Ingress and Out

Those who are well-versed in mobile gaming may know about and play the game Ingress, the other claim to fame of Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go. It's a game that, much like the latter, utilizes things based on the real world that players then use to gain supremacy. A cursory look into the game shows that some of the things appear to have parallels, and to a great extent, this is true: the two games have an appreciable link, and the former may be considered the "undercurrents" for the latter.

Now, I don't play Ingress; it's something I can barely accommodate in time, let alone on my phone. But a few of my friends do play or have played Ingress. One of them played in the early days, well before the advent of Pokémon Go; that friend of mine doesn't seem to remain active in the game, however. Another one, who is one of my raid fellows in my raid group, actually was active in Ingress while the others were active with Go, and that person soon became introduced to the latter game. The person also remains active with the former, allowing the others to glean insights from it if necessary.

As for those insights, there are two primary ones. In Ingress, specific areas of its map are highly marked, and this translates to higher appearances of Pokémon in those areas; as a result, they highly correspond. Even if they may not, there's something else that corresponds. Ingress has something called "portals" that can be opened by players in the game at specific sites... and those sites correspond to the locations of PokéStops and Gyms in Go; further, the appearances and disappearances of the latter two have been linked to those of the former, further solidifying the link between them.

There's one more remarkable connection. Ingress has something called "Operation Portal Recon" (OPR) that is only accessible to high-level players. Through this, the players take on the task of reviewing candidate sites that might deserve to have a portal. The review guidelines appear to be more or less in line with those for PokéStop nominations... which indicate that this is also the review process for that. One particular candidate for review, in fact, was jocular yet also indicative of coming from one of my raid fellows. This and the others above indicate that the Go-Ingress connection is rather deep.

The word "ingress" has connotations related to entry points, entrances, or the word "enter" in general. It makes sense, given the "portal" object detailed above. But based on the above, it's also plausible to think of Ingress as an "entry point" of sorts to the world of Pokémon Go, especially given that the former existed prior to the latter. Whatever the connection, it seems that players, including me, are just happy to "get in" and play, whether it's for supremacy across areas and portals, or capturing and battling beside our favorite creatures.

One year ago: Pokémon in Common Terms
Two years ago: Cosplay: CLAS:H/ICGP 2017, Regional Edition