Persepolis Anomaly, Portland

This weekend, we traveled to Portland, OR for the Persepolis XM Anomaly.  Confused about what I'm talking about?  Go read this post: My introduction to Ingress.

As you know from my previous post on Ingress, Ingress is a game of virtual capture the flag or whatever that goes on all the time, all around you.  As the tagline says, "The world is not as you know."  However, four times a year, Niantic organizes special worldwide events that consist of a month of super intense gameplay, all at once, with hundreds and hundreds of other players.  Think of it as a sort of "world series" for Ingress, where both factions compete for MAJOR points, and for the opportunity to heavily influence the storyline of the game.

The series consists of a variety of games and events.  The Persepolis series had two "XM Anomalies" where players from around the world gathered in specific cities to fight over control of portals at specific times.  In addition, there was the "shard game," a sort of global soccer game.

The shard game started 2 weeks before the first anomaly.  In the shard game, special "shard" objects simultaneously appear all over the world.  Specifically, there are about 16 or so of them.  These shards represent fragments of the consciousness of one of the Niantic researchers analyzing the alien Shaper creatures.  Lore stuff.  The objective is to control this person's consciousness by directing the shards to your team's "goal" portal.  Players throw links to move the shards around, travel to remote locations, and do other wild stuff to gather the shards into their portal.  I actually got to help with one of the shards, helping to recharge the portal it was in while it was around.

The red thing is the shard.

It's fun, and we wound up winning the shard game 9-3, getting 9 of our shards into our goal, while the opposition only got 3 shards into their goal.

The "XM Anomaly" we went to is specifically an event involving hundreds of players all competing over portals in the area.  When I say it was big, I mean it.

I'm way off to the left.

The way this game works, 4 sectors are designated as "anomaly portals."  Every hour, on the hour, each sector is scored, once, in sequence.  So at 2pm, sector 1 is scored.  At 3pm, sector 2 is scored.  And so on.  The scoring works by basically counting how many portals are controlled, and how many fields are controlled.  Players battle it out for control of the portals so that, when they are scored, they own it and get the points for it.

Of course, Niantic doesn't let things be that simple.  First of all, the scoring doesn't happen exactly on the hour.  Instead, it happens at a random time between the hour and 10 minutes later.  So players have to fight hard for control of the portals for a full 10 minutes in order to maintain control and get their points, since you never really know when you've scored.

Did I mention LOOOTS of walking in between sectors?

Second, Niantic designates some portals are "volatile portals."  These special portals give the team 6 times as many points as a normal portal.  But which portals are volatile is secret information that teams have to work hard to find.  This time, there were 3 ways to find out which portals were volatile.  Apparently, in the middle of the night, on the Intel map, some of them would flash onto the screen for a moment.  The second, more standard way, of finding volatile portals is a series of deaddrops.  Each dead-drop is a hidden folder whose location is revealed by vague clues provided over social networks.  The third and final way of finding volatile portals is the "GoRuck" team.  This team of "special forces" engages in strenuous physical challenges, (think Tough Mudder type stuff.)  Once they complete these challenges, they get a listing of volatile portals to give to their teammates.

This creates some really interesting opportunities for counter-intelligence and intelligence.  Creating fake dead-drops and misinformation is a great way to confuse the other team and cause them to put too much effort into the wrong portals.  So all of this information has to get routed through special intelligence agents that have studied the information and can discern good information from bad.

That whole intelligence thing makes the game really interesting.  It really felt like we were some sort of virtual "troops on the ground" while there was this very large thing going on around us.  We were grunts in a single battle amidst a larger war.  We had generals, intelligence agents, covert operatives, etc. etc.  This really landed home when, just minutes after the game began, a huge field was created over the entire city, crossing over several states.  Players were not only battling it out there in portland, but in remote wilderness sites throughout the entire west coast.  Additionally, players all over the country had been given "keys" to our portals to allow them to help defend our portals from home. It was an incredible and wild experience to feel wrapped up in the middle of all of all these players operating all over the world to help us.

We called it operation "suck it"

At first, we were a little confused about what we were supposed to do, and how to do it, but it didn't take long to get into a groove of attacking, converting, and defending portals.  We were monsters at it.  At the 4 scoring (or "measurement") periods, we won half of them.  The first and second ones were ours, we lost the third, and the fourth was a tie.  Mind you, we were just one squad amongst over a dozen.  While we were focusing on those 3 little portals, other squads were focusing on their portals.  Overall, we wound up winning every single scoring period, coming to victory 4141 to 3196.

Alas, while we crushed it in Portland, we lost the overall Persepolis series by a mere 400 points, losing 22575 to 22146.  How?  Our satellite sites didn't do as well as we had.  That means that the Resistance gets to influence the storyline, and we don't.  Poo.  Ah well. :)

But seriously, congratulations are in order to both teams.  Enlightened and Resistance both did an amazing job, and I seriously had a metric ton of fun.  We might even end up on the Ingress Report, our Ingress news service!  :)  

But for now, we are sore and exhausted, but very very happy.  See you next time!

Nutech: Apple Watch and wearables in general

I got the apple watch.

Boom.

It's neat.

Here's what I think about it.

So I have two competing reactions to the watch so far.

1. The smart watch category is simply amazing, and I am shocked by how much it changes the way I interact with my phone.
2. The Apple Watch is overpriced for what it does.

Let's start with the negative reaction first.  Because it's shorter.

The Moto 360

I recently got the Moto 360 for a loved one for her birthday.  For those that do not know, this is the Android Wear device that's been out for a little over a year now.  It has basically the same set of features as the Apple Watch, with some notable differences.  Despite having a 33% larger battery than the Apple Watch, the Moto 360 gets a bit less battery life, probably due to the power hungry LCD type screen instead of Apple's OLED display. Additionally, instead of black minimalist UI, you have lots of full screen, full color notifications.

Whether you prefer one UI to the other is largely a matter of preference.  I like the bright colors and pretty imagery of the Android Wear UI, while others might prefer the sophistication and minimalism of the Apple Watch UI.  It's neither here nor there.

What gets me about this device is that it is literally a third of the price of the Apple Watch, despite having basically the same functionality.  And that's where I have an issue.  Admittedly, the Moto 360 is on sale right now, (Seriously, go pick one up before Friday!) so it's not an entirely fair comparison, but the Apple Watch's entry level options are still at least a third more expensive than the competition, and that's for the Apple Watch Sport, which doesn't look nearly as nice as those shiny Android Wear devices.

To charge such a premium, Apple needs to be doing a lot of things way better than the competition, and while I do see a lot of potential, what I've seen so far (in 2 days of use) just isn't enough to justify that premium.  It's definitely managing the battery better, and the things that are there work very reliably, but there's just not enough there to justify the cost over the competitors.  In the fall, when Apple finally releases the Apple Watch SDK, third party app developers should start bringing in amazing stuff, which should do wonders for improving the value proposition, but for now, they're limited to low quality "WatchKit" apps, which have poor performance and limited capabilities.

This is a watch, and frankly, it's just not that special compared to what else is out there.  Seriously, go pick up a Pebble or an Android Wear device if you want to get in on this space at this point in time.  I think you'll be happier with the money you've spent.

Okay.  That's out of the way.  Onto the good stuff!

*tap* *tap* Something is
happening in the world.

It is important to point out that what I'm skeptical about is the *value* of the Apple Watch.  "Is it worth $400+?"  And my answer is no.  But if you want to know whether or not the Apple Watch is awesome, I'm going to say ABSOLUTELY YES.  And I'm even willing to accept the conclusion of Consumer Reports that says that the Apple Watch is simply the best Smart Watch out there.  It's fantastic.  If you want the best, or if you don't mind blowing $400 on something like this, it's an amazing addition to the digital life.

I've only been using it for two days, but so far, the dang thing is helping me chill out and relax.  More than any other feature on the thing, the notifications really free me from my old pattern of constantly checking my phone to see if I've missing anything on social media, or in my email, or whatever.  Despite being in an 8 hour workshop today (on React.js, which is AWESOME!), I barely checked my phone at all.  Compare this with times I've been in a 1 hour meeting and felt the need to glance at my phone 2-3 times throughout the meeting.

The key is that the notifications are very very noticeable on there.  The taptic engine really makes it feel like it's just gently tapping your wrist to let you know that something has happened.  There's enough information on the notifications to quickly determine if what has alerted you is important or unimportant.  Most of the time? It's something I can deal with later, and there's no need to pull out the phone.  In fact, with the watch on, the only time the phone comes out is when I really want to *do* something.  Otherwise, the watch is more than sufficient for quick replies, quick information analysis, etc.

It is *freeing* to experience this.  I don't feel tied to my phone due to the "Fear of Missing Out" like I used to.  I feel comfortable and safe that I can go about my life without obsessively checking to see what might be happening in the world.  The loved one with the Moto 360 above?  Same reaction to her watch.

It's interesting, because one experience I get with it a lot is the desire for the watch to do *more.*  I want to be able to respond to emails, Google Hangouts messages, tweets, and more.  I want to quickly make a move in Words with Friends.  There's something about this interaction that feels like the future of mobile devices.  That more and more of our interactions will be moving to these tiny smartwatch screens, and less and less will be happening on our phones.  Because really, why bother carrying a big ol' phone around with you if you can do all of the same things on the watch.  If you want to do something bigger, like play Angry Birds or compose blog entries, use a phablet/tablet or Mac/PC.

I think even the smartwatch makers aren't quite sure what this category is yet.  They're testing things to see what we might do with these devices.  What we'll be asking for in the next generations of software and hardware.  It's very clear, as I use it, that Apple doesn't quite have the usual foreknowledge of how I will be using the thing.  But that's true of Android Wear as well.

It's a new field.  A new technology.  But mark my words, in 5 years time, everybody is going to have a smartwatch, and they'll be a lot different than what is out today.