#ActualGameplayFootage

Good heavens, I started writing about Ingress in 2012, but haven’t since last July. Yeah, I still play, not obsessively but regularly. I’m a greybeard so my body’s in use-it-or-lose-it territory, and as of today I’ve walked 766 kilometres playing this game. Also, it’s enriched my life; see here and especially these pictures. But mostly, check that hashtag in my title; the thing is, I like to go outside and see things.

Operation Creek Slide · What happened was, Resistance agent Ba1r0g got this idea for a nice big field two of whose three anchors would be way off the beaten track in places with little or no cell data, requiring cool network-engineering techniques, of which agents @Whydahlabtech and @NeddLudd have a rare command.

And yeah, we built it today; it looked like this:

That bottom-right leg was a real problem, knifing through a half-dozen suburbs. But we weren’t there, our role role involved dashing around a cute little town called Squamish, full of links and portals where that triangle’s top edge needed to go. It took a little over an hour, and we saw some really lovely mountains and parks and waterfalls that otherwise we wouldn’t have.

Here’s a geek sidelight: During an operation like this, when there are a dozen parties working on different assignments, separated by hundreds of kilometres, who need to all be finished at the same time, co-ordination becomes a problem. No chat software will solve it, there just isn’t time to pause and tap letters into your handset. So we’ve been using Zello, which turns your mobile into a walkie-talkie; I have to say it’s pretty cool. It’s a battery-sucker, but Ingress players are used to dealing with that.

The only downside to the outing was that it was mostly by car; hardly any exercise. So after I finish writing this, I think I’ll get on my bike and go out and tour around the neighborhood battleground a bit. Use it or lose it.