I've been watching the tutorial videos today before I start & I agree with what Daria posted, the marketing seems very slanted towards blue team. But even before I watched all that, there's this phenom that seems to occur in any US roleplaying game where things are divided into only two PVP groups: Whichever side is perceived as the "good guys" generally has way more players. The way they're pitching the game, with some mysterious force (the green guys) influencing and possibly trying to control humanity, the resistance (blue) def seems like the "good guys."

I always play the "bad guys" so I'm used to it, though! I actually prefer being on the small unloved side, there's always better comeraderie and fewer douchebags, and they generally have better senses of humor & don't take themselves too seriously. xD

to be fair humans need controlled.. we're not exactly intelligent via vast majority... not until later in life anyways.

That is exactly my point. If the icon was half green half blue....We might not be so darn behind.

They really need to change some stuff, but they won't. :( Where I live, I am outnumbered at least 5 to 1. With the introduction last week of the IOS users, it has jumped and is probably 7 to 1. How can the underdogs do much of anything to play?

They need to give serious perks to green then to balance it or the game might fall apart

There is some talk of a third faction, the "red" faction, which is rumored to be the "robot" faction. Who knows what they would do with that or if that would help or hinder us greenies. They recently increased the "portal decay" rate, by 75%, so if you don't "recharge" your portals they die in 3 days. I think that was suppose to help the newbie IOS users. I'm not sure.

New race would be good... If the green are more of a community less will defect. Also gives option to ally and kick butt on blue

I'm loving the feel of this app, it's all sexy sci-fi! [eager]

I see some energy leaks or whatever the heck they are in the alley behind my house.. soon as it gets cooler I'm gonna go wander around xD

---------- Post added 07-20-2014 at 06:13 PM ----------

Meanwhile, and I might figure this out immediately after I submit this post, is there a way to see a larger-scale map? I can only see a little bit away from me in the app.. though, I think I may be 'stuck' in this tutorial until I go check out the blip in the alleyway. xD

I wanna know if anyone has marked out the petroglyphs on South Mountain! [eager]

Gonna download it and poke around for now...
I shall roleplay a tower that only ever goes 2 places! XD

I did my first walkabout thingie! Dang I'm sweaty. D:

So there are 5 portals super close to my house right now.. they are all completely slotted with level 6-8 blue guys. Not sure what good I did, but I was able to hack them all. Me standing in front of the church window in the dark trying to figure out how to "hack the church" was kind of hilarious, good thing I look like a boring old lady. xD

And I looted lots of loose energy amidst the garbage cans in the alleyway! [eager]

This game must make people look totally bonkers as they wander around [lol]

I just noticed that I have inventory, so I'm gonna go blow things up in a couple minutes here. xD "Hacking" is just looting, right? Oops. /sillynoob

I'm just sitting here like "COME TO ME XM POINT THINGS!" [lol]

I claimed some portals & got level 2! [eager] Now to wait for nightfall and a lapse in heat to go try all these weird weapon thingers I looted this morning.

So... if I drive around do I have to be logged in to pick stuff up?

Yeah, you do. I left the app going when I dropped off the fella at work this morning and passed a ton of things on my route. You can collect the stray bits of power or whatever without having to touch the phone, but, like, pull over first if you're going to try to claim portals. [lol] Here, the unattended portals I've been able to find thus far have all been church related, and those things have parking lots! xD

I have a church just down the street o.o

The park nearby is probably a portal too.

So I guess when I go to work I'll have to leave the game running...

Yes, there is a big map, check it out here: https://www.ingress.com/intel

So far, the iOS release has had zero impact on the game in my town. It's still just me, two blue players, and the occasional tourist. [cry] But, I reached Lvl5 the other day, which was exciting. [:D] I've been focusing on building mind fields lately because they give the most AP, but I've given up trying to hold on to portals for very long since the decay rate increased. There are a couple portals in my town that I particularly care about, but I just don't have the time or inclination to maintain all the portals in town on my own. On the social side of things, I have a tacit arrangement with my rival-friend on the blue team; I build things and he smashes them and I build them up again and get lots of points. I chatted with him in COMM a little recently, and he as much as admitted he was helping me level up. [lol]

Oh, I also have a secret portal. It's 3 miles out of town in a slightly random location where people don't have much reason to go. The only reason I know about it is because it's one of the two portals nearest my house. I only put Lvl1 resonators on it so that it wouldn't be very visible on the intel map, and I've been maintaining it for my Guardian badges. My current streak is 21 days. [yes]

re: the game being unbalanced... I hadn't really noticed or thought about it, but I agree that things seemed slanted in favor of the blue team. We're so used to "the resistance" being the underdog, I bet a lot of people pick it without even noticing that they're falling for that trope. I've always thought of the Enlightenment as being the "real" resistance though; it's the smaller team, it's always behind in global points, and it's all about liberating people from conservative, reactionary control.

Also, I so do not buy into any of the hype about the Enlightenment being supporters of the "Shapers." So far as I have seen, Shapers are not even part of the official lore of the game, so how did that even become part of the game?

By the way, can someone explain what anomaly events are? Like, I know that it involves lots of Ingress people getting together...but why? What happens at those events?

Yknow... I was thinking about that whole enlightened thing... it mentioned nothing about enslaving...

BELLY! Tell me you are green! I can help you level etc. if you want. I can also hook you up with teammates in your area. The north greens are called the "Portal Jackers" =D There was a happy hour in your area a week ago.

Chexala is correct, you can look at intel to see portals in the world and enter in your zip code to find ones by you. Adjust the settings though so you see low level portals (you usually have to zoom in to do this). Hack all the things, blue or green. If it is not your team's color, you get attacked a bit, and lose some health, but you also get exp. If it is your team's you get gear.

It's hard to explode things until you are level 5 or 6. The best way to gain AP (experience) is by linking up portals to make triangles. It's like connecting 3 portals together to make a triangle, the inside will turn your team's color.

The floaty dots are XM, light matter, kinda like health or energy. You can "recharge" portals if you have a key to the portal and XM. If you don't have XM, you run out of fuel and can't play. Power cubes refill your XM

I have never been to an anomaly, as I avoided the one in Flagstaff. It sounded cold...No thanks.
The one on Saturday in San Diego will be my first one. From what I gather, there are checkpoints that are random and a few portals that are "volitaile" ones...Those ones will change hands constantly. Whoever owns it when the random timeslot is picked, wins the portal for that round. Niantic does not tell us when those are, so you just fight like mad for it.

A guardian portal is one you hold onto for a long time. My "guardian" portal got attacked on Sunday, and it only has one resonator left on it now. I have held it for 105 days. If I can keep it for 45 more I will get the final badge. It is in northern California, so I don't think it will make it. Time to look for a new guardian. In order for a guardian to count for you, you need to have at least one resonator on it. My guy's guardian is still green, but in the attack last Sunday, it no longer has any of his resonators on it. If it makes it another 44 days, we are actually considering going back up there so he can deploy another resonator on it and get his final badge. LOL, crazy right? GREAT excuse for another vacation.

That explains why my entire area is green...

My entire area is blue. LOL, we are outnumbered at least 5 to 1.

I don't even know the numbers... everywhere I go is just out of reach of stuff and at work I can just barely see the portals... which is 2 a church and a kingdom hall

@Chexala, thank you for that link!! I have some ideas for portals now. Just gotta figure out how to submit a portal. And hike up a mountain. [lol]

@Dar - yep, I'm green. I like to think of myself as a protector of muses, rather than an enslaver of mankind. Only art can save us! ;D Thank you for the linking tip! I'll start trying to do that next. Though I don't plan on going outside anytime soon... too hot... I want to hear all about the anomaly when you get back!

To submit a portal, press the screen where you are and hold it down. Then several options will appear, one will be "submit a new portal" Chose that one, and it will take you to the camera function. You can then take a picture of your nifty new portal to be. And then, you get to wait 3 months for Niantic to bother with it. Either they will put it online or not. I heard that Iphone users can't submit portals. I don't know if that is true or not.

So there's like 6 portals just on the edge of my map at work... still nothing blue