Impermanence of Ingress

Although most of the details have been lost to the fog of time I can still recall the feeling of capturing my first portal.  I remember using dozens of low level bursters to destroy my enemies resonators and when that first resonator was destroyed and ADA told me "Resonator Destroyed, Good Work" I felt an immense sense of pride.  To this day I still feel a sense of accomplishment when ADA commends me for a job well done.

After capturing that first portal I felt a sense of ownership for that Post Office, for that portal.  It was a mile from my house and it belonged to me.  I was committed to keeping that portal blue no matter the costs.  It was that feeling of ownership and the feeling of pride that the portal belonged to me.  Everyone could see on intel that it belonged to me.

I can remember even more vividly the feeling of anger and despair that came over me the first time one of my portals was taken.   Why was this unknown person stealing something that belonged to me? How had I failed to keep this thing I felt was precious and valuable safe.  Of course in those days there was no recharging there was no notification of attack there was simply a notification that the portal was no longer mine.  I was distressed and immediately felt the need to run out of the house and re-take what was rightfully mine.

I received that first destruction notice 1 year 4 months and 27 days ago and since then I have received 10s of thousands of destruction notices.

Over time I've come to have a great sense of appreciation for destruction notices.  The sense of anger and anguish gave way to a feeling of acceptance that it is what it is, to a feeling of delight and happiness when the destruction "song of my people" rings out at all hours of the day and night.

That sound that at one time only rang of destruction now represents death and re-birth and reminds me that nothing in life is permanent.  When I hear that sound I get a smile on my face, because I hope that the person who is triggering those notifications get's the same sense of glee I get when I hear the sound of resonators being destroyed.  I smile because it means that someone else on my faction or the other faction will now get to own that portal and the cycle continues.

Of the many life lessons that Ingress has helped me learn the idea of impermanence has been one of the most important.  Nothing is forever, nothing is permanent and holding on to anything good or bad is an attempt to control something that is beyond my ability.   Realizing it and accepting  it has helped me find a peace I never knew possible.

What is Ingress? And how it changed my life

I call Ingress an augmented reality global mobile GEO MMO. But really, what the hell does that mean? 

Players, like me, call it a cross between geo-caching, Risk and capture the flag. Still confused? 

Many will tell you Ingress is a mobile game. There are some who question whether it's really a game. For now I'll call it a game, but you'll have to decide for yourself. 

The unique thing about this 'game' is that in order to play you have to explore the world around you and meet new people. 

When Ingress made it's first mysterious appearance at Comic-con almost 2 ago we learned that 'The world around you is not what it seems'. Clues were leaked in posters and online. We started to hear about the Niantic Project and XM. Eventually we were told 'It's time to move'. 

In November 2012 scanners started to be activated. I was among the first wave of those to be activated. At first there we're just a few of us. We experimented to figure out what to do, we sought each other out for help and more fire power, we organised, we 'fought' and we explored. 

What we learned is that Ingress requires that you leave the comfort of your day-to-day routine. It demands that you explore your world, meet me new people and have experiences you never would have imagined. 

When you start Ingress you pick from one of two teams. You may pick for various reasons; to fight with friends, a color or maybe ideals. But soon you find yourself 'fighting' for a cause bigger than yourself. 

But who are you 'fighting' against? It may be a neighbor, co-worker or maybe the guy who will one day give you a tow when your car breaks down. 

18 months ago I started playing a 'game'. Today I am part of a global community of amazing individuals. I've seen courage beyond anything I ever imagined. Individuals on the day they started that couldn't look you in the eye that go on to lead amazing global operations (fun adventures). Teams coming together to support a teammate going through hard times. A community coming together to support someone taking a new risk. Frenemies coming to the aid of their 'enemy' in a moment of distress. 
Ingress is the first place I ever felt a strong sense of belonging. That feeling of belonging has given me the courage to allow the course of my life to change dramatically. It has also given me the courage to open my mind and heart and a look at the world around me with a new perspective. 

The world around you is not what it seems... Are you ready to move?

Planning a PIE - Player Ingress Event

Last March I attended my first anomaly in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  After the event I felt an overwhelming need to host my own event.  On May 4th, 2012 the Seattle Ingress community hosted the #seattleconvergence.  After event a lot of people asked about hosting their own anomaly.  There's lots that goes into planning an anomaly but ultimately it comes down to a few key things Location, Date/Time, Rules & Swag.  

Really an event can be anything you choose it too be as long as you're having fun.  But here are some suggestions for getting started. 

Rules
So you want to do an event, what's the first step? Start talking to members of the opposite faction about what type of event you want to have.  When you work together you find out all kinds of ideas that other people have and they help you make an event 10 times better then you ever could on your own.

If you're stuck on the rules here's a starting point that many campus agents are using:

Have all agents check in where you record their codename, faction and current AP.  All Agents are given 90 minutes to gain as much AP as possible any way possible. AP gained by L1, L2, and L3 Agents are given a 2X multiplier in their final AP gain calculation. 

That's just a starting point you can add or change anything you want to the rules as long as both sides agree on what the win condition is.  But with these rules you only need a few people to have a really cool event. The biggest thing going into an event is remember that the goal is for everyone to have as much fun as possible.

Location
It's best to have an event where people don't need to drive.

Cooperation
If your factions aren't getting along then start with a small event with the people that do get along and start posting pictures of how much fun you had and eventually people will come around and want to join in the fun. 

Swag
Working with both factions you'll also find out that there are very creative people on both sides who have great ideas for swag that don't cost a bunch of money.  It cost $15 on Amazon to order 12 blue & 12 green bandannas and that gave everyone a way to show off their faction pride.  Ask your community for help, people want to show off their skills and they'll probably be willing to help. 

There's always an acronym
PIE - Player Initiated Event

Remember
The goal is to have fun!

If you need help
Please feel free to ask me +Kira Kroger 
(Send me a post on G+ and I'll approve a hangout request)

Another good resource is +Linda Besh who is helping with College anomalies.

Top Picture by +Steve Groves 
I'm not sure who took the bottom picture

Portal ALL the Things! (No not really)

Some of this might sound like I'm being a bit harsh, because I am. I really love this community and I hate to see people in this community upset because other people are careless.  Ingress is our playground to play in and it's up to us to make sure that the portals are high quality and interesting.  +NIA Ops shouldn't have to police this, it should be something we police ourselves.  And have some respect for the agents who put a lot of time and effort into cultivating great portals only to have someone who's being a bit selfish come along and ruin it.

If you haven't read the Ingress Candidate Portal criteria and you submit portals then I recommend you take a look.  But here some things that you shouldn't be submitting.

• Don't submit fake couch portals.  I know we all want one but really unless you live in a historic neighborhood or you live near fountain or sculpture then anything you come up with is probably not a very good idea.  Unless of course it's something like the pictures below.  If you're willing to paint your house in polka dots or get permission to cover a tree accessible to the public in clocks in order to have a couch portal then go for it!

• Don't submit building from multiple angels.   I've seen several instances of multiple portals for the same church pointed at different sides of the building.  That's just lazy. I know you want more portals but the more junk that clutters up the works the longer it takes for valid portals.   

Butthurt is not a reason to mark a portal for removal

This seems fairly straightforward but I also hear numerous complaints about it.  Just because the other side owns a portal constantly or has a portal in a somewhat restricted location does not necessarily mean it should be removed.  If it is a junk portal then by all means submit it for removal but if there is a chance a brand new player would accidentally submit it then I wouldn't do it.

• DO ask yourself before adding or rejecting a portal "If I were a brand new agent would I submit this as a portal?"

You really should at least take a look at  Ingress Candidate Portal criteria.  If you're not sure if a portal is valid then check out the Unofficial Ingress Portal Submissions community.  If you're still not sure you can take a picture of the potential portal then post it to the UIPS community and then submit the portal later. Just don't forget to include the potential name of the portal so you don't forget it later on (I'm always doing that).

If you have questions about the portal submission process you can ask in UIPS and one of the agents who's submitted 100s some probably thousands of portals can help you out.  

Remember Wheaton's Law

HappyStick

The first Saturday after I got my Ingress invite I hosted my first meetup.  The event itself I consider a miracle.  For years I had been dealing with depression and Anxiety and this was the first time in years that I was taking a risk and putting myself out there.  What made me so brave?  Throughout the year I thought it must be the XM that was changing me.  But in hindsight I now realize that it was the community that accepted me exactly as I was that changed me.

I have a lot of memories from that first meetup.  In fact I seem to recall every detail of that whole day, but there is one piece that stands out more then all the others.  +Bryan Kroger and I arrived at the Designated Starbucks and I pulled out my sign that read "We are the Resistance" and waited nervously for someone to show up.  After about 5 minutes someone tentatively looked at my sign and then looked me in the eye, I asked if they were Resistance they nodded and quickly found a place to sit and we chatted a little.

A few more people came and went but no one interested in my sign.  Then the door opened and in walked what I can still only describe as a human stick figure with attitude.  He was 6'9" but slouched a little to hide his height, very thin and a presence that clearly communicated his confidence.  He came right up to me and introduce himself as HappyStick.  I shook his hand and I remember thinking well this is going to be interesting.

That encounter stands out so vividly because without that encounter nothing that transpired after that day would have been possible.  The Seattle Resistance probably would not have been such a dominant force in the early days of Ingress, I would not have found my voice as a community leader, I would not have found confidence to share the Seattle Resistance stories and gain visibility on G+.  I called him my partner in crime.

I got a lot of credit in the early days for things that would not have happened without HappyStick.

We were total opposites.  While he was fast passed with a go go attitude, I'm generally reserved and want to collect information before making a move.  But we were both opinionated and knew we were right.  Between 1 AM AP runs, marathon 20 hour road trips and lots of socializing I often felt myself being swept along the HappyStick train.  But truth be told I absolutely loved it.   Having someone that I trusted show up to or invite me to every event gave me a confidence I had never know.  

HappyStick is a constant Beta tester.  I'm sure we've all known guys like this.  They dive into something new and exciting with gusto, devoting all their time and energy to it.  Eventually they solve all the puzzles or the game looses it's appeal and they are off to something new.  Although his time as an agent was short HappyStick was a force of nature who's presence is still evident throughout the Ingress Universe.

HappyStick was a great friend, one I will never forget.  I hope I get a chance to run into him some day and tell him thank you for helping me find my voice.

My first "fire fight"

The day after I got my invite I spent the whole day at work scouring for information on Ingress.  I found the spreadsheet of passcodes +Bryan Kroger was using and quickly typed them all in to my scanner, when I was done I had what I thought was a nice little cache of gear.  I was so naive.

Unfortunately I had plans on Monday night so we didn't get to capture the post office near the house but it was constantly on my mind.  

Tuesday night I came home after work after I fed the dogs checked G+.  OMG! I had a PM from +Brian Rose!   He wanted to give me an invite about a post I had shared a few days earlier about an Ingress Group Meetup in Chicago.  I told him I had an invite already but I was really interested in doing a meetup and what was the best way to go about it?  He suggested I use a G+ event, so I created an event and sent it to everyone on G+.  I thanked Brian for the help and he responded by saying he would give me 10 invites for the event! I was stunned, invites coveted and I had 10 of them to give away.  I remember feeling a sense of pride and honor, I wanted everyone to be part of this adventure.

By the time Bryan got home I was buzzing with excitement.  Between the conversation with Brian Rose and wanting to go claim the post office I was talking a mile a minute.   We rushed through dinner and then headed out the door to claim the post office.  

Ya know, in hindsight I'm realizing that those first few days we were very conservative in our playing.  In the weeks to come we'd get drive through and stay out late to play.

On the way to the post office I was telling Bryan that I wanted to take down this portal by myself because he was already level 2 and I was still 1000 or so away from 2.  When I told him I was getting out of the car to blow up the resonators he asked why.  This shocked me, it isn't very often that I know something Bryan doesn't and I expected Ingress to be no different.   I explained that the damage was centered around where you were standing so if you wanted to do the most damage to a resonator you had to stand right on top of it.

So here I was at the closed Kent Post Office in the dark with my warm coat and scanner in hand I ventured away from the car in my first solo mission.   I walked in what I thought was the general direction of one of the resonators turned out I was going the opposite direction, this was the first hint that I am very directionally challenged at times.  Once I reached the resonator I fired off my first XMP and did 1% damage, YES! I was on a roll! Seriously though firing that first XMP felt totally awesome.

I continued to fire off XMP, slowly making progress.  As I chewed through bursters and moved around the Portal I learned the lesson that sometimes you can't reach resonators, 2 of the resonators were behind the post office fence.  120 L1 XMP later I destroy the last resonator! Then the portal was grey. 

I felt like a badass

Okay well as badass as any early cheering 30s engineer geek girl can feel.  

My adrenaline really was pumping as hoped in the car Bryan said "Congrats Honey!!....Are you gonna capture the portal?".  Sheepishly I looked down down at my scanner and realized I forgot that part and quickly started deploying as Bryan started the car to drive home.  

As I deployed those resonators I felt pride that m name was on it, and then I realized I had leveled!  I squealed with excitement.  As my adrenaline came down I realized I had made a mistake.  I hadn't deployed at max distance the way the guides said to.  That was the start of my love hate relationship with resonator placement.

I had seen posts about peoples Ingress adventures and I realized as we drove home this really was going to be an adventure.  As an software engineer I didn't really have a lot of opportunity to think creatively outside of code.  But that first adventure had my mind spinning and I was already thinking of writing my adventure.  The next day when I got to work I wrote my very first first Situation Report (be warned it's terrible).

My Ingress Anniversary

I remember November 25th, 2012 was a cold but sunny, which is rare in Seattle.  The night before my dad and his girlfriend got on a plane to go home after Thanksgiving and I was ready to get going with Ingress.

I still didn't have an invite so when I woke up I quickly checked my G+ stream and my email for the 900th time that week hoping for an invite but no such luck.  +Bryan Kroger and I went to lunch at a bakery down the hill in Kent.

At breakfast we decided that we were going to drive to Issaquah aka Issy because it had the highest concentration of portals outside of Seattle and levels were low enough that Bryan thought he actually had the gear to take some of 'em down.  In hindsight 6 portals over 4 blocks wasn't particularly dense but at the time it was the mother load.

Off we went to Issy.  We found a place to park closest to all the portals and started our journey.  It wasn't long before Bryan was out of XMP.  Bryan had heard about passcodes that would give you gear, so he got a hold of a google spreadsheet that had 20-30 of these passcodes on it.  He had me pull it up on the iPad and as he ran out of gear I was reading off the passcodes to him.

We walked together while neutralized and claimed all the portals.  Since I didn't have a scanner I got bored and wondered off while he continue to run between the portals waiting for the cool down so he could re-hack and link.  When we finally met up back at the car an hour later I found out that he had encountered his first enemy in person!  I was so bummed I missed it.  Turns out a member of the Enlightened ruled Issy in those days, and he quickly dismantled all of Bryan's work.

I asked Bryan all kinda of questions about the encounter. I quickly realized that my nemesis who owned the Post Office was probably just as human as the guy Bryan met and this was a game and I had no reason to be mad at him.  Suddenly I really wanted to meet an Enlightened enemy out in the field.

As we headed home I checked my g+ and email and still no passcode.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening scouring all the G+ Ingress information I could find.  I was just about to plug in my devices and start getting ready for bed when I got a PM from +Joe Philley with an Invite passcode!  I was so scared that somehow it would expire like all the others I'd tried so I turned on the app and typed in the code right away and OMG my scanner was active!!!!  And I was able to claim the agent name that I wanted, mistyayn.

I was bouncing off the walls excited because I wanted to go claim the Post Office. Being the level headed one that he is Bryan suggests I go outside and do the training.  Wait there's training? Oh yea Bryan had done the training a week before I grabbed my coat and ran outside.  I remember following ADAs instructions very carefully and making sure I paid careful attention because I wanted to be a good agent and I didn't want to look dumb the first time I used my scanner.   When it was time to pick my faction I was so scared of picking the wrong faction that I re-read everything three times just to make sure.

After securing my status as an Agent of the Resistance I wanted to do something!  A check of the scanner revealed that I was a block away from a clump of XM.  I was completely transfixed as the map in my hand moved me closer to the glimmering specs of XM as I walked.  That first time that ADA talked to me after training when I picked up my first clump of XM I knew this was something special and I wanted to be a part of it.

In that moment I realized two things.  First, I was totally hooked.  Second, I was really cold! I was only wearing pajamas and a coat so I needed to get home where it was warm.  On that short walk home I decided my first priority tomorrow night after work was taking down that Post Office and my second priority was figuring out how I was going to keep Bryan and I warm so we could play any time we wanted.

The Early Days of Ingress