Morka gets going early in the morning—the city around him immediately becomes a battlefield. Notable places, like ornaments, historic facades, hills, statues and graffiti tags transform into "portals," through which "exotic material" passes into the urban space.As an agent of the "Enlightened" (green), Morka's goal is to destroy the portals of his enemy, the "Resistance" (blue), to occupy these portals with his "resonators," and to connect the portals in such a way that streets and buildings create "fields," which then claim the valuable "Mind Units."7,992 kilometers in augmented reality to become number one in the world.
Image: Morka.
Image: Zen Lefort / MOTHERBOARD
Ingress agents have already covered 127 million kilometers in the last two years. It's unclear how many players are active, but it's known that free game has been downloaded over 8 million times for Android and iOS.By now I just wake up earlier to really play before work.
This is where the Enlightened managed to conquer the first top-level-portal in Paris. They celebrated by altering the monument's lighting. According to Morka, "Place des Victoires has ever since been more than a symbol to us." Image: Morka
Morka and his team on one of their all-night allcity hunts. Image: Morka.
There were quite a lot of portals right around my university and none at all anywhere near my house. So I can clearly remember the first portal in my neighborhood, the city hall of the 13th arrondissement. It turned blue one night and I ran out to take it back for my green team. I met another player there who wanted to do the same. We talked for more than a half hour in the rain. He still plays and was one of my faction's first, high-level players in Paris.In my most active Ingress days, these spontaneous meetings would happen all the time. Have you ever had unpleasant meetings?Yes. The people who play Ingress are real people, so there are crazy people and weird people and posers and trolls. But that's all part of it. I just ignore the people I don't like—like I do in "real" life.Otherwise the Ingress community seems to be really committed to each other.Yeah, it's always growing closer. Teamplay is necessary to win. You have to work together to build stronger portals, make longer links and to receive higher items.But solidarity in the Ingress world goes way beyond the game. There are players who've gotten new jobs thanks to Ingress acquaintances. People have gotten into relationships, and countless new friendships have been made. I meet my team outside of the game—and of course our phones are still all out on the table, with our scanners on, checking to see if enemy portals have been taken over.I don't think I'll ever to reduce my Ingress activities.

And then there was our most recent action, "Green Paris." More than 200 agents from all over Europe gathered in Paris, coordinating in teams to conquer a high field all at once. We erected the biggest eight-fold farm in the world to date in Paris, with over 5,000 green portals.Red Bull, bikes and elaborate preparations.
The green collective in front of Louvre. Image: Morka
