Ingress: Fun, Active, Frugal, Growing Multiplayer On-Line Game

[Michele Fischer]

Do we have any Ingress users at BP?  I joined a week ago and am having a blast.

We have been active geocachers for many years, and this newer activity reminds me of geocaching, except it is a bit more urban and it involves revisiting sites multiple times.  Like geocaching, it gets folks off the couch, gets them out in the communities seeing new things, and can be a way to meet and hang out with people in the area.

The basic premise is that the whole world is one of two factions (choose wisely when signing up), that there are portals set up at churches and points of interest (kind of anywhere there is a community sign), and you travel around to get points to level up by visiting or battling for control of the portals.  It is viewed real time on a smart phone with GPS.

Yesterday we traveled to a nearby town to do an art walk mission.  Last night we walked around our town visiting and strengthening portals.  This afternoon a group of people from our team are having a meet-up at a nearby lake.  It's free, it's fun to do as a family, but I muse warn you that it is addictive, as can be seen by three events in one weekend.  Bad if it detracts from real estate, great if it enhances family and R&R time.   Check out Ingress, a  google start-up.