The Winter of My Ingress Content

On 8 December 2012, I got my invite from Niantic to participate in the beta of Ingress. I joined as “@Star3D”.

On 30 April 2013, I hit the level cap at L8.

It’s been a long, strange journey, as they say, and largely a positive one. I’ve been doing a lot more walking (especially on business trips), and broader afield (I know downtown Denver a lot better, esp. the various piece of art and the historic buildings), than before.  While there have been frustrations, there’s also been community.

And now I’m at the level cap. Well, the present level cap: Niantic says levels beyond 8 will exist in the future.

But what about me for the future?

So for one thing, it’s not like Ingress runs out of “content” at L8.  You can still play, you can actually use L8 items you couldn’t before, and there’s certainly plenty to do.  It is, though, more of the same (only in a more powerful state), and there’s no further leveling (yet), only watching the AP odometer tick upwards.

Here’s how I see things changing:

1. Less obsessive gameplay:  I’ve had a lot of advantages in my gameplay — I work in a building which has some portals in range (I submitted some of them, but they’re all legit), and I ride the Light Rail to work past an ever-growing number of portala (some of which I submitted, too).  But while I haven’t been the “go out on sub-zero night to join a bunch of people turning Fiddler’s Green into an L8 farm” kind of player,  I’ve spent a fair amount of time here and there — at lunch, riding the train, and driving on errands — hacking and linking. Some would say an excessive amount of time, though I’ve tried to stay within certain bounds of what seems like rationality.

Nevertheless, I will be easing back on the frequent-to-constant gameplay. If nothing else, my reading time on the train has suffered  mightily (esp. as more and more of the stations have gotten their own portals).  It would be nice to take reading walks at lunch that aren’t punctuated every five minutes to try and take an enemy portal.

I don’t believe I’m going to vanish. But I don’t think I’ll be battling compulsively for the “Ghostly Trio” portals every day. I will probably still go out (at least in Pasadena) in the evenings while on travel (great exercise to counter business  trip meals), and I do have a neighborhood portal that I will be guarding diligently.  But I might not always take 90 minutes to drive the 20 minutes from my comic book store back home on Wednesdays, or things of that sort. I might fire up the client on the train — sometimes — but I won’t wail and gnash my teeth if I ride through a station and miss hacking something because I was enrapt in a particularly good chapter of my book.

2. But the Artistic/OCD side will continue: One of the most enjoyable aspects of the game to me has been submitted portals to Niantic (and submitting portal corrections, too).  It brings out both the artist and the OCD in me. I don’t see that changing.  (Now, if only Niantic actually rewarded someone for doing so …)

3. Community rules:  The +Ingress Colorado Enlightenment group on Google+ is a great bunch of people, and I plan on staying in conversation with them.  Or meeting them for beers at the Ghost.  Or …

4. Mentoring Margie:  She’s gotten up to L4 (as “@Kazima”), but doesn’t play that much. But we’ve done a few partnering things, and working with a higher level person is a great way to get some good AP. So we’ll be keeping that up at a low simmer.

So, that’s the plan! But regardless of how it works out, I’ve enjoyed the Ingress (Beta), and look forward to its eventual release into the wild.