"Without any questions" or "Always different when I try to do the same"

Q: Did you expect to be selected? 

A: I did not expect that, but I did believe that the Vanguards selection would happen in such way that all continents would have members. On my continent, there aren't too many people who meet all the requirements (such as language skills, being a hardcore player, fair-minded, involved in international communities, able to let go of faction bias etc...) so I knew that I had an edge.

When I received Krug's E-mail saying I was selected, I felt a mix of surprise and doubt. Many Brazilian ENL agents lately got into pranking each other, so it took me a while to discard the possibility of falling a victim to a prank, hahaha.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.

A: I'm 30 years old; I have two dogs the size of ponies. I study pure mathematics (especially abstract algebra) and I work in a notary. For leisure, I like having barbecues with my family, hanging out with friends, studying flute and violin and, obviously, playing Ingress.

I have been lost in the depths of the exactitude and stillness of mathematics for a few years and only recently started opening my eyes to the subjective aspects of life, developing my social skills, art, spirituality, etc. Ingress has definitely played a role in this shift of perspective I've experienced in my last few years and I am grateful for that.

Q: How long have you been playing Ingress? 

A: I created my account around May/June 2013, I don't quite remember, but I could not start playing right away. I was living in the city of Londrina (southern Brazil), there was a single portal there and no opponents nearby. In these first months, I could not start playing Ingress properly because of these conditions, but I did already have a impression of the game due to being involved in some related G+ communities. I waited and worked patiently knowing that someday the Ingress fun I saw on G+ would start locally, but it never really happened the way I had wanted. Eventually, some other Agents started playing a bit, and the portal network expanded, so at least I could do some fielding, but by then (it was already mid 2014) I already found out that I wasn’t meant to be a ground agent, but an operator and a networking agent.

Q: What motivates you to continue playing after all those years?

A: Two things: the people I get to know and meet during the events, with whom I’ve established lasting relationships and whose contact I’d lose if Ingress ceased existing, and the fact that IT'S ALWAYS DIFFERENT! Every operation, Anomaly, etc. is different from past experiences. Although the rules of the game are the same, it provides me with a DIFFERENT and UNIQUE experience every time I try to do the SAME things. It's like chess: simple and limited rules allow for complex and unbounded strategical depth.

Q: Could you tell us the most interesting thing that happened to you thanks to Ingress?

A: May I tell you two stories? In 2016, we had Obsidian Anomaly in Rio de Janeiro with Goruck. I was the team leader for the ENL Urban Goruck squad, and our last challenge for the day involved racing from our starting point to the beach, swimming in the seawater, heading back to the starting point and reassembling team formation. All members had to complete this task, and the first team to do so would win.

When we got permission to start running, everyone went ahead as fast as possible. Then I noticed that one of my teammates was standing still, talking to the staff. As the team leader, I approached to check what was wrong and found out that the Agent was asking the attendant to be allowed out of the challenge because she had hydrophobia (terrifying fear of being in water). After the talk, she was let out, but the Resistance agents were already swimming and coming back to the starting point to get their win, while I hadn't even begun.

I started running, mad at myself for having waited for so long, when the Agent in question approached me and said that she was up for the dive, that she knew it was her fault that we'd lose but she wanted to take that dive for her own sake.

So we went into the water. I remember seeing the Resistance team assembled afar and celebrating and knew we had lost the challenge, while the agent was fighting herself to stop shaking and, with my help and holding my hand, took the plunge, overcoming her fear.

Being there to not only witness but also help her against her fear, having her trust me with her own life and seeing her joy in the face of our defeat was a very memorable experience. The bitterness of seeing the opponent win soon faded, giving way to gratitude and compassion. We lost that Goruck challenge, and it was the sweetest loss ever for me!

Another interesting thing that happened was my trip back to Brazil from Chile for Via Lux. We landed in Buenos Aires and had to wait a few hours for the next flight, when a few fellow agents decided to fix their missions display and complete several missions in that city.

We left the airport for the missions but forgot we only had cellular data service enabled for Brazil and Chile, not for Argentina.

After getting a bit lost and struggling with our prepaid sim cards to complete the missions (and take an Uber back to the airport), we were out of time and about to give up and take a cab to the airport when, suddenly, an unknown person approached, recognizing us as fellow Enlightened Agents (we were wearing very conspicuous Anomaly outfits), and asked if we needed any help. He introduced himself as an ENL agent (showed his scanner) and immediately, like magic, we felt kinship with him. We were given all help we could possibly ask for and more. He shared his Internet for us to complete the missions, took us to buy alfajores (if you don't know what an alfajor is, I feel sorry for you), helped us get transportation back to the airport etc., WITHOUT ASKING ANY QUESTIONS.

To those who say Ingress is just a little game, I love telling this story. We were in an unknown place in a foreign country, speaking another language, none of us had been there before, almost like hostile territory, and yet we could rely on an unknown person just because we were all part of the Ingress family.

Q: What do you think should be changed at first to improve user experience?

A: It's hard to pick one thing in face of the many that I believe should be changed or implemented.

I think that cheating is the huge problem we all have to deal with. Due to technical reasons, we cannot expect that spoofing or multi accounting will become impossible in the near future, so we need to figure out a way to diminish their consequences, not only in gameplay, but also inside our communities which frequently devolve into unhealthy discussions and accusations.

I think that NIA is already making these first changes by calling on people from the communities who have first-person experience in these matters and rely on them to provide feedback and assist with their local knowledge to manage the communities better, fighting the "NIA don't care" impression many have. Aside from that, allow custom names for capsules, show keys on Intel, etc...

Q: For what purpose did you apply for participation in Vanguard program?

A: To be brief, I want to take the unique impressions of my community to the ears of Niantic.

The issues that arise in the realm of Ingress cannot be solved by mere technical devices. It is inevitable that human participation will be required at some point. NIA is aware of this and show us this awareness with OPR and, more recently, the Vanguard Alliance program, both calling local agents to join NIA in making Ingress better.

I believe I have what it takes to do a good job as an Ambassador. I know the game in its many aspects, from capturing the portal near my house to participating in an epic operation, from scanner to Intel, from joining an IFS to organizing an Anomaly. I know my community and some others, too. I'm sensitive to their problems, not only in Ingress in general, but also in my region with its context, especially the extremely low density of portals in some places, a problem which has been acknowledged by NIA and one which I hope to be able to address as an Ambassador.