Google has made available their new massive multiplayer augmented reality game Ingress. The game uses augmented reality technology to situate the game play in the real world. As Devin Coldewey at NBC News says, “‘Ingress’ has biggest map ever: The real world.” The game uses GPS and other smartphone technologies to generate portals at various locations in the real world, especially significant landmarks, public art or buildings. Two factions within the game, the “Enlightened” and the “Resistance” battle for control over these portals. The game’s website has some cryptic clues relating to the game. Current players have also set up a wiki for the game with more equally cryptic clues.
The game is only available for the Android platform for now but my understanding is that it will be made available for other platforms soon. It can be downloaded from Google’s app store, Google Play. However, as the game is still in closed-beta, an invite is required to activate the app.
There are a few interesting things relating to this game that are worth pointing out:
- First (because my priority is always education), what can educators learn from this? Google’s not just producing a game here; they’re showing us what augmented reality can really become when we allow ourselves to think big. They’re going way beyond simple informational overlays (that most current AR apps provide us) to radically alter the purpose and function of our perceived “real world”. I think that creative and innovative educators can grasp the significance of this and I hope that this will encourage them to explore ways to make the “real world” into the “classroom”.
- Second, the nature of the game play itself: As I said before, it is situated in the real world and people will be wandering around in public spaces playing this game. I don’t know if there will be any way to identify them, for ex. using something like a friend-finder app, but the implications are interesting. How will someone know, if at all, if a person that they are engaging with is involved in game play at any given moment. Will a teacher, for instance, be faced with the possibility that students sitting in their classroom are actively involved in a game rather than paying attention to the teacher? Will people sitting in a business meeting be gaming while they’re supposedly planning strategy? Will any of that matter?
- Third, what this suggests about the near future of augmented reality technologies: This game is obviously tailor-made for Google’s Glass project. Is this a hint that Google’s augmented reality glasses are going to become available soon?
- Fourth, the interesting organizational model that produced the game: Ingress is being developed by Niantic Labs, which apparently is a “startup” within Google. Ingress is the second project known to be developed within Niantic. The first was Google’s “Field Trip” app which was released earlier this year. This quite a different way to spur innovation than the traditional route that large corporations have often followed, i.e. let the major innovations happen outside the corporation and acquire what seems useful. In fact, Niantic Labs is headed by John Hanke, who founded Keyhole, Inc. to develop mapping applications. Keyhole was acquired by Google and their application became Google Earth. Does the Niantic Labs model signal a change in how large corporations like Google will support innovation?
