A clueless newbie gives Ingress a try

Ingress is an augmented reality game apparently played by millions of people across the world. I never knew Ingress existed before being assigned to check it out.  As a lapsed video gamer, I was intrigued and after getting a brief description of the game and how it's played, I downloaded the app from iTunes and started playing.

"The world is in danger" were the first words that popped up on my iPhone after launching the app.

"Well, let's see what I can do about that," I thought to myself, signing up as a Resistance Agent, because who doesn't love a good underdog story?

LOCAL INGRESS PLAYERS TALK ABOUT THE GAME

The object is to discover "portals," or places of interest, usually historical or cultural landmarks and then linking the ones you've "captured" in the game to control various areas.

Sensing my phone's location, the game created a map of my surroundings that looked straight out of "Tron," with various glowing orbs and markers shining bright blue or glowing green around me. Walking around The Journal News' office complex with the app open, I saw small glowing dots, the game's Exotic Matter, gravitate towards me as I drew near, filling in my experience level meter. I felt like I was making progress, but that feeling would last for a laughably short time.

Digging into the app's various features and going through a few of the tutorials, it seemed almost daunting the number of tasks and activities possible through the game and I was surprised by how many local participants there seemed to be.

I also checked out Tappan's 76 House, the historic tavern and restaurant that once housed the imprisoned Revolutionary War spy John Andre. The location seemed to be a hub of activity, so it seemed like a good place to start.

Unfortunately, even after hacking the portal and deploying multiple resonators (the point of which I've still yet to grasp), I found myself with more questions than answers in terms to the proper way to play the game. The in-app training tutorials, I found, were helpful, but still left me mostly clueless.

I did find my inventory had filled with 18 Resonators, 21 Xmp Bursters, 10 Portal Shields and various other in-game tools and objects. So I've got that goin' for me.

I'm sure that if I were to spend more time getting to know the game, I'd find myself more invested in its processes and functions, but, quite frankly, I don't have the time or the energy to devote to it. I hope what little progress I made helps to further the cause, but I'm not about to go much further down this rabbit hole. Vive la résistance!