The world around you is not what it seems. —— Ingress
I noticed this game for some time, but didn’t actually play with it. I tried it for a few days, and find that it is really cool!
Below are the quote from Wikipedia
Ingress is an augmented realitymassively multiplayer online role playinglocation-based game[4] created by Niantic Labs, a startup within Google. The game was originally exclusively for Androiddevices,[5] and was made available for Apple‘s iOS on July 14, 2014.[3] The game has a complex science fictionback story with a continuous open narrative.[6][7]
The game makers’ framing device for the game is as follows: Alongside the discovery of the Higgs Boson by the physicists at CERN in 2012, it has also been discovered that the Earth has been seeded with “Exotic Matter,” or XM. This substance has been associated with the Shapers, a mysterious phenomenon or alien race which is neither described nor seen (and which thus functions as a MacGuffin). The in-universe motivation for the Enlightened faction is their belief that the Shapers are working toward a powerful enlightenment which will uplift all mankind. The Resistance believes that it is protecting humanity from Shaper ingression.[13] The factions have, however, been occasionally observed to ignore the back-story and to co-operate for the sake of real-life gameplay and game balance, for example by establishing neutral zones and rules of engagement.[14]
There are two factions to choose from. The Enlightened fight believing their actions will uplift humanity, and bring about the next chapter in human evolution, whereas the Resistance believes in preserving what freedom humanity has left. The Resistance is represented by blue and the Enlightened are represented by green. In some areas, the Resistance are jokingly referred to as “Smurfs“. Similarly, the Enlightened are referred to as “Frogs” or “Toads“, while the lower-level players are referred to as “Tadpoles“. Portals are either grey (neutral), blue (Resistance), or green (Enlightened).[16]
I didn’t realize how amazing is that when the reality world network is integrated with the online network (by saying that, I meant I spend a whole afternoon to walk around the FSU and play with the game lol). I belong to the Resistance, which is now the main force at FSU and Stone Building.
From this game, it is clear that Web 2.0 is no longer the world in virtual, but it starts to blend into the existed real world. I think the trend is the overlapping of Web 2.0 and real world is increasing, therefore the augmented reality is popular recently.
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