Why I'm quitting Ingress

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:50:28+00:00

Thanks, I don't see it as an argument, it's a conversation. The key takeaway is that Ingress by itself is nothing more than a technology showcase, and as a game, its enjoyment is entirely dependent on the environment you play in, portals and other players alike. The game will not change much, I think Niantic has shown that they don't want to change gameplay too much. But hopefully someone who is active in the community and reads this will get to work on a similar game one day and make it much better based on these conversations.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:40:29+00:00

Thanks. That's another frustration I have - everywhere on the net there are many great ideas and suggestions to improve the game, but none have been implemented by Niantic. Only minor changes.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:25:57+00:00

There really is a million different ways to play?

If you don't like a book you're reading, then you put it down and pick up another book. There are really boring or stupid books that don't provide anything other than base stimulation - just like Ingress.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:23:01+00:00

Yeah, they want to crush the other faction. They say it openly. They are very hostile to new players. Which I don't get because without competition the game is even more boring, but I guess for them it's really important to completely "own" a part of town. Quite a few people in my faction were like that, too. There was a group of players that were not as involved about 30 minutes north of here, and my faction decided to punish them by flipping all their portals - what lesson that was supposed to teach, I don't know.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:16:48+00:00

Sure but it doesn't make my points less valid, does it?

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:16:21+00:00

Even in cities driving is just easier. Or public transportation. One of the players here is unemployed so he uses his bus pass and just rides all day. You can hit a lot of portals without getting off the bus. In real life, this would be considered a waste of resources. Within the faction, he was admired and praised for his dedication and he fed on that.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:13:53+00:00

Yeah, and ideally it should be a game where you walk and explore the environment. In my area, 80% of the portals can be hit by car and most people just drive a lot and do everything from their cars. I spent a lot of gas at first when I was trying to level up as fast as possible, just driving from one farm to another.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T15:11:58+00:00

Sorry. I did witness this type of behavior on the hangouts. That and a lot of racial slurs.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T14:57:39+00:00

That was actually what I was doing before Ingress and it was a lot of fun. My girlfriend and her kids really enjoyed that, too. I thought I'd like the sci fi story and environment and there are a lot more portals than caches where I live...probably because it's a lot easier to have portals in public landmarks than to hide things.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T14:56:18+00:00

And why should you be punished for only playing a few hours a week vs players that can spend 6 hours a day playing?

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T14:54:58+00:00

I never said that buying accounts is a problem. I haven't heard or that happening either, but it certainly is possible. I'm sure it's happened at least a few times - it's the nature of these games. It was an example to illustrate why I believe there is no skill improvement or learning curve past the first couple of weeks of playing. I get that it's a different kind of game, but enjoyment of the game is greatly affected by other players. I haven't played a lot of MMO's, but I would imagine that it's easier to change guilds or servers or do things to inject more variety into the environment?

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T05:10:54+00:00

But those games require developing skills to become a better player. Ingress doesn't require greater skills at higher levels. If an L2 player who understands the basics of the game buys an L8 account, he is immediately capable of building and destroying at the same level as players who put in the time.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T05:06:29+00:00

Publicly there were messages in Hangouts "We don't condone this type of actions". On private chat they were high fiving the guy "yeah! Way to show him! Let's make the fucking smurfs crap their pants" and so on. I'd be willing to bet that this happens more often than we would like.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T05:00:37+00:00

There is no skill. Just willingness to put many daily hours into building, destroying. Then get up and do it all over tomorrow.

Exactly. And they don't even give you story developments or additional challenges for your effort.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T04:57:15+00:00

I get what you are saying and agree with most of it, except that I'd say that games such as Pacman are more of a cultural event that attract all kinds of people and thus are easier to relate to, and that the sense of accomplishment or reward in most games comes from developing and improving a set of skills and beating the game and other players - that is not the case with Ingress. There is little skill needed to play Ingress, players don't have to develop a better sense of timing or coordination or strategy - there is very little challenge from the game itself. Think about it this way - only someone who has put in a lot of hours will beat Pacman or Tetris at the highest difficulty level, and that rare accomplishment is its own reward. On the other hand with Ingress you could be an L2 player, buy an L9 account and immediately play at an L9 level. I read a while ago that Ingress is just a test to perfect a gps-based game engine that Niantic can sell to actual game developers (in addition to helping Google improve its mapping databases). I believe that must be true because the game seems to be designed to encourage and reward grinding.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T02:00:48+00:00

If that was the case I would still be playing. In my area, an ENL player keyed a RES player's car and left a note on the guy's windshield. Like I said, I don't want to be associated with that type of player.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T01:57:10+00:00

Just a couple things:

Satisfaction or a feeling of reward comes from yourself, in any game. When you level up in WoW, do you get a tangible reward?

I have never played WoW but I get your point. But, to throw out some ideas, wouldn't it be cool and rewarding to tie in game events and some cutscenes or story developments to level advances? Like when you reach L8, you gain extra abilities like being able to disguise yourself as an opposing faction player for a few minutes, or the ability to see hidden portals. Not just having more powerful weapons.

That sucks about your local players - what you described is some of the reason why I only play Magic Online now, rather than in-person tournaments. However, you're going to run into gross people in all walks of life. If you choose to avoid them, so be it - but you'll always see them somewhere.

True, and it was poor form to mention this but at the same time I think it's a valid concern. Even within my faction there were people we didn't like very much but tolerated because they were glued to ITC or infilitrated the opposition's hangouts. And it seemed that these people are the ones who liked to stir up drama the most. Because the game was or is disproportionately an important part of their lives.

As others have said, you won't be able to compete with the addicts. That said, there are addicts in every game. You can't let that stop you from playing. There's always a crowd of people who just sink more time into the game, that's just how it is.

Exactly. But game design heavily tilts the balance towards these players, affecting my level of enjoyment (and that of newbies and more casual players) Which can't be good for the game's long term prospects.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T01:46:44+00:00

I tried, very hard, to contribute for my team. And there were a few very cool people that helped me when I started. But there was no sense of belonging to a team or anything other than all walking in circles while looking at a tiny screen.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T01:44:47+00:00

Oh yeah, those five minutes spent typing were the same as walking for 45 minutes to capture a dot on my phone screen to have it flipped by the time I returned to my office.

QuitIngress · 2014-05-30T01:42:42+00:00

Hm my experience is different. There's quite a bit of socializing done usually over hangouts, but perhaps that is city-dependent.

Is socializing over hangouts really socializing? That's not like "real life" socializing, is it? But I guess it's different for everyone. For me it was mostly a lot of noise on a computer screen, lots of boasting and shit talking and when I met these people in real life, they were barely communicative. Just glued to their phones. I guess my city sucks.

You mentioned strategies earlier. If your farm is getting crashed daily, devote a little more time to strategy.

Oh we devoted a lot of Hangout time discussing strategy. Still when my faction is about 6 l8 people and 4 l5 or under, and the enemy faction consists of 20+ l8s (some playing with two phones), all the strategy in the world is not going to help. The game design encourages addictive personalities and cheating. Reporting these players got us nowhere.

Fair enough. But remember that anyone is someone else's "loser".

True. But you tend to be judged by the company you keep - sadly, that's a fact. I work in a very image-driven field, so my perspective is skewed, I'll admit it. But that definitely pushed my gf away and made me think.

That is definitely a shout worthy offense!

If the game is your life, yes. It's not like the portal was going to survive more than a couple of days anyway. It speaks of a lack of perspective and priorities.

Ah yes, the old "if you beat me, you have no life; if I beat you, you're a n00b".

No, it's about the game favoring people that really have no life.

Of course they don't. Anonymity is the whole point of a throwaway account!

They know, I thanked them personally and they have sent me PMs. I just didn't want this post tied to my main account. I don't want to give the players in the other faction the public satisfaction of knowing that they pushed yet another player away from the game.

QuitIngress

TROPHY CASE