Level 16

#Wheredidingresstakeyoutoday is (was?) a common hashtag at G+. This post isn't about today. It's about the last 600 days (backwards from 29.03.2018). This is the time it took me to level up from agent level 1 to 16.

Was it good? No. It was absolutely awesome. While walking 1.865 kilometers I passed 6.468 portals and created links up to 31 km. But the bare numbers can't tell the awesome experience while driving through the night while cleaning lanes for megafields or shards.

They don't explain the thrill you get, when your anomaly squad of 20 agents begins to run through the middle of Cologne or Berlin just in order to join 80 more agents. And instead of pulling out dangerous weapons every single player just seems to be absorbed by his smartphone. But the battle is happening in the augmented reality. On site and at several recharge rooms around the world.



But after all I didn't just level up at Ingress. After I discovered that you can retake the picture of a portal I started to level up my second passion - the photography. On my journey through the world I submitted 4030 pictures. That added more than 2.000.000 AP to my counter.

A rather pacifistic way to level up, isn't it? Well - not quite everywhere. Surely some agents were unhappy to lose their beloved pictures and got into a voting battle. At the beginning I was holding against it - just as a part of the game between the two factions. I gathered keys and distributed them among my enlightened community in order to get more votes for my pictures. I was impressed how patiently my fellow agents went along with the spleen of "the photofrog".

But over time I quit this part of the battlefield. It is more satisfying to get likes at Instagram for your portal pictures than wasting time by shuffling around capsules between up to 20 agents. A new portal picture is an offering. If the people like it - great. If they don't, it's ok also. I was always rather inclined to XF collaboration since we players have so much in common. There is no reason to be nasty towards somebody who just pressed a differently colored button while setting up his app (apologies go to the storyline authors who fill the game with exciting background and give the constant depletion of powerbank a higher meaning).

Here are some examples of portal pictures and impressions of my awesome journey: https://www.flickr.com/photos/radnai/albums/72157678499567774

Reaching level 16 is a big milestone. I'm now officially a senior agent within my community. But it doesn't retirement. Until now I was the student who could learn from the masters. Up from now I can learn as a master from the students.

I'm really looking forward to where Ingress will me take tomorrow...
So long, and thanks for all the fish!

And thank to recursion I became level 8 and beyond...again...