My view of “The Toads”, as we refer to them in Ingress, has changed a bit over the years. I’ve been playing Ingress for over 5 years now, as a Resistance player (blue team). We fight “The Toads” (the green team – The “Enlightened”) day after day to dominate our individual areas, and ultimately, the Ingress world. Ingress is a virtual world that exists as an overlay on top of our real world. Using GPS, it’s a global “capture the flag” game, as both teams work to cover the earth in their color–blue or green.
I used to hate seeing green and would often strive to remove all green portals and fields I could find, then turn that same area blue for our team. I still do that, but these days I no longer “hate” seeing green. It now seems more like an invitation, a “proof of life” if you will, that there’s still a load “toad” out there, eager to fight for their team. Nowadays I actually get a little thrill when I see a cluster of local green portals (a “farm”), as it gives me a purpose during my daily walks. When I find one of these areas, I will often scout the area and try to determine the best possible walking route to combine a decent walk (1 mile minimum is usually my goal) with the most efficient route to destroy and rebuild all of the portals for our team.
This, along with the fact that our team has dominated the Kenosha, WI area for quite some time now, has made me realize that, like other multiplayer games, Ingress isn’t much fun without a good balance. Though the goal is to dominate, it is very difficult to maintain your area for any length of time. At least in Ingress it is. It requires constant attention to your portals–almost daily–to avoid having them decay to the point of their resonators dropping off of them and their fields and links dropping. This is where teamwork becomes very important. I have tried, many times, to maintain as much of the Kenosha area as possible over the past 5 years, but I have always ended up frustrated in the end, seeing portal after portal and field after field drop and go neutral.
This has taught me, in the end, that once you dominate a large area, it’s much easier to just let things fall, then rebuild them fresh again, instead of trying to keep everything charged yourself. If none of your teammates is willing to commit to the same area and help maintain it, it is way too much work (and too frustrating) for one player to maintain on his or her own. This can (and has) even lead to many players quitting the game. Everyone has to work out a playing strategy that works for them–one that keeps the game light and fun. After 5 years, I think I’ve found my preferred playing techniques and favorite areas I like to play in the most.
You’ll find my areas sometimes netral, other times fully blue and fielded. It depends a lot of my schedule and free time, and a little on the price of gas. I try to play while walking as much as possible (doctor’s–and Niantic’s–orders). It motivates me to walk more, giving me something to do along the way, and I often find that I walk further than I originally planned to…which is a good thing! I have lost a bit of weight Ingressing over the past 5 years, and the benefit of that, alone, outweighs (pardon the pun) any of the in-game benefits, and the toads certainly can’t take THAT away from me!
I had originally intended this article to be more about multiplayer games in general though, and how these types of game just don’t work unless they have their primary ingredient: Players. One example I enjoy is Joust. This is a classic arcade game from the 80’s, and was a key game from the novel “Ready Player One” (but wasn’t in the movie at all). These days I like to play this game on my X-Box One. This game has awesome multiplayer capability too. I often try to start an online game and seek a random opponent, but the game usually times out before finding one. Sometimes though, I have success and I’m able to play against another human, and it’s a blast! I wish more classic arcade games offered this option, but since most players opt for the newer generation of MMO games, there doesn’t seem to be many that still hang out in the old classic games like I do. I think it would be pretty amusing to visit my fellow “old geezer” players in a virtual arcade of some kind… I have a feeling there would be very few kids in there, if any. A lot of us “old folks” can’t handle all the bells and whistles of today’s MMORPGs and “first person shooters” like the young whipper-snappers of today…lol… but we sure like to try! I dabble in them all, but I’m usually overwhelmed with all of the options. It’s great to have a controller with 20+ buttons on it, but how to do remember what they all do?! Not to mention the fact that those 20+ functions only apply to ONE GAME… There are hundreds more, all with different controller options and control schemes! What’s an old fart to do?!
But I digress. Anyway, in the end, every successful game needs some kind of balance. Whether it’s two or more teams battling for control of the same game board or an MMO game where it’s every man for himself and you can team up with others at your own discretion. If the elements of the game are interesting and attractive enough, the game can be hugely popular, like Ingress and Pokemon Go, and will even end up attracting their own unique demographic.
Where am I going with this? I have no clue. I just had to get it out there though. That’s all.
JimTrottier.com 