Aegis Nova, Break The Shield
This weekend, the world around us was not what it seemed. The Sydney Opera House was host to the Aegis Nova XM Anomaly Event, a series of free events for Ingress players.
These events are for Ingress players of all levels and last approximately five to six hours including three to four hours of walking/biking gameplay.
Ingress is an augmented-reality massively multiplayer online location-based game created by Niantic Labs, a startup within Google. The gameplay consists of capturing “portals” at places of cultural significance, such as public art, landmarks, and monuments, and linking them to create virtual triangular “control fields” over geographical areas.
Within Ingress, players fall into two opposing factions: the Enlightened (green) fight believing their actions will uplift humanity and bring about the next chapter in human evolution, whereas the Resistance (blue) believe that it is protecting humanity from shaper ingression and preserving humanity’s freedom. These two factions are the opposing “sides” or “teams” in the game.
No Pool’s Ben Hasic captured footage of the event for ABC’s Good Game, with GG Producer/Director, Tobias Venus. With a staggering turnout of more than 1,500 players both locally and internationally, we interviewed people from all over globe who travelled all the way to Sydney to take part in this single day event.
The event stretched into Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens and parts of the CBD, which saw large groups of players, dressed representing their team colours, working together to claim portals set throughout the area. We spent a few hours following groups through the Botanic Gardens and learning how the game works.
With 1106 to 446, Sydney was captured by the Enlightened. It was definitely an interesting shoot and we look forward to seeing the story which will be featured as part of a larger piece in a future episode of Good Game on ABC.
Ingress is available on Android and Apple iOS. To find out more about Ingress Events, check out their website.
Cheers,
Ben & The No Pool Team