, there are a few portals along my commute that I’ll take a little extra time to touch bases on, and my Noon-time walks haven’t been the same since I started the game. And what’s really going on with the Blue Bear, or that curly-cue thing on the other side of the Convention Center, or …

It’s fun.

And I can see how it could be a total time sink for folks — just like any other online game. This one has, at least, the advantage of getting folks off their chairs and out into the real world.

A Google Surprise — Worldwide Alternative Reality Game Ingress Revealed | Singularity Hub
Google's "AR" Game Ingress Offers A Glimpse Of The Future
Why Google's Ingress game is a data gold mine – tech – 29 November 2012 – New Scientist
Inside Ingress, Google's new augmented-reality game | Internet & Media – CNET News