Blog Post 7: GPS Game

We played a social/spatial game in class today called Ingress. Ingress is a location-based, augmented-reality mobile game developed by Niantic. It is played on Android or iOS. Ingress’ mechanics is very unique, requiring you to actually walk around in real life in order to progress. Using your gps tracker, there are multiple points of interest spawned throughout your map which can only be accessed by being within a close distance. You choose a faction and you compete against the other side trying to capture points, destroy enemy portals, link, and many other actions. The game is based off real time, competing for the most portals captured. The game never ends. Playing this game with my classmates was very fun and relaxing. Exercising is much more exciting when its made into a game. Walking towards each point of interest with my friends and learning new things about the game along the way was a great experience. I was on The Resistance faction and it was funny to compete against my peers as we try to destroy each other’s resources. It was very stimulating and urged me to group with my friends to control the whole city. I loved the clever idea integrating a game with the real world and I would play it again.