Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Mission Day Proposal

I'm looking to build up a proposal for an Ingress event. It's called Mission Days which are effectively just a local city promotional/ tourist event of sorts, but based around the virtual reality game called Ingress. If you don't know what Ingress is, please click the link or just read on and consider my Event proposal.

Proposal

A Mission Day is a social event in the "virtual-reality" Ingress game which plays out in the real world. Mission Days are designed to promote tourism in the host city and get publicized in the online community calendar. The Event takes place on a pre-determined Saturday morning, and will involve quite a bit of walking.

The Ingress game is different things to many people, my personal description of it is that it primarily involves walking, and beer or tea. Ingress is a lot like geo-cacheing, and many people play solo, but when we get together it becomes slightly competitive. The game awards you points for distance walked, number of places you visit and so on, but the benefit for many is around physical and mental health. The game is played worldwide and involves visiting as many historic sites or points of interest as possible, and through a system of "tagging" to apply virtual reality spray-paint and control territory for your team by using your built-in GPS. Yes, there are two teams, and no, combat does not involve shooting or running. That does not mean that the gameplay at other times is not real at all.  Amazon gift vouchers will also go to players meeting in-game goals such as number of kilometers walked for this specific event. The big social events typically are fully outdoors and cover a Saturday morning, entire day, or in the evening as a social meal where players compare game scores or just enjoy a beer/tea. Oh, almost forgot to mention, there is cake!

Participants will need a smartphone and a small amount of mobile data contract. Must know how to safely cross a street, not obstruct sidewalks, enjoy the sights of historic Cambridge. A minimal level of fitness to keep walking (wheelchairs are allowed) for a few hours is helpful, and obviously good walking shoes. You must also be keen to explore, and to learn know how to play an online game and keep to the rules by playing nice. Ingress is a free game created by Google. As such, an email address is required to play, although you do remain anonymous.

The Cambridge city center is a busy commuter zone, but is packed with interesting things to see which many folk never notice. You might even get to find hidden routes to unique or useful places just by playing. Join us out of curiosity for just a day, or sign up permanently and play the game for free. Choose your team and join us today and find a local community near you. https://www.ingress.com/community/

Details

Typical turnouts are up to 20 people, young and old (children intentionally not included in this photo from a recent meeting.) However we expect a slightly larger turnout for the Mission Day because it is a more accessible event and has a special in-game reward.

Supported smartphones or tablets are Android or Apple/IOS and have a GPS. Play using a tablet is possible if your device has a GPS. A portable wifi hotspot will be available on the day if you do not have mobile data access. The exact walking route is unknown at this time, nor is the expected duration although expected to be 3-4 hours.

You will need to choose between joining the Green or blue team, the choice you make is not permanent, and conveys no actual meaning at all.  I am an agent of the Enlightened faction, although that matters little because Mission Day is a cross-faction event and more social than competitive - although competition definitely comes into it. I would thus advise you join the Enlightened or "Green" team.

Notes

I'm using this page to gather all the information I have about my plan to host a mission day - probably good idea to set a date to start with, and then work towards that. I'm keen to use A Saturday in summer, just before the holidays on 19 July. First step is to contact the local tourism board/ publicity association.
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