Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and I love all things tech and
Speaker 1: today is Friday. It it's time for a classic episode.
Speaker 1: This episode that you're about to hear originally published on
Speaker 1: December five, two thousand twelve. It is called tech Stuff
Speaker 1: Takes the Ingress. Ingress is an alternate reality game that
Speaker 1: was launching in two thousand twelve. It's still around today,
Speaker 1: but I thought it'd be fun to go back and
Speaker 1: listen to Chris Pallette and I talked about the whole
Speaker 1: concept of this game back when it was brand new
Speaker 1: and just launching. So let's listen in today. We want
Speaker 1: to talk about an alternate reality game and a r
Speaker 1: G that uses augmented reality as well. It comes to
Speaker 1: us courtesy of a little company called Google and the like. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They they've made a name for themselves in a few things,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they've created this game through a division called
Speaker 1: Neantic Labs UM and it's called Ingress, and it's interesting
Speaker 1: alternate reality game. But before we really get into the
Speaker 1: game itself, maybe we should talk and refresh our listeners
Speaker 1: memories about what an alternate reality game is. Now we've
Speaker 1: done an episode about alternate reality games, but that was
Speaker 1: back in two thousand nine when we were both so
Speaker 1: young and idealistic. Sorry, um, yeah yeah, so yeah. The
Speaker 1: differences and augmented and alternate realities are in some ways
Speaker 1: kind of slight, well especially now, especially now. Um. An
Speaker 1: alternate reality is is one that is I would argue,
Speaker 1: very similar to ours, um, but there are significant differences. Um,
Speaker 1: you know you might have I think of that sort
Speaker 1: of in the in my head. This is sort of
Speaker 1: goes to the genre of alternate histories. Um, for example
Speaker 1: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick,
Speaker 1: in which the Axis won World War Two? What would
Speaker 1: the world be like? Um? You know, the countries are
Speaker 1: still there, the nationalities that that were familiar with, but
Speaker 1: things have changed substantially. That that's that's how I kind
Speaker 1: of get into that idea or the mindset that it
Speaker 1: sort of takes, because it could be something as simple
Speaker 1: as uh, you know, there are a lot of what
Speaker 1: ifs there. You know, what if a different person had
Speaker 1: uh won the election, or what if a person hadn't
Speaker 1: been uh uh, had had gone to one university instead
Speaker 1: of another. What if? What if Lincoln had not been assassinated?
Speaker 1: What if? Yeah, there are a lot of what if
Speaker 1: type things. Alternate reality games in general, what they do
Speaker 1: is they use the they used the stuff around us
Speaker 1: in the real world as part of a game that
Speaker 1: is fictional. So you've got a fictional story taking place
Speaker 1: within the context of the real world. Now, in some cases,
Speaker 1: the fictional story assumes that the players themselves are part
Speaker 1: of this fictional world. So you're playing a part you're
Speaker 1: not really you because um. One of the two of
Speaker 1: the games I always think about when I think of
Speaker 1: alternate reality games are two of the big, big early examples.
Speaker 1: One was called The Beast, and that was the game
Speaker 1: that was partly a marketing um push for the movie
Speaker 1: AI Artificial Intelligence, uh, the Spielberg Kubrick film that that
Speaker 1: came out several years ago. Well, there was this this
Speaker 1: game that came out with it called The Beast that
Speaker 1: had a storyline that was uh tangential to the story
Speaker 1: that takes place in AI. Some of the characters play
Speaker 1: a part a little bit within the realm of the game,
Speaker 1: and players were solving mysteries and trying to help fictional
Speaker 1: characters achieve goals within the context of the game, and
Speaker 1: they were all doing it in real time with real assets.
Speaker 1: So you might get a phone call in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night from a character in this game, or
Speaker 1: you might get a fact or an email or a
Speaker 1: file of some sort, and you were supposed to act
Speaker 1: on it in a real way to push the game forward.
Speaker 1: The other one that I always think about is called
Speaker 1: I Love Bees, which was part of the Halo universe,
Speaker 1: and it was again another marketing attempt to push Halo,
Speaker 1: but it it took a life of its own and
Speaker 1: became a game that people who had never intended to
Speaker 1: ever play in the Halo game became and you know,
Speaker 1: absolutely fascinated with this game. And again lots of different
Speaker 1: puzzles and uh things that you need to achieve. Often
Speaker 1: we will see these sort of games come up as
Speaker 1: part of a marketing campaign. A lot of movies have
Speaker 1: done this. I remember when The Dark Knight came out,
Speaker 1: there was one was related to The Joker, and I
Speaker 1: remember getting very very upset because I I uncovered one
Speaker 1: of the clues and discovered exactly where I would need
Speaker 1: to go within Atlanta to get it, but I found
Speaker 1: out about forty minutes too late, and by the time
Speaker 1: I would have been able to get to the location,
Speaker 1: it had already been discovered, and I didn't get my
Speaker 1: Joker custom bowling ball. This was that a bowling alley.
Speaker 1: Oh man, can you imagine a custom Joker bowling ball? Okay,
Speaker 1: that's pretty neat and it's pretty cool. So this is
Speaker 1: this is along those lines, but it also adds in
Speaker 1: the augmented reality angle, where uh, a large part of
Speaker 1: the participation with this game is going to depend upon
Speaker 1: people using devices, primarily smartphones. It's really meant for smartphones
Speaker 1: to interact with their environment in order to h to
Speaker 1: push the game forward. Yeah, we've we've talked about both
Speaker 1: alternate reality games and augmented reality SOFT where in the past.
Speaker 1: UM Augmented reality is sort of like the heads up
Speaker 1: display that you would see in a fighter jet. UM.
Speaker 1: It's a layer of information that that a device will
Speaker 1: provide for you. It could be a tablet or um,
Speaker 1: you know, a smartphone something like that generally that you
Speaker 1: would carry with you. And so if you were looking
Speaker 1: through a an augmented reality device as you walk down
Speaker 1: the street. You might see information about uh the businesses
Speaker 1: on the street around you, or for example, you might
Speaker 1: see a special going on at a cafe or um,
Speaker 1: you might find out where the cleanest bathroom is on
Speaker 1: the street. Don't laugh, there are people who who provide
Speaker 1: this information. Um, I am not laughing. I'm downloading apps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. Um. And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: uh Neontic Labs has has already come out with a
Speaker 1: sort of augmented reality app UM that I have on
Speaker 1: on my Android phone field field trip UM. Now on
Speaker 1: this particular in this particular case, you are not looking
Speaker 1: at the screen on the smartphone to see what the
Speaker 1: camera sees beyond having a layer of information superimposed on that,
Speaker 1: which is a good way to walk into obstacles that
Speaker 1: are not covered in your screen. By the way, avoid that. Um.
Speaker 1: This actually pops up little cards I've seen them called
Speaker 1: as as you happen to be near by something. It
Speaker 1: uses the GPS um in your smartphone or I assume
Speaker 1: tablet uh Android tablet. That again, field Trip is one
Speaker 1: of those those apps that's it's optimized for smartphones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it tells you right there on the app like it's
Speaker 1: it's intended for smartphones that will run on tablets, but
Speaker 1: it's intended for smartphones well generally, because it's it's using
Speaker 1: the GPS and your communications network to identify where you
Speaker 1: are and give you information about stuff, and you can
Speaker 1: control how much of that information use. See you might
Speaker 1: watch what type of information. Yeah, there there are lots
Speaker 1: and lots of sources, um, different restaurant review sites, um,
Speaker 1: places of interest, historical points of interest, those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: That's what I have turned on mind. So it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of fun too to be driving around in Atlanta
Speaker 1: and have a little alert come up and say, hey,
Speaker 1: you're near uh you know, of course here in Atlanta
Speaker 1: we've had civil war battles shore and they'll tell you
Speaker 1: points of interest just down the road. Here is where
Speaker 1: so and so, uh you know ran you know, in
Speaker 1: in conflict and they set up camp just down the street.
Speaker 1: It's interesting, It's no, it's really cool that it gives
Speaker 1: you that that extra information about the world you are in.
Speaker 1: And I love that idea. I mean, I've and this
Speaker 1: is one of those things that you can kind of
Speaker 1: see playing a larger role with Google. Other Google projects,
Speaker 1: mainly Project glass. Yes, the idea of wandering around your
Speaker 1: world and getting information about your world that you would
Speaker 1: you know that that that's accessible, but you would have
Speaker 1: to look for it otherwise. But now it's just coming up.
Speaker 1: So if you are interested in things like history and
Speaker 1: you are visiting a city or even just walking around
Speaker 1: your own city, you may end up learning things about
Speaker 1: your the place you're in that you never would have
Speaker 1: known before. And uh, and it's it really does try
Speaker 1: to bridge that gap between the digital world and the
Speaker 1: physical world, which is something I've always been interested in.
Speaker 1: And as augmented reality applications become more prevalent, it's becoming
Speaker 1: it's becoming a real I think this is something that
Speaker 1: we can do right now. UM, go ahead. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to mention exactly what project glasses um,
Speaker 1: you know, because we didn't really talk about that. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's UM. It's still sort of an experimental product I
Speaker 1: would consider or unit or or really cutting edge. It's
Speaker 1: it's on the verge of being produced, but only in
Speaker 1: limited quantities because it's sort of a first generation thing
Speaker 1: or zero point eight generation UM. And that's a a
Speaker 1: project that Google has been working on. UM that it's
Speaker 1: it's not. It uses a frame, glasses, frame and a
Speaker 1: small piece of glass that, um, a user would be
Speaker 1: able to see augmented reality information on the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that you would currently use by looking at your smartphone.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, it would tell you where places
Speaker 1: are around you, it would be able to make phone
Speaker 1: calls and um uh you know, record video. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, that's how they unveiled it. They had
Speaker 1: somebody wearing a project glass, um set of glasses and
Speaker 1: walking through and they you could see what they were
Speaker 1: seeing as they were they were walking through and they
Speaker 1: I think somebody skydived, didn't they. Yeah, that was that
Speaker 1: the Google Io event. They had a team of skydivers
Speaker 1: who who wore the the glasses as they were skydiving
Speaker 1: and then handed them off to uh some some stunt
Speaker 1: bicyclists who then handed it off who some folks who
Speaker 1: repelled down the side of the building, who then handed
Speaker 1: it off to more bicyclists who then biked the pair
Speaker 1: of glasses up to the stage to serage brand as
Speaker 1: I recall, and yeah, it was. It was. It was
Speaker 1: a big spectacle and it really spectacle. Man. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit you and anyway, the yeah, it was, it was
Speaker 1: an interesting demonstration of the of the technology. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: all of this kind of leads up to Ingress. So
Speaker 1: Ingriss is coming for that same group within Google Niantic Labs,
Speaker 1: which is you know that they are kind of an
Speaker 1: R and D group in a way, and the game
Speaker 1: it has several different elements to it. And we can
Speaker 1: only speak in fairly vague terms because neither Chris nor
Speaker 1: I are part of this game yet. We it's as
Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast, it's in beta and
Speaker 1: we are not in the beta testing yet. We have
Speaker 1: both applied for it, so we're hoping to have that
Speaker 1: change soon, but as we're recording this, we do not
Speaker 1: have access to it. It's been again, as the record
Speaker 1: of this podcast, active for about fifteen days. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think it really wasn't wasn't really well known
Speaker 1: until probably as of the day we're recording is probably
Speaker 1: only a couple or or three days. I didn't see
Speaker 1: anything in the media about it until a day or
Speaker 1: two before we recorded this podcast. Like a lot of
Speaker 1: alternate reality games, Google started to seed every the world
Speaker 1: with hints of the game from months ago, but they're
Speaker 1: now just starting to coalesce into something we can talk
Speaker 1: about now. Some of the seeds started off over at
Speaker 1: Comic Con. Yeah, at San Diego Comic Con there was
Speaker 1: a person who was taking on the role of a
Speaker 1: character named Tycho, and Tycho is an artist in this, uh,
Speaker 1: the world that has been created for Ingress, and I
Speaker 1: guess we can kind of give a little bit of
Speaker 1: an overview. If you were to go to Google Play,
Speaker 1: which is where their store is, and to try and
Speaker 1: download the Ingress andrew It app, you would see this description.
Speaker 1: Ingrish transforms the real world into the landscape for a
Speaker 1: global game of mystery, intrigue, and competition. Our future is
Speaker 1: at stake, and you must choose a side. A mysterious
Speaker 1: energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe.
Speaker 1: The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but
Speaker 1: some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think.
Speaker 1: We must control it or it will control us. The
Speaker 1: enlightened seek to embrace the power that this energy may
Speaker 1: bestow upon us. The resistance struggle to defend and protect
Speaker 1: what's left of our humanity. So part of Ingriss involves
Speaker 1: choosing a side being either part of the Enlightened or
Speaker 1: part of the resistance, and competing for resources by walking
Speaker 1: around and moving around in the real world and and
Speaker 1: UH collecting resources through the smartphone application. That's part of
Speaker 1: the game. We're gonna hit pause on the Game of
Speaker 1: Ingress for just a moment to take this word from
Speaker 1: our sponsor. The other part of the game involves puzzles
Speaker 1: that are released through various venues. UH. In some cases,
Speaker 1: you may be looking at a physical sign that has
Speaker 1: a QR code that leads you to a puzzle, or
Speaker 1: you might see there might be an ad for something
Speaker 1: that Google, either from Google or maybe from one of
Speaker 1: Google's partners that includes a clue that goes into this game.
Speaker 1: The idea being that parts of the game are all
Speaker 1: around us all the time, and that by paying attention
Speaker 1: we can we can see them and and push the
Speaker 1: story forward. So right now, the the main place for
Speaker 1: those game elements is on a website called Niantic project
Speaker 1: dot com. It's in I A, N T, I C
Speaker 1: for Niantic or neanticu and anyway, that's where the progress
Speaker 1: gets tracked and you can actually go from the very
Speaker 1: beginning of the game, which is November one as of
Speaker 1: officially it's November one, and work your way up and
Speaker 1: it all start revealing more information. You can start seeing
Speaker 1: codes that you can break, things like that, and uh,
Speaker 1: there are also some wikies that have popped up already
Speaker 1: of players who are really passionate about this kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: who are dedicated to gathering as much information as possible
Speaker 1: and then posting it on these wikis. So you can
Speaker 1: actually find people who are already neck deep in this game.
Speaker 1: And some of them probably don't even have the smartphone
Speaker 1: app yet. They're not they're only participating in the part
Speaker 1: that they can over the web. But once the smartphone
Speaker 1: app becomes more widely distributed, then you'll see people um
Speaker 1: using that. Part two and the way the smartphone app
Speaker 1: stuff works is kind of interesting. Did you read about this.
Speaker 1: I read some about it. Yeah, alright, So the ideas
Speaker 1: that there are these things called portals that are scared
Speaker 1: around the real world and you use those portals the
Speaker 1: other portals, well, before you ask, yeah, it's not not
Speaker 1: not aperture Science portals UM or black Mesa for that matter. Now,
Speaker 1: you use your smartphone to identify where these portals are,
Speaker 1: and you at playing as a member of whatever side,
Speaker 1: whichever side you've chosen, you go and you try to
Speaker 1: secure these portals. And by securing various portals within the game,
Speaker 1: and this actually requires you to move physically from one
Speaker 1: location to another, usually on foot. Want to understand, um,
Speaker 1: then you start to solidify your side's presence in whichever
Speaker 1: city you happen to be in. Okay, So let's say
Speaker 1: that there's like I don't know, let's say there's a
Speaker 1: hundred portals within a few neighborhoods of where you are.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have no idea what the dead state
Speaker 1: actually is, depending upon you know where it is. They
Speaker 1: do say that there's going to be a lot more
Speaker 1: interaction and have more heavily populated places. Sure, so cities
Speaker 1: are more likely to have a lot going on. So
Speaker 1: moving around, you know, just by moving around and following
Speaker 1: the directions on the gap, you can start to secure portals.
Speaker 1: Actually getting to a portal is step one. Then you
Speaker 1: have to hack the portal. Yes, what actually involves in hackey,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I haven't had a chance to play,
Speaker 1: do you do you well? From what I understand, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying not to to bring us back to
Speaker 1: real reality too much. But from what I understand, portals
Speaker 1: are basically places of interest, um, which would kind of
Speaker 1: go with you know that the current m O of
Speaker 1: Niantic Labs. Yeah, if you look at some of the
Speaker 1: there's a video in particular where there's a guy who
Speaker 1: is complaining about cell phone he bought from an auction
Speaker 1: and he says, look, it seems to work. But when
Speaker 1: I walk up to the statue and hold up the phone,
Speaker 1: this weird screen comes up. And it's this this very
Speaker 1: odd screen that shows up. And also if you pay attention,
Speaker 1: in the background, there's a man in black watching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, it's it's That's kind of the idea,
Speaker 1: is that that when you get to these places of interest,
Speaker 1: weird stuff happens, and there's probably some sort of mini
Speaker 1: game I would imagine in the smartphone that allows you
Speaker 1: to hack. Yeah, I understand that that hacking is essentially
Speaker 1: a check in at that portal, like four square, Facebook
Speaker 1: places that kind and I imagine it will be sort
Speaker 1: of a combination of um, something simple that you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't frustrate people too awfully much. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't you don't want to set the barrier too high
Speaker 1: or you end up with a very small group of players,
Speaker 1: But you don't want to set too low or people
Speaker 1: lose interest very quickly. So yeah, it's a delicate and
Speaker 1: people who have run alternate reality games probably have a
Speaker 1: lot to say about this, about how what you know
Speaker 1: all the challenges that are involved in designing and running
Speaker 1: one of these games. It's got to be pretty monumental.
Speaker 1: But but you do collect energy along the way. Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: it was an exotic material or x M. Yes it's
Speaker 1: not the Satellite Radio company. No, this exotic material. I
Speaker 1: like to think of it like pac Man pellets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the I've seen it described. So what I thought,
Speaker 1: You don't actually have to you don't. You don't know
Speaker 1: if you actually see the balls of energy or something
Speaker 1: like that, but I think you walk. As you walk,
Speaker 1: you collected. If you look at the map on your
Speaker 1: smartphone through INGRISS, it will show where the little XM
Speaker 1: dots are, and as you get close to them, it
Speaker 1: collects them for you, those x M dots. That energy
Speaker 1: also kind of counts as your health because sometimes when
Speaker 1: you're hacking these portals, some of them are boomy trapped
Speaker 1: and they if the booby trap goes off, then you
Speaker 1: take you take damage within the game, so you have
Speaker 1: to collect more exotic material, and if you have been
Speaker 1: walking around a certain part of town quite a bit
Speaker 1: for you, there may not be very much exotic material life.
Speaker 1: You have to go to some other location that you
Speaker 1: have not you know, scoured, so that you can collect it,
Speaker 1: whereas someone else who's just playing the game, they might
Speaker 1: be able to find exact material. Because part of this
Speaker 1: game is to get people out and about and exploring
Speaker 1: their environments and interacting with their environments and not just
Speaker 1: you know, passively playing a game at home. Hey, it's
Speaker 1: Jonathan from two thousand nineteen again, um interrupting Jonathan from
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve. That's just a wild guess. I
Speaker 1: don't know where tarr is gonna put this ad break,
Speaker 1: but just based on statistics, it's more likely she's interrupting
Speaker 1: me than Chris. Anyway, we're gonna take a quick break
Speaker 1: to hear a word from our sponsor. So there's there's
Speaker 1: this part where you are trying to discover hack and
Speaker 1: control these portals, and as you control more portals, you
Speaker 1: can link them together and strengthen your position Meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: opposing team is trying to do the same thing. And
Speaker 1: there will be times where you'll have a portal under
Speaker 1: your team's control and then through a coordinated effort, the
Speaker 1: other team rests it away from you, and then you
Speaker 1: have to figure out how you're gonna get it back
Speaker 1: within the context of the game. And meanwhile, you still
Speaker 1: have this other mystery going on between the two factions
Speaker 1: where they're they're really talking about this exotic material, what
Speaker 1: it's doing, why is it here, and is it a
Speaker 1: good thing or not? And bits and pieces of that
Speaker 1: mystery are going to play out over time, and in fact,
Speaker 1: from what I understand a Google they're talking about it
Speaker 1: lasting about a year and a half. Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: it will end um, and they've made it clear that
Speaker 1: that it will end UM. So yeah, this this will
Speaker 1: be an interesting experiment to see, uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that that can be done with with
Speaker 1: these games on this scale. Because at the moment um
Speaker 1: UH the app is only available for Android devices, which
Speaker 1: make up the majority of the market at least here
Speaker 1: in the United States, UM, but it will also be
Speaker 1: available for iOS UH smartphones. The Apple operating system that
Speaker 1: runs the iPhone um, so you know there, this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that that's going to be available
Speaker 1: to quite a few people. And the more they get
Speaker 1: involved with it, um, you know that the more interesting
Speaker 1: it will get just to see how how well it does.
Speaker 1: But it'll be um. And it may also end up
Speaker 1: being a source of revenue for Google to rite. They've
Speaker 1: partnered with some companies. Uh, and there may be some
Speaker 1: advertising or cross promotional stuff going on through the app
Speaker 1: that will generate revenue. Uh. They may also eventually have
Speaker 1: other ways of generating revenue through this besides advertising. But
Speaker 1: advertising is certainly something that could be part of this,
Speaker 1: and it wouldn't surprise me at all. You know, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't surprise me if you're following the path to the
Speaker 1: portal and you're like, huh, it's amazing. This massive portal
Speaker 1: that's going to be key to the success of my
Speaker 1: faction is right here at this Jamba Juice yes, which
Speaker 1: is one of their partners. Yes, yes, And you'll say, hey,
Speaker 1: this portal is hacked. This portal that I'm here, it's
Speaker 1: smoothie Yeah. Yeah, I mean, but I mean there's you
Speaker 1: know there. They have to be able to fund the
Speaker 1: stuff or else there's no stuff, right, so I don't
Speaker 1: I don't really object to that. It's it's as long
Speaker 1: as it's handled well. So and it'll Since we haven't
Speaker 1: been able to play yet, we aren't really sure how
Speaker 1: it's handled. True, I would hope it's handled pretty well.
Speaker 1: But it'll also be interesting to see how the mystery
Speaker 1: plays out. And I'm sure we're going to see more
Speaker 1: and more instances of real world stuff, uh playing into
Speaker 1: this game. For instance, Like like when I mentioned Tycho,
Speaker 1: I didn't really get into it. But the thing they
Speaker 1: did at Comic Con was this guy, Tycho, who is
Speaker 1: a character within the world of Ingress, who is this
Speaker 1: artist who has had visions and has developed art based
Speaker 1: on those visions that have hidden messages in them. Not
Speaker 1: not that hidden actually if you look, if you look
Speaker 1: at it for more than a second, but anyway, he's
Speaker 1: developed these these images, he's developed these posters, um and
Speaker 1: he's known as Tycho. Well, he showed up as Tycho
Speaker 1: at Comic Con, like he was. It was Tycho who
Speaker 1: was there, this guy who then started to shout out
Speaker 1: stuff relating to this game during a panel. And this
Speaker 1: was all planned, It was all all pre orchestrated, but
Speaker 1: he was shouting out this this weird information and then
Speaker 1: eventually is carded off by security and so, um, it
Speaker 1: was all part of the game. But at the time,
Speaker 1: that was one of the earliest, um examples of the
Speaker 1: information from the game getting out there into the public,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people whould have no idea what
Speaker 1: it was all about. They were just they'd hear this
Speaker 1: and dismiss it as well. That was that guy was nuts,
Speaker 1: And maybe people who you know, there might be two
Speaker 1: or three people in the audience who are like, I
Speaker 1: wonder what that was all about and start looking into it,
Speaker 1: and that would just be the very beginning of the trail.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll see more of that, Like at at
Speaker 1: big conferences, they'll probably be things that play into this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be going to c E S. I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think we'll see anything there, but if we do,
Speaker 1: that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, And it's um it's possible
Speaker 1: too that that someone else will gobble up a lot
Speaker 1: of the XM before you get there. Well yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: mostly what I want to see is just the actual
Speaker 1: physical event play out in front of me, because I
Speaker 1: mean I've I've I've played in these games, these types
Speaker 1: of games before, where I've taken part with problems, solving
Speaker 1: teams and trying to decipher messages, things like that. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I've played from behind a screen, but I've never
Speaker 1: been to one of the ones that has a physical
Speaker 1: gathering or or you know, something happens at another event
Speaker 1: that plays into the game. I've never actually witnessed one
Speaker 1: of those. I've heard about them, and I've seen video
Speaker 1: and stuff, but I've never been at one. So something
Speaker 1: I would actually like to experience, just to see, you know,
Speaker 1: how is that handled? I mean, part of that is
Speaker 1: because I love games, part of it's because I'm an
Speaker 1: actor as well, and part of it because I just
Speaker 1: love technology and seeing those those worlds of acting and
Speaker 1: technology come together to produce something really compelling is a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. So I'm curious which side are you
Speaker 1: going to choose, Dude, enlightened, I'm all about grabbing that
Speaker 1: power and using it to subjugate others to my will.
Speaker 1: I feel I haven't decided yet. Resistance is useless. What's
Speaker 1: funny is that I've on on some of the articles
Speaker 1: that I've read in the last couple of days and
Speaker 1: most of them are have about the same amount of information.
Speaker 1: And since this this is still very new, um, there
Speaker 1: are commenters who are have completely in their heads I guess,
Speaker 1: joined up and they're arguing on the you know, the
Speaker 1: comments on these different forums saying, you know, well, the
Speaker 1: interesting thing is these games and land can really start
Speaker 1: off some truly uh truly interesting conversations, philosophical conversations. I
Speaker 1: mean the The The Beast had an element in it
Speaker 1: where they were discussing the idea of artificially intelligent beings
Speaker 1: and whether or not they should be given the right
Speaker 1: to vote. And there was a real debate, and there
Speaker 1: was actually a vote held within the context of the game,
Speaker 1: and all the players in the game could vote on
Speaker 1: the issue of whether or not AI constructs should be
Speaker 1: given the right to vote. And I was in one
Speaker 1: of the very vocal members of that community arguing for
Speaker 1: one of the signs. Can you guess which one I would?
Speaker 1: I would be thinking that you'd want them to I
Speaker 1: argued against voting. Really, I said they should not. I said,
Speaker 1: first of all, giving AI sentience was a mistake, and
Speaker 1: that too, to continue down that road was a horrible idea,
Speaker 1: and it was just going to lead to our own
Speaker 1: uh extinction down the line, and therefore you don't give
Speaker 1: a toaster the right to vote. That was my that
Speaker 1: was my motto. I figured in the confusion, you would
Speaker 1: try to take control. No, no, that's ridiculous, there's no no.
Speaker 1: Robots are too strong and they're more than meets the eye.
Speaker 1: So I was not for that anyway. It'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see where Ingris goes. Uh, And once we have
Speaker 1: access to it, I'm sure we'll play a play it.
Speaker 1: And probably mentioned it a couple of times. So these
Speaker 1: games are becoming a lot more widespread though in knowledge,
Speaker 1: and I think this is gonna do a lot for that.
Speaker 1: Plus I think they're becoming a lot more sophisticated. They
Speaker 1: have to be, because, as I was saying to Chris beforehand,
Speaker 1: it's gotten to the point now where when a game
Speaker 1: like this comes out and people have the chance to play,
Speaker 1: you have such a wide base of people with such
Speaker 1: a wide range of skills and knowledge that it is
Speaker 1: really difficult to design a puzzle that will last more
Speaker 1: than like half an hour under scrutiny and within there
Speaker 1: were puzzles that I looked at that completely confused me
Speaker 1: back at the I Love Bees game, and then other
Speaker 1: people would take one look at because their brains work
Speaker 1: in a different way than mind do. They'd say, Oh,
Speaker 1: I bet that that's a topographical map and that the
Speaker 1: colors relate back to elevations. And I was looking at
Speaker 1: like I was just counting how many yellow blocks there were.
Speaker 1: So I mean, that's the kind of thing, though, is
Speaker 1: that you get enough people there and all of them
Speaker 1: think in different ways. There are ties where I was
Speaker 1: solving puzzles that other people were completely confused about. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a huge challenge to the people running the game.
Speaker 1: That wraps up this classic tech Stuff episode. Tech Stuff
Speaker 1: takes the Ingress. As I said at the beginning, Ingress
Speaker 1: is still being played today. They did a major update
Speaker 1: in late two thousand seventeen early two thousand eighteen, and
Speaker 1: you can still download the game and play it. The
Speaker 1: update ended up changing some of the narrative backstory for Ingress.
Speaker 1: I haven't been playing for quite some time, but the
Speaker 1: company behind Ingress also created a couple of other notable
Speaker 1: alternate reality games, including Pokemon Go. So if you've played
Speaker 1: Pokemon Go, you two have played a game designed by
Speaker 1: the people behind ingress. Well. That wraps up this episode.
Speaker 1: If you have any suggestions for future, brand new episodes
Speaker 1: of tech Stuff, reach out to me. You can send
Speaker 1: an email to tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: or send me a message on Facebook or Twitter, or
Speaker 1: the handle at both of those is text Stuff hs W.
Speaker 1: Pop on over to our website that's tech stuff podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. You'll find an archive to all of our
Speaker 1: past episodes, as well as a link to our online store,
Speaker 1: and every purchase you make goes to help the show.
Speaker 1: We greatly appreciate it, and I'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
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