"Ingress" is an augmented reality massively multiplayer online role playing GPS-dependent game in which the players are divided into two camps: the "Enlightened" (in green) and the "Resistance" (in blue). Wroclaw has been painted these two colours in the game. "This is a geo-tagged game," says Mieszko, a Wrocław real estate agent and an ardent "Ingress" fan. "All you need is a mobile phone or a tablet with Internet access and GPS. Then you need to download the app from Google Store. You may also like to have a pair of comfortable shoes and off you go, you can join the game. Everyone's invited."
Dwarf collectors
Players from the blue and the green camps roam the streets of Wroclaw with their mobiles and their GPS on. They have fun as they take and tick off subsequent locations. The locations are usually Wroclaw's landmarks: monuments, sculptures, murals, churches, architectural ornaments or libraries. Wroclaw's unique landmarks include dwarves, which are simply abundant in the city.
"You need to start 40 metres away from the location you want to take," continues Mieszko. "You can create a "field" by joining three locations that lie next to each other. You need several people in several different locations. That's how you cooperate in the game.There are plenty configurations available and this is where you team's imagination comes into play."
They play in a traffic jam
Mieszko says that the majority of the players are between 25 and 35 years of age and are usually male. The game is so absorbing that many people play on their way to work, e.g. on a tram. "Drivers also happen to play," says Mieszko laughingly. "Of course when they stop at traffic lights or while in a traffic jam.
You may ask what this is all about. The storyline is quite convoluted. The aliens are trying to take control of human minds. The "Enlightened" camp believe that alien activity is a brotherly help for the Earthlings. The "Resistance" camp in turn try to stop this, as they believe the aliens are trying to seize control of the world. Mieszko is in the "Resistance" camp or the Blues. "We take subsequent locations to free human minds. Men treat this as a fight and a challenge. We simply like it."
Friends from IT
The game has more to it than mere manipulating with your mobile or your tablet. You can also make friends while in the game. "Two people may sometimes meet at a given location," says the player. "And they look at each other, one holding a mobile, the other too. And as they begin to talk it soon turns our they play the same game."
Each camp has more than one hundred members. "We sometimes meet off-line," says Mieszko. "Some of us have made friends. We visit one another or go to a pub."
Who are "Ingress" players? Little is known about them. Some of them are computer programmers or people working in IT.
The residents of Wroclaw also play geocatching. Those who play this increasingly popular location-based game search for objects tucked away by other players.
