The Path of Resistance (Level 3)

Back on November 20, I became a member, somewhat unexpectedly, of the Resistance faction in Niantic Labs @ Google's new project, Ingress.

Ingress started around a week prior, and when a coworker got an invite and a friend retweeted a link about the game on the morning of the 20th, despite my awareness and having already signed up on the 16th for an invite on Ingress.com, I still made the Ingress symbol out of crackers and snapped a photo with my Windows Phone to post to Google+ as artwork inspired by the game in hopes of gaining an invite code from the developers.

That night, I also joined the Ingress IRC channel and waited for one of the Googlers to show up with trivia questions where correct answers could earn me an invitation into the game.  I answered the first question right and got in.  I installed the app, activated it and was about to go outside to start my training missions when it started to pour rain.

The next morning, before I'd even had time to start my training, my official invite from signing up on ingress.com showed up in my inbox.  Oops.  I later gave that code to another coworker.

I had my heart set on being a member of the Enlightened faction.  The dev that invited me was Resistance, so I became Resistance.  I'm playing Muse's album The Resistance as I type this, that's how much I resist.

On November 21, I wrote this post on Google+:

"Last week, I started seeing posts in my Google+ feed from those in my circles that had either started playing or signed up for invitations to play a new ARG called #Ingress. 

I have participated in several Alternate Reality Games in the past, including ilovebees, Year Zero and Flynn Lives ARGs done well and right by 42 Entertainment and some not done so well by others for Lost's Dharma Initiative and The Avengers' SHIELD.

I like ARGs that immerse the player in the game. I like when the puzzles or activities feel necessary to complete and not just tacked on layers of advertising.

What I had seen of Ingress in my Google+ feed intrigued me. When I visited the http://ingress.com homepage and saw The Mechanics statue that is across the street from where I spend my working days, I immediately submitted my email address to request an invitation.

I read up on http://nianticproject.com and discovered Tycho and his posters and PAC and the rabbit hole they pulled me into.

Curiosity made my patience wear thin waiting on my invitation. I decided to attempt to skip the queue after more friends were talking about the game yesterday. I joined the Niantic Invites channel on IRC and spent an hour or so discussing with others whether I should be enlightened or join the resistance.

Within that hour, an operator named monkeychicken joined the server, asked a trivia question that I responded to correctly and I soon had an invitation to join the game in my gmail box.

I liked that I had played and won a round of a game to gain access to a bigger game.

I installed the Ingress app on my HTC Rezound and proceeded to start the first training mission. The fates conspired against me and it started raining as I went to step outside.

The exploration with the app would have to wait for morning. Instead I discovered that the codes I had deciphered from the Niantic Project corkboard could be entered as passcodes on ingress.com/intel and I could map out where to find portals from there as well.

This morning I used some precommute time to gather exotic matter and my lunch break to hack my first portal and resonate and link two others. The link was near The Mechanics statue and behind two yellow cones with a chain almost blocking my path. I have to assume that was intentional. It was perfectly in line with the training portal onscreen. One of the factions must wash windows in the San Francisco financial district.

I never understood Foursquare. With Ingress I understand the obsession with checking in. Except I am deploying resonators or hacking enemy portals instead of trying to become mayor.

I can see Ingress leading me down new paths I haven't explored in the Bay Area I have called home for the last decade. I love that many early portals are connected to historical and architectural landmarks.

The game has a ton of possibilities. There are things that could break it. An example would be adding microtransactions. I would abandon the game in a heartbeat if they add monetization in situations like "to attach a resonator please pay 99 cents".

But Google and Niantic Labs don't seem to be evil. That is one of the reasons I have decided to follow the #Enlightened path."

On Thanksgiving Day, we went downtown to Old Navy to hang out with Mario and Luigi at the Nintendo Wii U display.  I decided to play some Ingress while we were there.  I quickly learned that Level 1 means you can't really do anything in the game.  Oopsie.

From Google+:

""We spent around an hour in the city. I planned to enlighten some Resistance portals, only to discover that Ingress had made me a part of The Resistance without asking.

Oh well. I figured I would kill some enlightened portals instead. I unleashed some XMP and got... Nothing.

All of the things that I could do in training I couldn't do in the real world. Suddenly, the game wasn't fun anymore."

I didn't play the game for six days.  It was raining and I was highly stressed at work.  I didn't have any time to play at all and I was still dealing with what felt like a never ending sinus infection.

On November 29, I went to Berkeley to see Charming Hostess in concert and ended up finding some low level portals in the area.  I was finally playing the game.  It quickly sucked me in.  I started with the Tuning Fork sculpture, then some historic buildings and other sculptures and I was well on my way to leveling up.

On November 30, I gave that extra invite code to a coworker and collected some XMP bursters from the nice blue-shaded portals near where I work in the city.

Again, I didn't have the ability to play for a full week.  

On December 7, I got 1100 AP just by walking up Market Street from work to the Curran Theater where I attempted to get Book of Mormon tickets from their lottery and failed.  That night, after a late dinner at Denny's we dropped off a friend and I got my first three portals and also leveled up to Level 2.

Yesterday, I spent half an hour helping my coworker that got in back on November 20 to level up at a sculpture garden on Mission Street in the morning.  At lunch time, I took possession of the portal in the Bechtel train car museum near where I work.

After work, I spent around another hour playing the game in the financial district.  The Ingress website and trailer video featured the statue "The Mechanics" that is in front of a Jamba Juice about a block from where I work and that train car I captured sits.

Yesterday afternoon, I captured that very same portal for myself.

I didn't hold that portal for very long, but in the meantime, I also captured another and built a field between the train car, the statue and the historical marker that I had captured throughout the day.

Suddenly, I was almost halfway to Level 3.

Today was a big day in the game.  I created a control field from the train car to the sculpture garden, linking to yet another portal in the trailer video and the Liberty Bell Slot Machine before heading in to work.

I walked up to the Curran again and failed once more to get Book of Mormon tickets.  I did get utterly destroyed by the huge Enlightened presence at Union Square and recharge at a Resistance portal at Nordstrom after work though, getting even closer to Level 3.

On the way home, I added some protection to the Daly City Post Office which is currently controlled by fellow Resistance members.  We tried to stop by a portal at a vista point but my GPS wasn't cooperating in my phone.  We ended up at the site where I moved up to Level 2 at the Doggy Diner Head.  I upgraded all three of my portals there, created a larger control field linking those three with the post office and suddenly, I'm a Level 3 Resistance member.

I've walked a lot and stopped off in places I never would have without this game... and this is only the beginning.  It has been a great deal of fun for me and I can't wait to play some more in the city before and after work tomorrow.  Next stop is Level 4 after all.