Google ARG Hints at Niantic Labs Conspiracy. This September, Google’s Niantic Labs launched the Field Trip app as its first product, offering a method of passively delivering location-specific content to mobile devices.
So why is the “Niantic” brand popping up at the center of a conspiracy involving the visions of a comic book artist, a professor’s research on portals, and a glitching smartphone? By Michael Andersen, originally posted at ARGNet Comic-Con has served as the launch platform for more than a few alternate reality games in the past. At the San Diego convention, Why So Serious held its first live event promoting The Dark Knight at the convention in San Diego, using attendees as the Joker’s patsies by getting them to don the criminal’s signature clown make-up and stage minor crimes.
Niantic Labs Bears More Fruit: Location-Based Massively Multiplayer Game Ingress Hits Google Play. We’ve seen startups tackle location-based multiplayer gaming, with title’s like Massive Damage’s Please Stay Calm and Shadow Cities out of Grey Area, but now a heavyweight player has entered the ring with Ingress, an app created by Google’s Niantic Labs.
The Niantic project got a lot of buzz last week thanks to a mysterious teaser, and previously the group was responsible for Google’s location-based discovery app Field Trip. Now, Ingress is launching on Google Play, offering a way for players with invites to join in unravelling a global mystery. The Niantic Project: What Is Google Up To? Ingress proves once again: Google gets its users. I admit it: I am a total gamer nerd.
So when I heard about the new walking game Ingress that Google was putting out, my Pavlovian response immediately kicked in. I had to play it. After posting my plea to Google+, Google’s Brian Rose took pity on me and kicked me out an invite. On first playing, my reaction was pure awe. Ingress is a sci-fi conspiracy game played in the real world by walking around and interacting with the local landscape and other players. After some analysis, a second realization hit me: Google has done it once again.
See, everything Google develops is an answer to a problem. Google+ answered the question of how to get social signaling relevance in search values. Ingress is also the answer to a question: how do we get users to help improve what is already the best mapping system available? Oh, and if you’re playing, keep an eye out for MrDubious. Augmented Reality Game Gets Player Arrested: The First Of Many? Ingress, the Alternate/Augmented Reality (AR) game from Google's Niantic Labs, is a major evolution of mobile gaming.
Apparently, it's also a good way to get arrested. According to a post on Reddit (I know, I know – but stay with me on this), an Ingress player in Ohio was detained by police for his in-game actions. Specifically, he was "hacking a portal" near a police station. His phone had technical difficulties, which led him to linger by the portal/police station for a bit, catching the eye of local law enforcement and leading to the detention.
After the original post, other Ingress players responded with similar stories. It's In The Game As Dan Rowinski mentioned in his earlier post, there's plenty of "creep" factor built into the game. Getting detained (as many Redditors pointed out, the poster wasn't technically arrested) probably adds to the intrigue, and certainly gives a player a certain amount of street cred. Legal, But Risky. Google Ingress: How to save the world with your Android phone. Network World - If you'd been hanging around Kendall Square in Cambridge this weekend, you might have seen a brave freedom fighter lurking near MIT, battling nefarious paranormal forces, windchill and GPS problems.
That was me. According to the developers of Google's new augmented reality game, Ingress, there were several invisible portals present near that august establishment of higher education, linked together in order to form a field designed to assist in the mind control of innocent civilians. As a member of the Resistance faction, it's my job to disrupt these fields (placed there by players in the opposing Enlightened faction) and create some of our own, which protect people from the pernicious influence of the opposition. Niantic Labs Bears More Fruit: Location-Based Massively Multiplayer Game Ingress Hits Google Play.
Ingress (game) Ingress is a near-real time augmented reality[3] massively multiplayer online pervasive game created by Niantic Labs, a startup within Google, currently for Android devices,[4] but expected to be available for Apple's iOS in 2014.[1] The game has a complex science fiction back story with a continuous open narrative.[5][6] The game makers' framing device for the game is as follows: Earth has been seeded with “Exotic Matter,” or XM, 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 screenshot of the Intel Map at right shows the state of play in and around Seattle, Washington, on December 2, 2012. State of Ingress play near Seattle, Washington, on December 2, 2012 Currently there are only two factions to choose from. The world around you is not what it seems! The world around you is not what it seems!
Prashant Vadgaonkar (TECH TRONIKS) / 22 December 2012 Its website proclaims “The World around you is not what it seems”. It’s happening all around you. They aren’t coming. They are already here!!! ARGnet: Google’s Niantic Project Hints at Smartphone-Fueled Portals. Comic-Con has served as the launch platform for more than a few alternate reality games in the past.
At the San Diego convention, Why So Serious held its first live event promoting The Dark Knight at the convention in San Diego, using attendees as the Joker’s patsies by getting them to don the criminal’s signature clown make-up and stage minor crimes. Showtime kicked off its Dexter-themed ARG with a scavenger hunt leading to a grisly kill room, while Disney’s Flynn Lives campaign transformed a nearby warehouse into the End of Line Club from Tron: Legacy. While most of these affairs have been major events centered around entertainment properties, Google appears to have shaken up that trend by slipping their Comic-Con launch of the Niantic Project under the radar, only to have it resurface in force this month. The Ingress has begun.
Field Trip. Google, This Is Getting Pretty Weird [The Niantic Project] : technology. Google Launches Mobile Game You Play in Real Life. Google's smartphone app team Niantic Labs has released a new multi-player gaming platform that turns your real-world location into a virtual world.
Called Ingress — which is available for free download on Android via Google Play — the app is based around the premise that a strange energy has been discovered by European scientists, and it must be controlled before it controls you. But the app isn't one you play while sitting on your couch at night. It requires actual movement and encourages you to get outside to unlock new features, weapons and adventures. Inside Ingress, Google's new augmented-reality game. Un jeu Google, entre RA et ARG. Google, comme vous le savez, ce n'est plus simplement des données ; ce sont aussi des appareils.
On a évidemment des smartphones, des tablettes et un brevet qu'on a peut-être un peu oublié : les fameuses lunettes. Quand le brevet a été dévoilé, on n'a pas vraiment eu des exemples précis d'applications qui pouvaient en tirer partie. En voici une : il s'agit d'un jeu. Ingress. On incarnera une des deux factions, les illuminés ou les résistants. Bien évidemment, le concept des ARG, c'est souvent de se retrouver au bon endroit au bon moment. En revanche, en ce moment même, on ne peut que vous conseiller de plonger dans l'expérience Alt-Minds qui n'en finit plus de nous surprendre de par sa qualité d'écriture et le niveau d'exigence des énigmes./10. Google lance l'appli Ingress, le jeu à réalité alternative de Niantic Labs. Jeudi 15 novembre Jeu vidéo - 15 novembre 2012 :: 19:56 :: Par Rénald Niantic Labs, au terme d’une campagne virale, propose dès maintenant son projet à réalité alternative sur le Google Play sous la forme d’une appli gratuite des plus singulières.
Ingress (le nom de l’appli) vous propose une véritable expérience. Le projet de Niantic Labs a vogué des vidéos virales au Google Play d’Android avec l’appli mobile Ingress. Le jeu est né dans l’esprit de John Hanke qui n’hésite pas à évoquer J.J. Le jeu vous sort littéralement de votre salon et de la bulle créée par votre smartphone. Dans le monde alternatif d’Ingress, deux équipes s’affrontent. Concrètement, il est nécessaire d’installer une appli compagnon sur votre smartphone.
Comme dans un jeu vidéo classique, vous pourrez ensuite utiliser cette énergie pour voler ou renforcer des « portails » situés dans des lieux publics clefs. Votre smartphone vous servira de carte indiquant votre champ de bataille local lorsque vous êtes dehors. Google lance Ingress, son jeu basé sur la réalité augmentée. Ingress : les logos du jeu dans tous les formats.