Last weekend my son expressed a renewed interest in an augmented reality game named Ingress. It's a science fiction game about capturing portals - actual locations in the real world that have in-game significance. It's a very mobile game - you walk around and look at your screen to see what is a GPS type map overlaid with portal locations (and a cool futuristic - ie. 80s lazer tag - color scheme) and who if anyone, controls them. You want to capture as many as you can.
Or at least that's how a 9-year old described it.
There's XP to gain, special defenses, keys, and other accoutrements of video games. So, it gamifies walking and exploring your community, which is something I can get behind even if part of the time you spend it looking at a screen. After all, you're still out and about walking to areas that maybe aren't part of your every day travels.
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| The young lord by a giant rhino head sculpture - and portal - that we had only heard rumor of before but had never seen. |
In addition to a fun game and getting out in nice weather, it allowed for mini-lessons in map reading skills and geometry, as we planned the best route to capture the most portals. There was quite a bit of walking (and skipping on his part) involved and the end result was something like 23 captured portals.
Even better, a few days later we learned they were under attack or had been captured by an enemy -much to our pleasant surprise, as that means at least someone else is playing, too. Plotting of a counter-attack is underway.
This weekend, I want to get something on the table - be it hex-and-counter or toy soldiers, I don't know, but it will be something. I have those imperial Russians awaiting completion as well, so a marathon painting session or three may be in order.
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