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Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

venturebeat.com

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Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#11

Post by healsdata »

The last thing Google needs in Ingress is more content than they need to review. They're currently 130 days behind on reviewing portal submissions and this is either going to take just as long, or delay portal submissions even more.

Frankly, I'm shocked that they didn't start with procedurally generated missions first so that everyone can participate and then add hand-curated ones slowly to improve the quality. Instead, they did a big media blitz when a large portion of their player base isn't anywhere near an existing mission.

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#12

Post by fixedd »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #7

I tried getting into this game early on. One option for players was to submit local landmarks as locations of note for the game. I would photograph and submit whatever landmarks nearby I could find. While waiting some weeks for them to be approved, I noticed one day that a bunch of Zipcar parking spots had suddenly become Ingress hotspots. I was so put off by the obvious advertising ploy that I stopped playing right…

Screw those guys for trying to recoup some of the millions of dollars they've spent building the game, right?

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#14

Post by fixedd »

scrollaway wrote: post #2

How's Ingress doing nowadays? I never got into it because it sucked so much of my battery life, but I keep receiving their newsletter and it seems like a surprisingly active community.

Don't know how long it's been since you played, but there are a LOT more people playing now than even around the new year. The biggest difference to me is that L7 and 8 aren't that hard to achieve any more. I've seen people go from first login to L8 in a week, or so. Back when I hit 8 it took months of regular, dedicated work.

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#15

Post by fixedd »

healsdata wrote: post #11

The last thing Google needs in Ingress is more content than they need to review. They're currently 130 days behind on reviewing portal submissions and this is either going to take just as long, or delay portal submissions even more. Frankly, I'm shocked that they didn't start with procedurally generated missions first so that everyone can participate and then add hand-curated ones slowly to improve the quality. Inste…

Do we know yet that they're moderating the missions?

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#16

Post by healsdata »

fixedd wrote: post #15
healsdata wrote: post #11

The last thing Google needs in Ingress is more content than they need to review. They're currently 130 days behind on reviewing portal submissions and this is either going to take just as long, or delay portal submissions even more. Frankly, I'm shocked that they didn't start with procedurally generated missions first so that everyone can participate and then add hand-curated ones slowly to improve the quality. Inste…

Do we know yet that they're moderating the missions?

I'm only going off the article:

> The Niantic staff will curate missions to ensure that no one does anything nefarious, like putting a pornographic picture in the mission description.

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#17

Post by cpeterso »

incision wrote: post #3

I got an invite to Ingress pretty early on, played heavily for several months then dropped it completely. I never got into the lore and didn't particularly care for bar-hopping meetups. As a game it felt really uneven, free to enact sudden changes in some areas but leave others frustratingly untouched. Seems pretty polarizing though, among the people I played with many stopped playing long ago while others remain com…

Android phones are constantly scanning cell and Wi-Fi networks to improve Google's geolocation, mapping, and traffic services. Google/Niantic could direct players (by setting the portal locations) to areas that need more network scanning, beyond the network scanning their Street View cars do.

At Mozilla, we are trying to do something similar with our "MozStumbler" app [1] for community "stumbling" of wireless networks. You can compare Mozilla's network coverage of the Embarcadero map in the Venture Beat article at [2]. We also have weekly leaderboards to show who has discovered the most new cell or Wi-Fi networks at [3].

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/MozStumbler/releases

[2] https://location.services.mozilla.com/map#15/37.7966/-122.39...

[3] https://location.services.mozilla.com/leaders/weekly

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#18

Post by sireat »

incision wrote: post #3

I got an invite to Ingress pretty early on, played heavily for several months then dropped it completely. I never got into the lore and didn't particularly care for bar-hopping meetups. As a game it felt really uneven, free to enact sudden changes in some areas but leave others frustratingly untouched. Seems pretty polarizing though, among the people I played with many stopped playing long ago while others remain com…

I had a very similar experience. A very social friend convinced me to try it.

I got immersed for about a month but then I slowly drifted away as I got the typical Google service experience.

What do I mean by Google service experience?

Got to Level 8 but also I submitted about 30 portals, spending a lot of time researching what was suitable.

Other players warned me that the response would be 2 months, but still what I got was unacceptable:

4 out of 6 portals were accepted within a month, but they were not the first 6 submitted. The rest of my submission (made over number of days) just fell off the face of earth.

I waited a few months then completely gave up on the game.

If you do not value my time to give me even a rejection e-mail, then I do not see the point in playing such a game.

Re: Google's mobile game Ingress enables players to create user-generated missions

#19

Post by mdellabitta »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #5
fenomas wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that this is a game whose playing field is the entire planet, content generation has always been in the hands of the players. What surprises me most about Ingress is how little of the game scales that way though. Portals (the nodes players fight for control of) are submitted by players but approved manually, which typically takes 4-5 months . Likewise the game's major events ("anomalies") occur only in a…

> some company (Jamba Juice?) had all its stores show up in-game as portals. Duane Reade as well.

And ZipCar.
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