"Kids these days! They spend all their time glued to these little screens playing computer games. Why can't they get up and go for a bike ride like we did?"
- A. Crotchetty-Oldefarte (Ms), letter to the editor, unpublished
Well, what if it were possible to combine the two? What if technology advanced to the point where you could hop on your bike, ride 10 miles out into the fens, and electronically BLOW STUFF UP?
Wonder no more, for the future is here, in the form of Ingress!
Ingress is an augmented reality game, where players compete to score points for their team by capturing locations in the real world. Gameplay ranges from long term strategy to fast-and-furious battles, and takes you to a wide range of places from bustling city centres to far-flung mountain peaks.
It's also the only game I've ever played in which I've heard players discussing what kind of footwear is the best, or what happened when the security guards spotted them that one time.
The game consists of two teams: the Enlightened, fighting for a brighter and better future for mankind, and the Resistance, a bunch of smurfs who do nothing but get in the way.
I have a tool which I can use to make video recordings of the action. I've published some of the results on the Wrongfellow's Ingress Videos YouTube channel. Please like and subscribe!
Shards come to East Anglia!
Wrongfellow's IITC Timelapse Recorder
An IITC plugin to help with recording intel videos
(If fighting for mankind's future doesn't appeal to you, maybe you'd prefer to capture wild animals and force them to fight each other? If so, perhaps you'll enjoy Pokemon Go, a closely related game produced by the same company.)