Suggestions for how Ingress can grow the player base and improve it’s financials
in General
My priorities are growing our player base and also improving our financials. I'm looking forward to Ingress Year 10 in Nov, and thinking about how we continue the game onward beyond 10 years of Ingress. Anomalies or live events need to be core to that.
From here - https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/175171/#Comment_175171
@NianticBrian has mentioned that these are two of his priorities. What are your ideas, as an Agent, for how they can do this.
For example, is CORE worth it? Would you pay more for a CORE+ with more features? Would you want single use KCaps that did some exclusive crafting? How do you “sell” the game to potential new Agents?
Tagged:
2
Comments
The first thing I would do (and the wayfarer app is a start) is to make a poi map just for Pogo...
The amount of low level Ingress accounts that exist solely to check Intel for S2 cells is staggering...
I wouldn't be surprised if the server costs for Intel alone are mostly due to Pogo, being attributed to Ingress.
The POI map for Pokémon GO is included in Campfire once everyone gets access to that. So at least that’s sorted.
But they won't be able to overlay a S2cell plugin, still requiring them to use Intel.
Oh yes you’re right. I stopped looking at cells and whatnot when nominating so I kinda forgot that bit. Maybe someone will make a Campfire plug-in.
As much as it is a meme, I'd love to see a limited API for Ingress, heck I'd even pay for it. Not for stuff like portal status, but more directed towards personal agent information, like stats, inventory, level and faction. I know that, aside from stats, everything can be grabbed from intel, but as an example, I'd love to log into Agent Stats with my Ingress account, which will allow the site to grab my stats every 24 hours or so. It would also make verification for certain faction sites or other projects that need your agent information waaaay easier and safer.
We’ve done this thread a few times and they must straight up ignore the suggestions and ideas every time. Would be nice to know if someone that aren’t feasible so we can let them go.
Some easy money making ideas.
Single/triple use kcaps.
XM skins. Hell, skin everything. If someone wants fields to be pink or orange, let ‘em spend $5 to do it on their own scanner.
Timed/ticketed events similar to PoGo. Sure, do a basic event for everyone, but maybe offer a second medal that costs $5 and can be completed over the weekend. You’ll sell character medals for $20+ that does nothing for engagement, but charging $5 that gets people out into their communities playing the game isn’t possible? Agents want to earn medals, I have to believe that if you put up a $5 event and another $3 clip art seasonal medal, you’ll earn more from the event, but since you haven’t tried it, guess it’s easy to say which does better.
Temporary portals. Can’t be linked to/from, but could be used for events, xfac or not. Obviously a little work to dial this one in, but maybe something there.
As far as attracting new agents. Communication with existing agents and actually hype this game up a bit. You’ve got your community person posting pictures of plushies, but too afraid to get here in the forums and help keep people stoked. I see so many other games where they actually hype their game, openly talk about updates, hold contests on game updates.
The devs continue with their idea of what the future looks like and I’m genuinely curious how long OG agents can carry them through with these wacky plans. Sure, you can show up in a few gaming blogs about how you’re the first AR game to use NfTs, but is that really how you think you will attract new agents that actually play the game beyond level 3? Or are shareholders really okay with inflated agent numbers?
I reckon that players should be required to reach Level 8 before being able to use the Intel Map, this will help with the insane amount of pogo players solely using Ingress Intel for Wayfarer.
There has been no acknowledgement from the pogo community for the hard work that Niantic has put into the Intel Map, or the players who improved the vanilla Intel map with iitc (stock plugins)
Purchasable limited use KCaps, to craft higher tier items should be considered, keeping the basic KCap as a means for basic items to be crafted.
But at the same time, sorry @NianticBrian, but Ingress does need to be marketed much more heavily than it does. As it stands right now, being harassed with constant Pokémon GO ads shows that Niantic Marketing and Niantic Corporate simply do not care about any other products, including Peridot, Pikmin and even Ingress. And sorry to say this, but as project lead for Ingress, it is your responsibility to ensure Ingress is advertised by the Niantic Marketing department.
* Unfortunately, you know what happened, the Ingress Report weekly report was canned (actress moved on). This was ongoing advertising.
* Ingress Prime came out, permanently losing 60% of the player base.
* Story writer was axed.
* And then covid-19 hit.
Ingress is still a good game, but not marketed as it was in 2012-2016
I agree, when was the last time u saw any ads or promotions for ingress? seems to happen rarely... lag needs to be fixed i know they are working and trying but its still a problem for many. and lately new rls are just filled with bugs, a new feature is broken and u must wait for the next for that feature to be fixed, this isnt good in long run broken updates after update...
new lore/story would be nice but if money is an issue perhaps its not possible, actors cost money etc.... surely not cheap :/
niantic needs to focus so that new players are taught from the start that teamplay co-ordinate with your nearby agents is key to have fun in this game vs pokemon go is more of a solo game...
Campfire is finally an alternative to seeing raids but of course it's still being launched in waves.
If ingress team is up to experiments, and is leaning towards crowdfunding, I think some kind of wanted list or kickstarter model might work, in addition to regular flow. Let players or devs submit wanted bugs or features, if the feature aligns with the ingress team vision, get an estimate from the team, how much it will cost to fix or implement. Then if players collect the money - do it (if not fully funded - return).
For example, fix the new photo synchronization already, fix the lag, add option to select the locale, add recharge button to keys in key lockers, add more avatars - I'd send my $10 to make it happen. Or would deploy $10 worth of fireworks on random portals.
I think that’s the angle Niantic hasn’t quite figured out. Some amount of cooperation with their community can only help them build their numbers. I get they’re a company and they may add things some of us don’t see eye to eye with, but at this point, it just feels like we’re along for the ride.
Are we just supplying this company with data for the next project they’ll inevitably mothball? Is that actually the business model for Niantic these days? Get a bunch of funding for some game using the data we provided and then said outside company goes, wait, this won’t work, byeeee. But hey, it keeps things like seasonal clipary medals and plushie hunts on telegram going, so eff it, here is my $5 a month for CORE…
I'd like to see Ingress make some sort of incentive for meeting up at breweries or restaurants. Some sort of check-in, incentive for four agents to get together to farm 8 gear temporarily, maybe make the game officially for adults and really hone in on the craze of small breweries and have agents rate drinks and make recommendations. Make it more like Foursquare.
I'd also like to see some sort of API we could use for smart home automation. All kinds of fun things could be done with lighting, similar to the building from years ago changing color when agents captured the portal associated with it.
I think the X series kits and re-releasing old badges was a good move. Players should have the opportunity to build up their player card as large as agents who have been playing for years (maybe in a 2-3 year cycle of opportunities, so they're still considered veterans by the time they get them all). Additionally, the swag given with the kits would make awesome fodder for in-person First Saturday meetups. We should have swag bags available for rewarding agents at these events and bring back the 2X AP for the event. Virtual FS has been good, but I miss traveling to places to compete for top AP and then getting food/drinks after with folks. But regarding merch, the Ingress team should be looking at how the pin/poster/art community works in the music scene, particularly jam bands. Huge, vibrant community of people who are passionate and can use their favorite bands' brand to sell things to other fans. Tap into some of the already existing creative talent agents have. Give them the tools they need to make onofficial Ingress merch.
Ingress' biggest problem is it has to compete with Pokemon Go in the AR space. They don't have a chance right now. From a marketing standpoint, the game has a really fun backstory, but it's not popular. In theory, how would you feel about the game being rebranded to a relevant pop culture reference? Tron maybe? What makes pokemon successful is it's tied to a giant ecosystem of casual gamers/geeks who have grown up since Gameboy playing Pokemon games. It's not that PoGo itself is a smash hit. It's not the mechanics. It's people who like Pokemon want to play Pokemon. Name me another franchise which has been around in the gaming world forever which also would fit the Ingress persona. Not sure it exists. Same with all these other AR games Niantic is spitting out... Want to have the next pokemon go success? You'll need to tap into something big like the Mario franchise with Nintendo. Mario Party mobile? Meetup with friends, compete and play together in the real world at interesting locations for different rewards? Maybe tap into the EarthBound (Mother) series? That one SCREAMS "make an AR game" to me. The Catan angle was interesting, trying to lure in board gamers, but that didn't work out either.
I draw a lot of parallels of the health and population to a game I used to play years ago called Planetside by Sony Online Entertainment. Same level of sophistication and game mechanics, same huge focus on team play, but struggled to stay relevant in the face of alternatives with simpler rules and more accessibility. Game was dated, full of bugs, full of exploits which ruined gameplay for normal players, and they failed to continue marketing the game. Ultimately, they closed up shop and released Planetside 2 which didn't pan out the same way the original did.
Going to wrap up here to say I hope the team is able to move us forward. I think Niantic should also revisit their decision for Ingress to have to survive as a separate business entity. It should be a halo/reference product, not a required profitability center. Also, since I'm just spitballing here.... Niantic should really go public as a stock.
There have been many ideas on how to improve cash flow, CORE was one of them, but people dropping it because the game doesn't work is of course a problem.
In any scenario, I'd say resolve the ongoing issues. Make sure we're enjoying the game. The past few days I've been fairly active, enjoying the higher FPS and not too much latency. When the agents are enjoying the game, promotion will be 'organic'. People will participate in events, share their screenshots/stats on social media, and maybe even get a player or two to pick up the game.
Fix the issues, then bring back events like before the pandemic. <3
Some good ideas here. As stated above, players have submitted tons of ideas and even offered free work for Ingress.
I bet if they wanted a Lore update people would do it for free.
But we've had zero positive feedback on any suggestions so meh. Actually, very little feedback on anything as of late.
But hey keep those stupid Toast plushy posts going. The 3 years since Brian took over the product have been woeful.
Ingress is a good game. As long as the team is not intentionally f**king up the game, the player base can grow automatically.
Credit: https://t.me/primememe
Forgot to mention this, Brian continues to talk about bringing more people to the game and there is even a Niantic Community Day that has had such little effort out into it in regards to Ingress. Such an easy opportunity to introduce this game to hundreds or thousands of people in a weekend. But, still, nothing…
Frustrating. They want more players but can’t even bring their own company to remember the game exists.
Whatever they do, they will need to fix the issues that made players leave before “recruiting” new players.
From what I heard, issues were non existent at the anomaly, for which they upscaled. It makes me think there is something wrong with the vps that run during “normal” gameplay. If more capacity equals less latency, either optimize for the regular gameplay, or upscale.
Yeah when they said about doing the Niantic Community Days that sounded like great times for some cross play.
If you achieve something in Pokémon GO at a Community Day live event, maybe you get a code to use in Ingress, and vice versa to encourage users to play both?
Unblock certain coutries which were blocked/canceled few month ago after a stupid suggestion of the certain troll who doesn't even play nia games anymore? Some of them would even find a way to pay (but most of them would never give even a cent).
like some ingress swag to give out wouldnt hurt on those days
Intel doesn't natively support that either.
Hence player developed IITC + Plugins.
Some of the effort put in by players to make this game a better experience are awesome.
No, but it can easily be modified to do so.
The campfire and wayfarer apps are phone apps and not web apps so they can't be modified. And thus still requiring Intel (Ingress) for their needs.
Reword Second Sundays to Community Days....
Stop making BBs counts for Anomalies....
Have single use kcaps that coat actual cash to program items like VRLA, jarvis, ADAs etc ...
Move store button in reso carousel to front as in left of R1s or create an if statement ...
Do you seriously think players will pay Niantic like they used to?
After Niantic, after waiting until the 11th, when most agents had their subscription fees deducted, cut off the game?
When the official announcement was made on only one site blocked in Russia?
Niantic spit in the face of all of us. Personally, he won't wait for my money, and it's unlikely the rest of us will pay.
Let him forget about these two countries as markets where you can earn dough and pity to dump his games in the trash. Personally, I'm not sorry.
I can't imagine what Niantic would have to do to get some of our money back and make us pay them again. I don't trust this company.
Multiple methods:
Expanding CORE offerings:
~ Ability to view other agent profiles via intel (free to view your own)
~ inventory manage via intel
~ Extra Wayfarer Niantic review every month (let these bank up)
~ Double Wayfarer cap from 40 to 80 (still keep same amount generated per day)
More items to purchase:
This would involve expanding on Kinetic capsules, ability to have 5 running at once depending on type. Limit of probably 2 VR & 3 Common/Rare
~ Single use VR Kinetic Cap (1) with current recipes
~ Limited use Common & Rare Kinetic Cap (3-5) with different recipes like turning 20 XMP7 into 15-20 XMP8. Common mods into rare mods. 2-4km walked (depending on item level).
~ Media storage capsules (capsule & contents don't count to inventory limit, one way only, but can recycle unwanted ones inside, or transfer to another media capsule)
~ Key memento storage capsules (capsule & contents don't count to inventory limit, one way only, but can recycle unwanted ones inside, or transfer to another key memento capsule)
~ Additional and/or different drones. Could be a different layer to current gameplay which is focused on hunting the current free drone, doesn't affect portal network.
~ More avatar options. Customizable avatars, let me pimp the NL1331X van or the Aerodyne with some sick wraps.
~ Premium profile "Icons", flashy graphic options for them.
Other ideas that could be somehow pay gated.
~ Ability to view friends avatars in game
I'm not sure why they simply don't make Niantic Community day Celebrate multiple games. Pogo players get bonuses for these events. Why not have bonuses for their other Niantic games? I don't even go to these anymore because there is simply no reason. It's 100% about Pogo. Also the poi's that they created for these events remain even after the event is over. They are all named the same exact thing "Niantic" and some are placed almost on top of existing poi's. It just seems half assed.
@NianticBrian Why don't you look at the Niantic Community Day and figure out a way to promote Ingress? You say you want to grow the game. This seems like a no brainer. Plenty of people in this thread and other threads have good ideas. Could we try to use some of them to grow the game?
Or are we afraid to take active pogo people from pogo (cash machine go brrrrt) and have them in Ingress? Or maybe Niantic is afraid that those who come from pogo will bring their extra accounts with them? I don't know because no one from Niantic cares to ever answer on any of these such ideas. We just keep hearing how people want the game to grow, but we never see it.
When was the last time someone saw an Ad for Ingress outside of Ingress, Ingress Forums, or an Ingress event?
Being able to purchase Kcaps for single or multiple uses for VR items, with inflated km amounts? I'd buy those. Lots of people would. Still not sure why they haven't bothered to cash in on this yet. Seems like yet another no brainer. Maybe not enough dev time available? Or knowing the current luck of newish features, you'd have to toggle it on after each time you close the client.
you need to stop agents from quiting first, by tackle anti-ToS behavior and ban spoofers more quickly
They should use 10 year to end this game. Give players a last time great events during the entire year and shut down server after it.
This game is clearly slowly dying, with that they could give it at least a good ending.