What sets Ingress apart from other games

Just some 3AM ponders here (pardon if this is all too corny for a read). I started ingress in early 2016 but my run was short due to lack of time, I begun again a year ago and I haven't loved a single game this much since childhood gameboy (I loved pokemon so much that I visualized them walking aside me back in the 90's). And it's beyond amazing that as an adult I can re-experience that level of immersion for something again.


Let's start with how it felt coming back, which I think is pretty significant. I remember it took quite some time in 2016 to figure out and get into the flow. When I returned, I feared a lot that things would've changed, so much that I would need to relearn everything again, but that fear was false. Even though prime is now a thing, the basics were still the same, it was welcoming and easy to pick up with the initial memories in place.

This leads me to my realization tonight: A good game does not need to be changed. A lot of modern games are plagued with fancy new features and attempts to patch what those inclusions broke in the balance, it becomes a frustrating chain of waiting for a fix instead if just enjoying playing a game. These reasons are why I haven't really enjoyed games in a decade anymore, but ingress is different.


The second thing: I will name it after the glyph sequence "Simple Message Complex Idea". Like chess, the rules are simple, but the gameplay is so much more complex. In fact there is much more in terms of strategy to learn that I don't think I will ever stop learning. I don't think words can express how diverse the strategic side can be, do I even comprehend it all at this early stage?


But there's also so much more than just gameplay, the community aspect is... incredible, you get to meet people, you get to go to new places - perhaps together with new friends. I've always loved team games, although always craved for an opportunity to play those games with people who put a certain amount of passion in (you know, the level of serious where you give your best and treat losses as a learning opportunity, and respect your opponents instead of screaming at them) - and somehow ingress seems to attract that sort of people (which seems almost miraculous for a modern game).


This is only a fraction of the reasons, I've also enjoyed digging the investigation, the tesselation puzzles were amazing, glyphs are fascinating, I love discovering potential portals, taking pictures for existing ones, going to difficult locations... generally just having a reason to go to different places, ingress excels in being a location based game (unlike any of the other ones).


For a summary I'd just want to express how thankful I am that ingress exists in this time I'm living and I hope it will stay and give the same incredible experiences to more people alike!

(but do fix the bugs still)

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Comments

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    You are short-sighted comrade. I'll give you an example. There is a Rubik's cube, a simple Rubik's cube 3 * 3, it would seem that there is no need in changes, play it and that's it. But no, unlike the original model from the 80s, the mechanism was radically redesigned, instead of wearing stickers, durable plastic inserts were added. High-speed Rubik's cube models also appeared. And there are also very interesting modifications with magnets inside.

    And some people even managed to make Rubik's cubes not only 3 * 3 but also 4 * 4, 5 * 5 and even reached 11 * 11 squares. So what? Has this offended at least one Rubik's cube owner? Someone started yelling - give me back my stickers and remove those damn magnets with which the rotation has become smoother now? No, no, and again no, everyone happily continues to twist this wonderful puzzle and gladly accept every innovation that improves the gameplay. And you say no changes are needed, let everything remain as it is ... I have nothing against the author personally, but I have never seen such a level of conservative snobbery in any other game. Even chess players are ready for change and have come up with many types of chess.


  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have not seen a single store selling exclusively the classic model of the Rubik's cube. But I've seen puzzle shops for all tastes. In such stores you can find wooden puzzles, metal puzzles and picture puzzles, and mechanical puzzles. And everyone there can find "their jewel". But our conservative players want to play triangles without possible options. And they want this only for themselves, spitting on the needs of other players who want something new. It is a fact. They don't care that new players are attracted by regular content updates. They don't care about the fate of the developers who need to feed their families.

    It is important for them that the game remains simple and unchanged like a rock.

  • expediterexpediter ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    Unfortunately in your examples the original concept never got replaced by a new redesign.

    So to extrapolate this we have the original concept (Ingress) and then the radical redesigns (Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite).

    We don't have to completely replace the original concept. It can coexist.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭


    The ingress concept can be supplemented with many other components. Many of this has been suggested by me and other players on this forum.

  • Hah, it's fine if it doesn't get much attention. I just wanted to get the thoughts out somewhere. People rarely talk about good things and it can be healthy to remind ourselves about why we are here. It can be pretty overwhelming to constantly hear complaining, even though they are usually small things or people who picked up the wrong game.

    From my perspective, if there currently aren't people at niantic who can (or perhaps the people have no energy) it's better that ingress is simply upkept until proper good things can come - instead of potentially harmful changes. Being from the generation where every new change somehow makes things worse, it's peaceful to have something that stays for longer than a little while.


    I think you may have missed the point in the message - I was praising the game mechanics and concept. I'm not against the game engine being improved, working smoother with less bugs and ideally less power & hardware demanding than the original - this would've been the ideal outcome of prime and in some aspects I believe it has at least somewhat succeeded.

    Although material mechanisms are much easier to improve, materials are unchanging. Unfortunately digital platforms are ever changing: the failures of an operating system may lead into compromises with code and therefor bugs in a game (to put in simple). They need constant work, and without enough resources (which may as well be having the right people or matter of luck), us users may not really see progress. We just see different bugs as result of developers managing to upkeep the software on the changing platform they can't avoid.

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    In a similar boat, Grogyan. Started this game December 2018 so I only know Prime, after a steady but sometimes unfulfilling run at Larps, Tabletop RPG and Magic: The Gathering. Learning curve is not bad, it just helps playing somewhere build, takedown, and farm are readily possible.

    Building and erasing I derive pleasure from. Planning trips, improvising fields from nothing, and forcing reaction from other agents who haven't been pushed for a while.

    And yes, please fix the bugs, make the only enemies you have flesh and blood (no spoofing) without Xerox copies (multiaccounting pieces of SHAFT) and I will enjoy it more.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭


    Tell me what exactly do you mean by the words - makes things worse?

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Intel and COMM - You can talk to other people and you can see what's going on around you."

    Two forces are fighting, one with the other, and everyone knows who, where and how they are fighting. Don't you think this is stupid? If you want to defeat the enemy on the battlefield, you must be hidden and invisible, like a ninja, or like James Bond, but for now they tell us that we are secret agents, but in fact there is no secrecy as such. this is stupid idiocy, contrary to the plot. If there is a struggle, especially with the enemy, and even more so for the fate of the world, knowing where each soldier of your squad is is not just stupid, it is potentially dangerous. Even Pokémon do not know who and where is at the moment.

    "Two teams in direct opposition"

    Especially during FS, there is the fiercest fight between secret agents. Or when we transported shards together. I can see the headlines "In a fierce battle between resistance and enlightenment for the fate of humanity ..." I may be verbally expressed like an idiot, correct me if I am wrong.

    "PoGo could be played with 1 team"

    If you look at the latest events, then one command is "enough" to win in ingress. Well, if you also look at the fact that in many cities, due to the outflow of players, it is already problematic to collect players for one command (even to create a level 8 portal), then it is quite possible that soon those of us who remain in the game will have to fight against a computer algorithm and not against living opponents. Remember my words, when this happens, the outflow of players from the game in many regions is simply catastrophic.

     "Only Ingress has a real "What I do directly disadvantages my opponent", which causes people to want to team up."

    It used to be like this, now, when in a city with a population of 200,000 there are 2-3 players a day, one cannot say that the game lives, blooms, and...

    "even things like how many resonators you can deploy, which causes teamwork to be essential"

    As I already said, in many cities it is no longer possible to gather a bunch of people to make a level 8 portal. And this is not a problem for the players. This is a problem of the game, the game is not capable of luring most players beyond level 5-6. I am looking at statistics for my region. Many simply do not understand for what purpose they need to draw triangles, and what kind of two heads it was at the beginning of the game. And one player directly told me that playing the "beta version" in which they did not even make a normal background for the earth and sky, and tugging at neon trinkets causes nausea and could potentially lead to epileptic seizures, in general, is not worth it. Personally, I also consider all these neon flickers to be superfluous, there is no sense from them, and it looks in the style of the 80s.

    "People are getting bored with Ingress because they're doing the same thing over and over by themselves."

    Quite right, in return without receiving any moral or sensory reinforcement from the game.

    What will an ordinary player have if he draws a triangle, for example? Respect from other players that gets boring over time? Profile badge like a scout? And when there are more than 20 such badges ???

    In other games, achievement is always rewarded with something new that was not there before, or at least the symbolic "100 gold coins for which you can buy a new helmet or armor." With us, these are either items that can be obtained by simply hacking the portal, or another figure in the statistics.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    This is what I'm talking about, we need innovation and not disproportionate enhancements of old functions.

    Imagine a slot modifying a portal to a farm, defensive or offensive structure. How do you like the novelty? New! But if it is done correctly, without any kind of "get a portal with an already installed shield or with an already installed radiator" And imagine the portals gaining strength? Imagine different types of resonators that give bonuses to attack defense or the chance of falling out of rare items, eh? What do you think? Only once again I say this must be done competently. Not getting out of the way of the overall gameplay.

    Fine customization of portals, it sounds tempting!

  • In my experience the biggest problem is not ingress being the limiting factor. But exactly as @Perringaiden said above - it is players doing the same thing over and over by themselves.

    As somebody who has been playing for 6+ years, I still find aspects of the game I want to explore. Still some field art ideas, field ideas, portal submission ideas, homogenous fields etc. And the last badges to chase. And normally I have more ideas to keep the game interesting for me than I got spare time. So completely agree with @Perringaiden statement. If you are bored with the game then change your game.

  • Well said. It is quite amazing. I am on my 4th run to lv16 and just realised that AFTER my 3rd recursion nia introduced a free apex with every level to lv8. So you already get your “100 gold coins” to use that term. Or in ingress terms your 2500 CMU. And still not happy?

    Because that is a problem with all the fancy shiny hunt games - players always want more for less. Today it is one Apex. In a few months shouts will be heard that is not enough.

    Shiny rewards will not bring players out to play for any length of time. Personal targets will, friendship or sense of exploration will. And you do not need any shiny rewards for them.

  • I actually think the Apex was a good purchase item. I never realized it actually got awarded until I hit 15 the second time (taking it lazy).

    The double AP for a price concept is good because most people who are chasing AP are not really doing it to "win" etc so pay-to-win is less of an issue.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭


    Check out this highly spiritual cartoon. The creature shown in it is a refined example of a player taking recursion after recursion ...

    And it’s a pity that some people do not know how to do anything other than walking in the same trodden circle.

  • 1valdis1valdis ✭✭✭✭✭

    You didn't answer the questions.

    Since you appear not to be in favour of ingress and triangles, can I honestly ask to which extreme have you taken the game and all that it allows?


    How many anomalies, mission days or FS have you organised? How many local or national/international field ops have you organised? How many xfac field art events have you organised? How many banner missions submitted and what type? How many portals have you submitted and explored?

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Since you appear not to be in favour of ingress and triangles, can I honestly ask to which extreme have you taken the game and all that it allows?"

    I've tried everything the game gives. He also took part in special operations and did many other things, attracted new players, and so on.

    "How many anomalies, mission days or FS have you organised?"

    Of all the events listed, I only like anomalies. I consider other events useless. And yes, I advocate that, apart from anomalies in their standard form, and micro anomalies procedurally generated by the game around the globe, there are no other events where the spirit of rivalry between factions is killed. As on the first Saturday, sworn enemies met, shook hands and almost kissed each other. Toads should fight the Smurfs, but not try to make friends with them, at all kinds of events.

    How many local or national/international field ops have you organised?

    Only the day before yesterday I did such an operation. So don't worry. With this, I'm fine. But I'm tired of the monotony of the special operations being carried out. There is a triangle, there is a triangle and that's it. And after the enlightenment lost its purpose in the form of shapers, it became generally sad to play 

    How many banner missions submitted and what type?

    Missions do not help protect our world and do not represent any benefit for the victory of my faction, according to their fighting qualities, they are useless. This is not a mission to destroy the enemy's portal network or capture territory, this is a mission to add pictures to your profile. I think like an agent of a secret organization and not like a child playing a game.

     How many portals have you submitted and explored?

    I lost count for a long time.

    I've been playing since my second year medal. Was in both factions and was pumped 3 times, 12 levels. I'm already sick of the monotonous drawing of triangles. And I'm only here because there is no other game about the confrontation of two or more groups of people in the real world.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭


    Yes, yes, balanced, to such an extent that here and there cries are heard about the uselessness of shields and defensive modifiers. Read the forum.

    Why do you think that only your 1 vision of the game is 100% correct? Aren't players and dying communities signaling that a conservatively snobbish approach to gameplay is killing the game?

    Ingress is dying for lack of fresh ideas to help revive the game. It is dying because a crowd of militant snobs "who know better than anyone else about what the game should be" lash out at developers trying to implement something new. Let's add drones? Nooooooooo snobs screaming, drones will **** the game, let's add beacons? Nooo nooo screaming snobs we don't want it. In exactly the same way, representatives of many religions screamed when the first cars drove through the streets, which were called the wagons of the Devil.


    Now I will tell you the unfortunate fact.

    Take another look at the leaders of the playmarket, in the top there are applications in which new content is added every month. New heroes, new design, new features and game mechanics. Not like in ingress, we fixed one mistake and added a dozen new ones, and moved the menu button half a pixel up.

    People want changes, and since there have been no changes in ingress for years, many people simply leave the game, leaving in the community admirers of "classic taste and divine unchanging aroma".

    I repeat once again, this is a PURE FACT!

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    I am a person who welcomes logical reasoning and a sober approach to the community around me. I do not mind someone taking a recursion weekly, walking in a closed circle performing this "ritual". but I also want these people not to be against reasonable innovations in the gameplay that would be pleasant to some of us. But no, those who are unable to understand why, according to many players, the game needs evolution and development, they just do not accept opinions that are different from their own. Even Niantic cannot tell them anything. And because of this, the game will soon be rated 2.0 and then completely disappear from the playmarket.


    I am not for toxic communication between players, I am for the game to be truly competitive, and not like it is now, any newbie, having seen enough about peace and friendship on the first Saturday, tells all the secrets to the enemy.

  • If you like logical reasoning, then here are two facts for you.

    a) if you got a newbie who is spilling the beans to the opposing side during a FS - that is the problem of their faction not informing and guiding the new player ahead of an FS. Maybe you could invest your extraordinary skill set of being an intelligence/spy mastermind to anticipate that behaviour by new players, guide them and use it to your advantage.

    But that is not the problem of the FS or nothing against the actual idea of FS for community building.

    b) nobody of the hardcore players are against reasonable innovations. There may be a bit moaning, but no dedicated hardcore player will stop because of reasonable innovations. New mods, being able to upgrade mods, maybe special resonators, or different specialisation paths for agents, or tiered benefits for each recursion - all off that are reasonable ideas which are likely to find support. But just throwing lots of freebees, shiny things at the game or wanting the game to change completely away from current triangles - is not considered reasonable by most. If people want that - there are plenty other games which will tick those fast pace and shiny options.

    There is a reason why some ingress onyx badges take years of game play to achieve. Because ingress is designed as long term game. Not like a shiny treasure hunt which is maxed out in a few weeks.

    I am not really interested or concerned about the score in the play store. No game I ever loved or played a lot ever had a great score. Word of mouth is far more important for getting long lasting and dedicated players to ingress in my experience.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭

    My friend, you've finally started thinking in a direction that suits almost all categories of players! It's good that you consider new types of portals or resonators to be possible innovations. I also believe that the game should not be full of sparkles, but should have really rich functionality, advanced but nevertheless simple and understandable tactics as in the same chess, or algorithms for solving a Rubik's cube.

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