So this past Saturday was our first local cease fire happy hour for Ingress players in the D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia area. If you're not familiar with the "game", I recommend you check out my post on ten things to know about the Niantic Project.
One of the main organizers, of the event and of the local Enlightened faction, Andrew Krug, posted a great recap of the night, on Google+. To which I simply say read it, and I concur.
So here are some of my highlights.
To kick it off, it was my first time using Google+'s Party Mode!! Read more at the link, but it allows anyone who's at an Event on Google+ to upload photos and videos to a joint album, in real-time.
So, when I got to the event, we had color-coded name tags, depending on which faction we belonged to, the Resistance or the Enlightened.
One of the guys from my faction, the Enlightened, had made special pins for Level 8 operatives.
By the time I got to the bar, I was actually just 8 points away from reaching level 8, and I waited until 8pm to remote recharge a resonator to level up.
Anyway, was great meeting old and new friends, meaning people who's screen names I've been seeing for weeks and months on the app, as well as new folk from lands a little more distant.
More than anything, I did not feel the animosity I was afraid I would feel when I met players from the other faction. As Andrew mentioned in his own post linked above, we just shared stories of run-ins or narrow misses, but then just got to know each other, where we lived, what we did.
And at times some of us discussed what was going on with the story, and where it all might be leading as well as how it would affect..."gameplay".
As an arts manager, it was great being able to hear how much people appreciated this simple yet effective gaming prompt to be more aware of public art, as well as other geo-specific landmarks, buildings, and historical places.
Anyway, good times. I even stayed longer than I was supposed to, as I was seeing a show right after, at the Artisphere. Fortunately it was not even 10 minutes away.
Already looking forward to the next one. Just loved that, while we could have focused on the thing that divided us, why we chose the side we did, we simply connected with each other, in real life.
When was the last time you heard about a group of 40 or so people do that because of a game they all played on their mobile device,
JR
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