I’ve known about Ingress since it first launched on Android. No surprise there, I’ve been in AR games since 2006. But I hadn’t really played until today. Why not? For a long time, it was Android only and that was a class of device I just didn’t have access to, but a while back (July 14, 2014 according to Wikipedia) an iOS version came out. But even though I was in a rush to download and try it, I found that the game confused me quite a bit. As a result, I didn’t push through until this week.
I teach classes about games, mobile games, AR, and the like, and one student found this game in the fall and really got a lot out of it. This semester she suggested we play as a class. She went to the trouble of putting together a very nice presentation to try and onboard us, and we went on our way. Of course, even this wasn’t enough—well, now that I’ve got little kids and too much email—but after a week and seeing other students catching on, I put off some of that office work to really give it a try this morning. I did indeed get somewhere, and even though I’d still say I’m not very far from being a total newb, I’d like to try and share those stepping stones in case you too are on that other side.
Crossing over, that is sticking with the game enough to get over the initial learning curve is worth it. The game is fun and has something to contribute to the evolution of AR gaming.
Local games lab ABQ 