Ingress (video game)

Setting

The game makers' framing device for the game is as follows: Alongside the discovery of the Higgs Boson by the physicists at CERN in 2012, it has also been discovered that the Earth has been seeded with "Exotic Matter," or XM. This substance has been associated with the Shapers, a mysterious phenomenon or alien race.

Factions

Within the game, human reactions to this discovery fall into two opposing factions: the Enlightened fight believing their actions will uplift humanity and bring about the next chapter in human evolution, whereas the Resistance believes that it is protecting humanity from Shaper ingression and preserving humanity's freedom. These two factions are the opposing "sides" or "teams" in the game. The Resistance is represented in the game by the color blue, and the Enlightened by green. Both teams have naturally tended to balance each other out in population. In some areas, the Resistance are colloquially referred to as "Smurfs" and lower-level Resistance players as "Smurflings". Similarly, the Enlightened in general are referred to as "Frogs" or "Toads", lower-level Enlightened players as "Tadpoles".

In real life, the factions occasionally ignore the back-story and co-operate for the sake of real-life gameplay and game balance: for example, by establishing neutral zones and rules of engagement; for training new players; for socializing; and occasionally for serious real-life purposes such as honoring fallen heroes. Niantic Labs not only supports these activities, it often arranges them.

Play environment

A player using the mobile app is presented with a map representing the surrounding area. The map has a black background and is completely unmarked, except for buildings and roads which are outlined in grey but not labeled, and bodies of water (pale blue). Visible on the map are portals, Exotic Matter (XM), links, control fields, and items that players have dropped from their inventory. Distances from the player to ingame locations are displayed in metric units only, to avoid confusion between players. The app is currently available in sixteen languages; however, the language choice affects only the text displayed, not the audio such as "Portal in range".

As a rule, players must be physically near objects on the map to interact with them. The mobile client represents the player as a small arrowhead in the center of a circle 40 meters (130 ft) in radius, which represents the perimeter within which direct interaction is possible. (A player sees only their own location, not that of any other player.) The color of the arrowhead corresponds with the faction of the player (blue for Resistance, green for Enlightened), as will the XM storage. XM can be thought of as 'energy' – a high amount of XM is needed to perform actions in the game, and it can be replenished by walking through an area of XM (common near portals). A player can 'hack' a nearby portal to acquire in-game items, some of which can also be used to replenish XM.

Players are rewarded with AP (Action Points) for actions within the game. Accumulating AP beyond certain thresholds grants higher access levels, i.e., access to stronger items and longer portal recharging capabilities. The access levels are numbered 1 through 16, with 16 being the highest. Because more AP are awarded for taking over enemy portals than for maintaining your own team's, if a player is outnumbered by members of the other team, they will accumulate AP at a faster rate as a way of leveling the playing field.

In addition to earning AP, certain actions within the game can earn a player a Badge. Badges are typically multi-tiered (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Onyx – the highest) and become a requirement for level advancement starting with Level 9. Most badges are statistic-based: for instance, capturing and maintaining a portal for a significant amount of days, total MUs captured, fields and links created, various offensive actions, and even successfully discovering new portals. Some badges are obtained by attending special Ingress events, though these usually do not count towards advancement (except "Innovator" and "Vanguard" badges, which are given by Niantic every game anniversary).

In September 2014, Niantic Labs introduced missions to the game. A mission is a user-created set of places to visit (waypoints) and interact with in specified ways. Some missions list all the waypoints from the start, while others only reveal them one at a time as the user progresses from one to the next. Completing missions can win the player virtual medals.

Portals

In the game, Earth has a large number of "portals", made visible by the "scanner" (the mobile phone game app). They are colored green, blue, or grey, depending respectively on whether they are currently controlled by the Enlightened, by the Resistance, or are unclaimed. Players acquire portals for their faction by "deploying" at least one "resonator" on them. They can also add "mods" (modifications) to protect the portals or increase their power in various ways. A portal with no resonators is unclaimed, also called a "ghost" portal.

Players acquire game items (resonators, weapons, etc.) by maneuvering themselves, typically by walking, biking or driving, to within 40 meters of a portal and "hacking" it by selecting this option on their scanners. Any player can hack any portal and receive items, subject to limits on frequency: Hacking a portal starts a "cool down period", initially 5 minutes, until that player can hack that portal again; and attempting more than 4 hacks within 4 hours will cause the portal to "burn out" for that player for 4 hours. These periods can be reduced with the "Heat Sink" and "Multi-hack" mods. Hacking a portal controlled by the opposing faction also earns the player 100 additional AP (Action Points), at the risk of being attacked by the portal in the form of losing XM.

To claim a portal for a faction, a player equips, or deploys, at least one resonator on it. If a portal is claimed by the enemy, the player must first neutralize it by destroying the opponents' resonators with weapons called XMP ("eXotic Matter Pulse") Bursters, the principal means of attacking a portal. XM itself is neutral, not aligned with either faction, but an XMP Burster fired by a player of one faction will damage any portal of the other faction within range, while having no effect on portals of the player's own faction.

Portals are typically associated with buildings and landmarks of historic or architectural significance— such as sculptures, murals, and other public art, libraries, post offices, memorials, places of worship, public transit hubs, parks and other recreational or tourist spaces, or with business locations. Players may submit requests for the creation of new portals. It was thought upon launch that this would allow Google to generate data for its location-based services. As of July 2016, 15 million portals had been submitted by the Ingress community, and five million of those had been included in the game. As of November 2016, "Operation Portal Recon" was launched in beta in San Francisco, Tohoku and Kyushu, a service where high-level Ingress players can vote in landmarks to be used as portals. The number of portals has increased steadily over the lifetime of the game. The density of portals correlates with player density and thus with population density, so the central areas of cities typically contain the highest concentration of portals.

Links between portals may range in length from meters to kilometers or hundreds of kilometers, created in operations of considerable logistical complexity. International links and fields are not uncommon, as Ingress has attracted an enthusiastic following in cities worldwide amongst both young and old, to the extent that the gameplay is itself a lifestyle for some, including tattoos.

Portal links and control fields

Two portals that have all eight resonators deployed and are controlled by the same faction can be linked by a player from that faction who stands within range of one and has a portal key for the other. (Keys are obtained by hacking but, like most such in-game objects, can be dropped. After twelve hours they disappear, unless picked up by another player.) The maximum possible length of a link depends on the level of resonators on a portal (higher level resonators equal longer linking range) and mods (specifically, link amps and SoftBank Ultra Links). However, one cannot create a link that crosses an existing link from either faction. Both portals must have at least three resonators deployed to maintain the link. The opposing faction can destroy the link by attacking one or both portals so that one portal's resonator count falls below three.

When three portals are linked in a triangle, they create a control field, claiming the Mind Units (MU) within that field for their faction. Portals within a field cannot originate links, but can be linked to from any portals on the perimeter (that is, any of the three portals defining the triangle). The opposing faction can destroy a control field by destroying one or more of the links that form it. The "Mind Units" are related to the population that resides within a control field. The largest control field formed had points between Germany, Greece and Ukraine, and took four months of planning and 200 players to create.

In an effort to capture as many MUs as possible, additional fields can be created that blanket other fields. This is called layering, and each subsequent field that is created "recaptures" the MUs from the previous field(s), adding to the count. Layering is most often accomplished by utilizing one or two common portals, called anchors, to host inbound and outbound links and using a unique portal(s) each time to create each additional layered field. Periodically, faction members will coordinate large-scale layered fields that span multiple countries.

Supported devices

A strong Wi-Fi or cellular data connection is required to play Ingress, as well as GPS. Devices running Android 4.0+ and iOS 7 and later are supported.

In areas with no cellular service, a BGAN modem may be used to reach portals.

Niantic is adding support for Mighty Cast's Nex Evolution wearable device to Ingress.

Development and release

Ingress was released in closed beta on November 15, 2012, with an accompanying online viral marketing campaign. The latter was noticed as early as November 8, and earlier publicity efforts had been noted at events such as San Diego's Comic-Con on July 12, 2012. Google employees had been testing the game for at least six months.

An early interview described Ingress as a 'proof of concept' for other AR games built on Google Maps' data. It was designed to be aimed at a niche market of gamers.Data from Ingress was used to populate the locations for Pokéstops and gyms within Pokémon Go, released in July 2016. (See also Pokémon Go § Development.)

Business model

Ingress is supported by advertising. Companies can pay for their locations to be used as portals in the game, thus making their stores a pilgrimage site for Ingress players, which may translate into real-world sales. In Germany, Vodafone offered an Ingress phone plan with a large amount of data to support the game, in addition to all its stores becoming portals. In France, Niantic partnered with Unibail-Rodamco, and several of its shopping centers were incorporated in the game. In the U.S., the Jamba Juice and Zipcar chains have both had sponsored locations in Ingress. Niantic CEO John Hanke describes the number of commercial sponsors in Ingress as being "limited", stating that the developers don't want to take away from the experience of discovering interesting places in their local area.

Sponsorship: Another form of advertising is sponsorship of in-game equipment. Players can virtually acquire various tools and weapons to use in the game. Sponsored versions of these include the "AXA Shield", the "Lawson Power Cube", the "SoftBank Ultra Link" and the "MUFG Capsule", all categorized as Very Rare and performing significantly better than nonsponsored versions.

In-game sales: In October–November 2015, Niantic added an online Store and Shop. The Store, accessed through the game app under OPS, sells in-game items that are priced in Chaotic Matter Units (CMU) [not to be confused with XM (Exotic Matter)], which in turn may be purchased for national currency in countries that permit it. Niantic's Ingress Shop, accessed through the Ingress website, sells physical merchandise such as T-shirts and patches for real currency.

Split from Google

On August 12, 2015, Niantic announced that it was being spun off as an independent company: As part of this operation, Google was to begin transferring user data to Niantic on September 11. Users would be able to opt out of this process.

Special events

In addition to the ongoing competition between the factions wherever there are players, there are several kinds of special events held on specific dates.

Anomalies

XM Anomalies are periods of unusually high XM (Exotic Matter) concentration where players from both factions compete to control clusters of portals in order to win points for their team. Anomaly locations may be chosen based on the player activity in a region. Players, upon registering as being part of the event, organise within each faction into squads based on player level, local knowledge and mode of transport (for example, walking or biking). The largest event, in Japan, attracted over 10,000 players. Anomalies usually occur over the course of several weeks, with different events located in major cities around the world. Starting with 13MAGNUS (Oct 12 – December 14, 2013), anomalies have occurred quarterly, with the exception of third quarter 2014, when there was none.

Anomaly sites are divided into two categories: Primary and Satellite locations. Niantic Labs employees, as well as characters from the story, often attend events at Primary anomaly locations. More points are awarded to the prevailing faction at Primary sites than at Satellite sites. Players who participate in an anomaly are awarded a unique badge with the emblem of that anomaly. The outcome of XM Anomalies often influences future events in the backstory.

Mission Days

"Mission Days bring together Agents from both factions to explore cities around the world through the lens of Ingress with unique and local adventures on foot." Often these are held in conjunction with Anomalies.

First Saturday

First Saturdays (Ingress FS) are part social, part competitive cross-faction events set up by local Ingress players.

Scholarship and reviews

Ingress has been the subject of academic study on the relationship between regionalism and globalism, and its badge system has been used as an example in a case study of gamification. Erin Stark argues that the game's system of players nominating portals based on street art is in effect the players curating a sense of place and a more flexible cultural heritage. Spanner Spencer, writing for PocketGamer, noted that there was no casual way of playing Ingress and that it demanded dedication and teamwork.

Ingress has been read as a gift economy in which players swap datafication of their physical location for gameplay.

Ingress was also considered to be a location-based exergame. Niantic offers a set of guidelines for players that warn against trespass in its Terms of Service and reinforces that the player is responsible for their own conduct while playing the game. Legal expert Brian Wassom regards this as an important factor in AR games reducing the legal risk they bear when directing players to go to a location.

Kai-Uwe Werbeck argues that the role-playing of the Ingress storyline challenges and reinforces postmodernism.

Awards

Community and cultural impact

According to Alex Dalenberg of American City Business Journals, as of May 2013 there were about 500,000 players globally. In an interview in August 2013 with the fan site Decode Ingress, Niantic Labs founder John Hanke said "There have been over 1M downloads and a large chunk of those are active." In February 2014 there were 2 million players. As of 2015, the game had been downloaded over 8 million times. In 2015, Niantic told Tom's Hardware that they had 7 million players.

Speaking with CNN, CEO John Hanke said he didn't expect players to start talking to each other and forming clubs. Players have leased airplanes, helicopters and boats to reach portals in remote areas of Siberia and Alaska.

Cross-faction cooperation

The game has received local media coverage, including for players organizing events such as creating links between portals at war memorials for Memorial Day. The opposing faction members at MIT arranged a campus-wide truce after the death of Sean Collier, an MIT police officer shot by the perpetrators in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and placed their two respective portals side-by-side in a virtual cenotaph at the site of his death. On Sunday, July 31, 2016, 49 players from both factions in South Africa (30 Enlightened, 19 Resistance) collaborated to create a work of field art of a rhinoceros, covering approx. 325 square kilometres (125 sq mi), to raise awareness of rhino poaching in Southern Africa.

Criticism and incidents

The basic idea of Ingress is very similar to that of the older, now-defunct, augmented reality game, Shadow Cities. Both have two factions which are fighting for the future of the world with smart phones. Though the games have similar game mechanics and look-and-feel, there are clear differences. In Shadow Cities, players are in the virtual world, which is dynamically mapped around them, and can teleport within the virtual world, whereas in Ingress, the portals are real world locations that players generally have to actually move to in order to play. Shadow Cities was shut down on October 7, 2013 due to lack of popularity.

Portals which had been approved within the Nazi concentration camps of Dachau and Sachsenhausen were removed in July 2015; Gabriele Hammermann, director of the memorial site at Dachau, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that Google's original approval of these portals was a humiliation for victims of the Nazi camps and their relatives, and Niantic Labs' founder John Hanke stated that "we apologize that this has happened."

Some players have attracted the attention of law enforcement while playing the game, and hence commentary on the interaction of augmented reality games with real life. Because it can take some time for players to successfully 'hack' a portal, they can draw the attention of law enforcement. In addition, some players play while driving slowly around an area, which is not recommended by the game developers and attracts the attention of law enforcement. The Center for Internet Security recommended that law enforcement officers be apprised of the game, and warned that it may be difficult to determine if a malicious actor is using the game as a cover.

In 2014, a 16-year-old player in Brazil died after being hit by a bus while playing. In 2015, an Irish player died while trying to capture Poolbeg lighthouse at night.