Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#81

Post by pavel_lishin » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 8:54 PM UTC

aditya wrote: post #24

pavel_lishin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried playing Shadow Cities, and the interface was mostly confusing, so I stopped.

Hmm. Are you a gamer? I'm not, and I don't play Shadow Cities anymore for the same reason but it seems to be doing well with people who're more active gamers, which is why I was wondering if there's a way to make the games more casual for people that don't want to live in that universe all the time. Foursquare is close, but it doesn't feel like a game at all.

It wasn't the casualness of it - I literally had no idea what to do about nodes "near me", or what "battling" those sprite things did for me.

Plus, those were the only two game mechanics I saw - I could battle things, and then I could click on nodes, and neither really seemed to progress me anywhere.

I feel like that game should have had a much more thorough tutorial.

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#82

Post by alieander » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:08 PM UTC

carwithcookies wrote: post #59

DrewHintz wrote: post #25

[Edit: Looks like I currently have no invites left. As I get more, I'll give them out and update this post.] I think I have a few invites to give out. Let me know if you'd like one. P.S. I'm Resistance using the name drew

awesome if you get any more you could spare. I sent you an email.

alieander@gmail.com

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#83

Post by RivieraKid » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

jbattle wrote: post #76

RivieraKid wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are in a simulation" is a meaningless statement. It's like saying that there are millinons of invisible unicorns on Earth.

I get what you are saying, but I disagree. If there were millions of invisible unicorns, surely we'd occassionally bump in to one. Azaleas would go missing. With the right technology, it might be possible to harvest them for ivory or meat or hoofs for glue. If we live in a simulation, there may be experiments that would demonstrate the fact. There may be ways to 'hack' the simulation and break all kinds of physical l…

By "invisible unicorn" I meant a unicorn that doesn't have any effect on the physical world.

Our universe could behave, in some ways, like a computer simulation (but the question is, in what specific ways?). But it is similar to light rays behaving like waves. Which is different from light rays being equivalent to waves.

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#84

Post by RyanHolliday » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:15 PM UTC

jbattle wrote: post #76

RivieraKid wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are in a simulation" is a meaningless statement. It's like saying that there are millinons of invisible unicorns on Earth.

I get what you are saying, but I disagree. If there were millions of invisible unicorns, surely we'd occassionally bump in to one. Azaleas would go missing. With the right technology, it might be possible to harvest them for ivory or meat or hoofs for glue. If we live in a simulation, there may be experiments that would demonstrate the fact. There may be ways to 'hack' the simulation and break all kinds of physical l…

Doesn't your explanation mean saying we live in a simulation is _exactly like_ saying there are millions of invisible unicorns?

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#85

Post by shawn-butler » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:19 PM UTC

nixarn wrote: post #74

dirtyaura wrote: post #43

It resembles so much Shadow Cities ( http://www.shadowcities.com/ ) that it almost feels like copying.

Yeah, I wonder if Grey Area is involved with this?

Not the first to, shall we say, draw extensive inspiration from shadow cities: http://qonqr.com/

There is so little shame in the industry anymore, but it is admittedly a very difficult task to be creative in a gaming startup.

Competition is a good thing I guess. I'd hate to be competing with Google though. Their fanboi base is suffuse with a devotion that borders on unquestioning faith which plays well in the gaming segment where the hard part is initially attracting critical mass for the underlying game dynamic to be fun.

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#86

Post by whoisnicole » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:19 PM UTC

So what is Windows Phone 8 going to do to counter?

Remember Bing Cashback? Are they going to come up with something similar to Ingress, expect for that everything is free when you use Windows Phone 8 to scan the SKU? :)

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#87

Post by marshray » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:21 PM UTC

blocke wrote: post #50

I've been so waiting for something like this. While I'm expecting to be disappointed by this early effort the idea is exciting and something that was inevitable. There was a great anime series that sadly doesn't have distribution in the US called Denno Coil[1] that is required viewing for anyone interested in augmented reality. The series follows a group of kids in a city that grow up with Google Glasses type functio…

That was a seriously interesting show. Even if you're not 'into' anime, I recommend it.

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#88

Post by eddieroger » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:26 PM UTC

dansingerman wrote: post #30

Osmium wrote: post #19

It seems to me that, with the ubiquity of smartphones and how powerful they're becoming, it's only a matter of time before there's a constantly-evolving digital facsimile of the real world. We've started to see how, for example, many geo-tagged photos can be reconstructed into a pointcloud (see Microsoft's Photosynth amongst others), and how everyone is now carrying a location-aware camera-computer in their pockets..…

Didn't you know? We are living in a simulated reality: http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html (Probably)

OK, I really tried to read that, but my lack of coffee and presence of being really tired made it hard to consume. Was the entire premise of it that one day a being will have computers powerful enough to simulate humanity, so of course they will, and we are the result of it? Some of those assumptions seem pretty damn big, but again, I could just be too tired to read it.

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#89

Post by rocky1138 » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:27 PM UTC

Trailer seemed cool, but I'd like to see an actual gameplay video. Anyone have a link to real footage?

Re: Google Launches Ingress, a Worldwide Mobile Alternate Reality Game

#90

Post by MattRix » Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 9:32 PM UTC

rocky1138 wrote: post #89

Trailer seemed cool, but I'd like to see an actual gameplay video. Anyone have a link to real footage?

I think the stuff you're seeing the device screens in the trailer is the gameplay footage... You go somewhere, scan around for "energy", and "hack it" or whatever.