CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Today, Ingress announced that the Guardian Medal was being retire d - and I am glad. Of all the medals, this one has been behind most of the angst and stress I have seen in fellow players,  and I am glad to see it go, because of this. It has also been the main means I have seen players use to taunt their opposition, and not in a game-friendly way. Of all the medals, this one has also puzzled me the most, just from the point of view that, if no player can truly 'own' or 'lay claim' to a portal, why was there a reward for doing so for a long period of time? And, of all the medals, this one did not really require skill or teamwork to achieve (although I would argue that teamwork plays a great part in longevity, and smart selection occasionally helped, while remembering to recharge was an essential skill, too). However, those three points aside, what this medal mostly required was persistence in seeding portals, and a lot of dumb luck. For example, given the high...

It was a pretty big month for PokemonGo, but I still managed to fit some Ingress in around all the excitement. I reached third and sixth in the local player rankings, so I must have done something right… or everyone else was having an off month. One of the two. (I’m choosing to believe the first… which means I will probably have to do more of that micro-fielding thing in future.)   Anyway, top ten was a milestone, I didn't expect to get anywhere near, so that was cool… and then life got busy, as I got my head around what I needed to do next for this writing thing. Medal Milestones: This month, in spite of all the pokemon eggs I hatched, I finally managed to reach my 2,500th ingress kilometre, and received a lovely onyx medal for my trouble. That was cool, too. Mission Milestones: I’m still very slowly working my way through the last hundred missions to reach the Spec Ops onyx, but I’ll get there. Time was short in February, so I aimed for completing just o...

Yesterday was one of those busy days, where I fitted in some PokemonGo and a bit of Ingress around class, study and writing. I was very happy to capture this little fellow at a local portal, just before school pick-up: And even happier today, when I scored another one in the same location - although a third one got away after scarfing down a few pineapps and going through most of my balls. I swear, I don't want to play bounce with these guys, but they just don't get it. I didn't have a lot of time between pick-up and getting back from class, so I filled it by eating lunch and crunching through a few more portals in Operation Portal Recon. I managed another hundred and fifty or so, before I had to get back to the business of real life and responsibility, but it was a good break. Later, last night, the results came through, so, later today, I'll begin the journey towards platinum... once my lesson prep is done. So far, it's been a pre...