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24th August 2016 | TU Darmstadt | Faculty of Human Sciences | Media Education | Petra Grell & Franco Rau
Petra Grell & Franco Rau
Ingress In Adult Life – How an Augmented
Reality Social Game Broadens the Perspective.
ECER 2016, Network 6
06 SES 09, Video Games and Mobile Games

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The Game & Current State of Research
Research Design
Findings & Discussion
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3.
The Game Ingress
Logo of Ingress (by Niantic
ingress.com)
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Genre
Location based augmented reality game,
massively multiplayer online game
pervasive game,
Device Smartphone or Tablet
Release
Nov. 2012 (closed beta), Dec. 2013 (Android),
July 2014 (iOS)
Developer Niantic/Google
Downloads 10.000.000-50.000.000 (Google Playstore, August 2016)

4.
The Game Ingress
Story: Scientists discover, that earth had been
seeded with alien “Exotic Matter” (XM). Opinions
differ: Is it a threat or does it enhance humanity?
Goal: The aim is to control the worldwide existing XM
for the own faction: “Enlightened” or
“Resistance”. Therefore it is necessary to capture
"portals" (places of cultural significance) and to
link them in order to create triangular "control
fields" over geographic areas.
Gameplay: Location-based interaction only. You
physically have to walk around to play the game.
Moreover collaboration is a key factor, e.g. a high-
level portal demands items of 8 different players.
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5.
The Game Ingress
Gameplay: Individuals and groups
are walking/traveling around,
using their mobile device to scan
the environment and interact with
portals.
Strategy: Online tools (e.g. maps,
stats) can help to plan game
activities
Communication: chat-interface
(in-game), mostly other group
channels (e.g. hangouts)
Communities: Self-organised local,
regional and worldwide groups
(invisible to non-members)
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6.
Current State of Research
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Focus of articles/Focus of inquiry Authors
General
perspective,
Viewpoints
Presentation/Description of Ingress as an
augmented reality game
Hodson (2012); Stingeder
(2013)
Game Studies
Storytelling and narrative of Ingress /
game characteristics
Chess (2014); Majorek, M. &
Du Vall, M. (2015)
Applied Computer
science
Analysis of specific applications or design
principles*
Kasapakis & Gavalas (2015);
Manwaring & Clarke (2015);
Reinhardt & Heinig (2016)
Social Science
Social Online Gaming, game related ties
and friendship**
Domahidi, Festl & Quandt
(2014)
* Ingress as an example
** Ingress mentioned within the outlook

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2 Research Design

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Basic Assumptions
• New (technology supported) mediatised
structures
• … can create/evoke new ways of social interactions
with other people
• … can influence the way to look at/consider things/
ideas in the world
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9.
Research Questions
1. In which way is playing Ingress meaningful or
significant for adults?
2. In which way does playing Ingress transform
players’ perspective on public space?
• Focus of this presentation:
What kind of meaningful interaction with others,
mediated through the game, do players describe/
reflect?
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10.
Research Design & Methods
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Ethnographic experience
(March – Nov. 2015)
Interview study
(started in January 2016)
Interface analysis
(started in June 2016)
• Data collection: Episodic Interviews (Flick, 2000)
• 12 players: 5 female, 7 male
• age: 20 – mid 40
• Jan. 11th – Mar. 4th, 2016
• Analysis: Grounded Theory based coding (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)

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Methods – Interview
1. Interest & becoming a part / getting into it
• e.g. Could you share your experiences in the beginning
of playing?
2. Me-Game-Other
• e.g.: Have you had some special/thrilling experiences
with Ingress or Ingress players?
3. Me-Game-Public Space
• e.g.: Do the real-world-objects, that are portals, mean
something to you?
4. Resume/In a nutshell
• What is the most important thing, in just a few words?
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3 Findings & Discussion
1. Description of meaningful interactions
• e.g.: Episodes of social interaction; attitudes towards
social interaction; appraisal of interactions
2. Description of transitions or transformations
• e.g.: Change of interest; novice – expert
transformation

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1. Meaningful Interaction:
“Encounter/Recognition”
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“It’s me!” – A pleasant experience of getting noticed, being addressed,
being recognised, as a player or as an individual
“and then actually somebody asked: ‘Wait, is that you? Weren’t you the one who
cycled at night in [remote area]?’ (…) that is the reason why this was such a
highlight. In a way it leaves a deep impression because it comes up again.” (#2,
130-132)
“It was nice how they all extended a warm welcome to me.” (#3, 59)
“they seriously wanted me to change to the [other faction] (…) and they do not leave
you out in the rain. A lot of people were involved” (#12, 106)

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“Others” – A pleasant / fascinating experience to get to know people
easily, like-minded people and people beyond expectations
“playing virtual games, usually you won’t get to know most of the others personally. But
now you are playing a game, in which it is effectively inevitable to be face-to-
face to other players. That is fascinating.” (#8, 19)
“you are meeting other crazy people, who are as crazy as you are and you meet them
at 8 p.m. to go out to play” (#2, 255)
“I have played with very young kids and with very old people and this is - I believe -
something truly special. To me it is awesome. Simply this enormous variety.” (#4, 47)
1. Meaningful Interaction:
“Getting to know people”
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15.
“Players becoming friends” – Playing Ingress led to the development
of friendships
“Significant element in existing relationships” – Playing became a
nucleus of crystallisation in partnerships
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2. Process:
Transformation of friends and relationship
“[…] and in no time at all I made new friends” (#6, 21)
“And based on that [community building] we became real friends, out of being totally
strangers” (#10, 13)
“The game reinforced our relationship. (…) Finding a hobby in which we are both
engaged in was definitely good for our relationship.” (#8, 19)
“[…] we do have a babysitter once a week, in order to play Ingress together” (#1, 40)

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“Joint Activities with and beyond Ingress” – Activities start within
Ingress and evolve
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2. Process:
Transformation of friendships and activities
„we [2 Ingress players] were walking through [location / neighbourhood] and in the
end we are five people hanging out in a pub drinking [local wine]. That moment
was quite impressive for me.” (#5, 23)
„and then we decided to do a weekend trip to [location at the sea] and do Unique-
Captures. I enjoyed this possibility to go on vacation together” (#12, 77)
„now we have a group of players having board game nights, Ingress players and
former Ingress players, actually many who stopped playing Ingress, but who are
still involved in game nights“ (#2, 35)

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Discussion & Outlook:
Enrichment of social life “Me and we”
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“the social aspect is important to me. (…) as a way to meet new people. Now I do have
a circle of friends, I don't need to play Ingress anymore. I think we could stay in
touch without playing.” (#12, 62)
“a quarter of my social life is based on Ingress.” (#8, 23)
“if you reflect yourself, at night, 1 a.m., I am on a stroll, with completely strange men,
the only female, and at home husband and child (…) that’s funny, beyond role
expectations” (#1, 78)
Using the game as a (temporary or constant) opportunity to
enrich social life
Using the game to be a bit nerdy

18.
Petra Grell
@PGrell (Twitter)
http://de.slideshare.net/Pgrell
p.grell@apaed.tu-darmstadt.de
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Thank you!
Water Fountain, Darmstadt CC-by-nc-sa Grell & Rau Aug. 12, 2016
Franco Rau
@FrancoRau (Twitter)
http://de.slideshare.net/FrancoRau/
f.rau@apaed.tu-darmstadt.de

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References
Chess, Shira (2014): Augmented Regionalism: Ingress as Geomediated Gaming Narrative. In: Information,
Communication & Society. Volume 17, Issue 9, p. 1105-1117.
Domahidi, Emese ; Festl, Ruth & Quandt, Thorsten (2014): To dwell among gamers: Investigating the relationship
between social online game use and gaming-related friendships. In: Computers in Human Behavior 35 (2014) pp.
107–115.
Flick, U. (2000). Episodic Interviewing. In: M.W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative Researching with Text, Image
and Sound (pp. 75-92). London: Sage.
Glaser, B. & Strauss, A.(1967): The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago:
Aldine
Hodson H. (2012): Google's Ingress game is a gold mine for augmented reality, New Scientist, Vol. 216. 19. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(12)63058-9
Kasapakis, V. & Gavalas, D. (2015): Pervasive Gaming: Status, Trends and Design Principles. Journal of Network and
Computer Applications. Vol. 55, pp. 213-236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2015.05.009
Majorek, M. & Du Vall, M. (2015): Ingress: An Example of a New Dimension in Entertainment . In: Games and
Culture. 1-23. DOI: 10.1177/1555412015575833
Manwaring, K. & Clarke R. (2015): Surfing the third wave of computing: A framework for research into eObjects. In:
Computer Law & Security Review, Vol. 31, pp. 586-603. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2015.07.001.
Reinhardt, D. & Heinig, C. (2016): Survey-based exploration of attitudes to participatory sensing task in location-
based gaming communities. In: Pervasive and Mobile Computing. 27-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmcj.
2016.01.001
Stingeder, K.H. (2013): Googles Augmented-Reality-Game "Ingress". In: Medienimpulse, 4/2013. http://
www.medienimpulse.at/articles/view/600
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