Ingress to do OPR Live event
PkmnTrainerJ-ING
Posts: 4,811 Ambassador
As announced as part of the Q3 events, Ingress will do an OPR Live event at their Munich event in July;
- Operation Portal Recon LIVE; More details to be announced
For those who don’t know, OPR was the original Wayfarer before it was opened up to other games and updated. I haven’t attended one, but from what I hear it was approaching Niantic employees to review your Portal Nominations then and there and give a yes or no. It even had a badge (added in comment) for it!
Sharing here as it’s Wayfarer/OPR related.
Comments
I hope they do the same for their yet-to-be-officially-announced site for Q3!
What should be mentioned: you have to pay for this. Afaik roughly 15$ ....
And I would like to hear reports about what happens there ..... is there noteworthy interaction with Nia staff? How is the quality of the re-reviews? Is there someone who has to stomach the whole litany of wayfarer related frustration?
It costs money to organize an event.
And for Ingress players, it is essentially like the cost of the medal that appears on the scanner.
If you want the medal and want it to appear on the scanner, you have to pay $15.
If you don't want the medal, you are free to not participate.
That's all there is to it.
That is not the point of the issue.
It is not the price of the medal, it is the quality of the POI that the Wayfarer team and we need to be concerned about.
I have never participated in OPR Live itself.
However, I do know the story of the Initio Tohoku event, which could be described as a long-running OPR Live event.
The low quality wayspot that went live in large numbers along the Tohoku coast of Japan at that time still has the power to deteriorate the quality of wayspots throughout the region.
PRPs, obstructing emergency vehicle traffic, worthless mass-produced goods, etc. still remain in large numbers, which creates even lower quality wayspots.
The Wayfarer team should be concerned about high quality wayspots going live by making it possible to get this year's OPR medal with or without the nominated POI.
Also, if time permits, the Wayfarer team should travel to Munich for this event.
And they should teach the players about the definition and quality of POI.
Just one more thing, when this event was announced I thought to myself, how many high quality POIs still remain un-nominated in a city the size of the one where the Anomaly is held (in this case the city of Munich)? I am extremely doubtful when I think about it.
Probably not.
That is something that any Wayfinder here can understand with a little thought.
It cost money in the past, it may not this time around.
Even if the various sub-events are free, I can't see how they could be accommodated without a ticket system.
This is why Intel OPS, GORUCK, and OFC have a limit on the number of people.
I don't think OPR Live would be unlimited even if it were to be run by individuals instead of teams, and when it is unlimited, it will just create chaos with players wanting medals.
OPR Live badge.
from what I know from the past this event was used by some Ingress agents to fasttrack all the stuff that got rejected by reviewers in the past leading to participants having multiple home portals or bar portals far away from the city of the event.
Interesting question for this round will be if it's allowed to submit wayspots from outside of Munich or if the normal distance limitation rules will be applied? Another interesting question will be if you can use submissions from your contribution list or just newly submitted wayspots?
That’s the standard OPR badge, not a designated OPR live special event badge. I believe that Ingressers who register for the OPR live event might qualify for the anomaly badge that goes to (likely ticket buying) anomaly participants who are either on-site playing, registered in a faction supported recharge room, or participating in one of the new options like OPR live or stealth ops.
Actually, wonder if Niantic would ever do a OPR or Wayfarer live badge like they do for First Saturday or Second Sunday? All the concerns about review quality, etc or sudden ratings drops apply to this… I’m just spitballing for giggles.
Ah it’s the only one I could find. OPR Live had stopped when I started Ingress, though OPR was still a thing then.
Wait does this mean that people can basically pay to have quicker submission turnaround times?
This reddit thread contains the most info I could find about these events in the past.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ingress/comments/97v20g/opr_live_san_diego/
For the event OP attended, it was $30 for niantic to review their 14 most recent nominations. Then OP had a chance to meet with them in person and discuss their decisions.
Seems like a bad precedent. I wonder if they'll start selling upgrades/expedited appeals. Given the poor state of things they'd make good money
Fifteen dollars?
And here everybody thought we were working for free. No, no, no: we pay to do all of Niantic’s legwork.
It is the same as Pokémon GO players buying special tickets to catch Rare Pokémon.
Ingress players don't think it's particularly bad that you pay to catch Rare Pokémon.
And just as you refuse to pay for Rare Pokémon by evading the special tickets provided by Niantic, Ingress players are free not to buy rare event medals.
And frankly, I doubt most Ingress players are thinking of buying upgrades or appeals at this event to get their couch portals approved.
Almost all of them just want the rare live event medal.
However, if approval of portals becomes a condition for obtaining event medals, the situation is likely to change a bit, and we hope that Niantic will be careful to do this with the quality of the wayspot.
I don't really see what this has to do with pokemon. If you aren't bothered by niantic selling immediate reviews while the rest of the system languishes I'm not sure what to tell you.
I don't have the OPR Live event medal either, so I can't say with certainty, but that medal should be correct.
Actually, Recon medals and OPR Live medals are very hard to tell apart. (Maybe they are the same)
This is the OPR Live medal that the Japanese Resistance AG participated in and obtained.
Also, according to the report of the OPR Live event he participated in (Abbadon Prime Anomaly held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in May 2019 (tickets sold out in a few minutes and I was not able to attend), the achievement conditions at that time were as follows.
If I remember correctly, the Abbado Prime Anomaly Series was the last time OPR Live was held.
◆Conditions for achieving the event (2 points).
(1) Nominate new portals [14].
(2) Edit portal information [20]
(3) Photo nomination [20].
Nominations for new portals can be made outside of the event site, and 14 is the maximum number of nominations possible at that time.
However, I remember that there was no distance limit for wayspot nominations back then, so I am not sure what will happen with the current 25km limit or the number of possible nominations changed to a maximum of 40.
Portal information must be edited and photo applications must be local.
Past OPR Live events were buying 14 nomination resolutions AND a medal. Some went for one, some for the other, and some for both.
However, it was only in a few cities. Most of us will never had one close enough to attend.
But Niantic could change how OPR Live events are done. All Ingress in-person events were ceased for the pandemic. Mission Days and Anomalies are starting back up different from how they were Before. Maybe OPR Live events will be different too.
Ah, so there is a live medal. It looks almost identical to the Recon badge. Sincere apologies to @PkmnTrainerJ-ING 🙂. Unrelated to this forum but jeez, better medal needed for OPR live.
No worries. Yes they do. They’ve done some good badges lately so perhaps they can refresh this one.
Are you thinking on a wayspot icon with a $ overlayed?
I'm not sure how to explain paid events to you, who may not know about Ingress events, because that's about the only way I could think of to explain Pokémon GO game events to you.
They used to release paid tickets to catch shiny Ditto & Mew, etc. at events, so it's kind of like that.
If someone blamed you for not getting a special Pokémon because you didn't buy a paid ticket in Pokémon GO, you would think that you didn't buy a ticket and that's why you didn't get a special Pokémon.
So it's not something to hate so much.
And again, the only reason most Ingress players attend this event is because they want the rare event medals.
Just as Pokémon GO players collect rare Pokémon, Ingress players mostly want the rare event medals to display on their profile screen (which anyone can see).
Because it is such an event, few people buy tickets to buy upgrades or quick appeals for the wayspots they nominate, or even if there were players who wanted to buy them, most would not be able to afford them first.
The number of participants in this Munich Anomaly will probably be around 5,000.
However, not all participants of the Munich Anomaly will be able to buy tickets to OPR Live.
The maximum number of OPR Live tickets I expect to sell this time is 100. And considering that the players will be managing the event, I expect to sell maybe 50 tickets.
And another thing to mention is that, like OPR Live, all of the current events such as GORUCK, IntelOPS, OFC, etc. are being held at the strong request of the players, and not at the suggestion of Niantic to the players or from the top-down.
This may be hard for Pokémon GO players to understand, but most of the official Ingress events are not organized by Niantic or eventers, but by the players themselves.
Therefore, it would also be wrong to accuse Niantic of selling wayspot upgrades and quick appeals.
I suggest you learn a little more about the process of organizing Ingress events for a little more knowledge.
To be fair, I don't know how this would benefit people if they were to pay said Niantic team member and they would review no nominations because I have nothing in queue or in voting. If I were, instead, to pay them to maybe appeal a couple, I probably would also pass on that as well.
What I want to see is a live action feed or livestream of a Niantic staff member (maybe Danbo or Tintino) on how THEY review, or the operative who determines whether something in invalid or not based on a report. I would pay for an e-sports reviewing competition.
I guess that you can remember that initially Ingress events were free to attend, the only restrictions were the ability by each person to travel to the city of the event. They provided some free swag and in-game medals for those that attended, and people liked them because those were a way to remember a fun weekend with so many stranges fighting to control a city and the world.
An anomaly in Ingress requires off-site people acting as Operators so that agents on site can get data about what to do, everything is very stressing, and so besides granting those medals to the boots on the ground, Niantic also received by each faction a list of off-site agents that took part, and things slowly started to go downhill there.
You might not believe it, but there are many people, even Ingress agents, that deceive and lie, so it was not uncommon to heard about people that got the medal although they were not related at all to the anomaly. Some argued that they provided "many Shields and R8 busters", so they deserved such medal for example. And of course the people that sold the redemtion codes for such medals in EBay...
Niantic saw the need/opportunity to monetize these events, and most of the people agreed that after all Ingress was a free game (there was no store at the moment) so spending a little money for such anomalies was OK.
But that can't be compared to one "OPR live event" where a person can pay some money and then a number of their nominations will be fastracked over the normal queue.
An anomaly and its related medals are about having fun, plannification, coordination, and good memories. Paying for OPR live is a shortcut to avoid Wayfarer queues, not about anything else.
You need to stop harping on pokemon go players and see the forest for the trees, a perk of this paid event is that you get expedited reviews. That's pay to play, full stop. It's not a big deal yet since it's not a common occurrence, but it's a little worrying. This doesn't mean that all ingress events are bad, I think you're seeing this as some sort of fandom dispute where you need to fight to defend the honor of your chosen video game and I promise you that is not the case.
Who else is disappointed the branding is "OPR" rather than Wayfarer?
We complain about the submission process through PoGO being branded towards "PokéStops," but here's a missed opportunity to start correcting the branding on the Ingress side.
Wayfarer is dead. Long live OPR.
+1 this. Lets re-introduce ADA and together we can improve the portal network 🤣
The submissions process has the exact same wording in PoGo and Ingress, but with "PokeStops" instead of "portals", and "trainer" instead of "agent".
"OPR" even more twisted than that. The reviewing badge is named "Recon", with description "Made beneficial contributions to Operation Portal Recon and the expansion of the Portal Network." So you'd think an Operation Portal Recon event would be about REVIEWING nominations.
The OPR Live badge states;
Assisted NIA Ops in live improvement of the Portal Network
As you say, the nomination process is the same wording but swapped PokéStop for Portal etc. and yet we don’t really see “No portals in this area” begs in the supporting information of nominations.
@WheelTrekker-ING
Unfortunately, I am not talking about the medals for the anomaly events you are referring to, but the medals for the sub-events that accompany the anomaly events and take place before, during and after that period or at the same time.
These have all basically always been paid for.
If anything, why don't you go to the Ingress forum and argue your opinion that Niantic is selling the rights to the wayspot nomination upgrades and appeals on OPR Live?
I recall you stating that you are a Founder medal holder and have participated in XM Anomaly multiple times, so Brian, Thia and the players on the forum may agree with you.
@Duiomar-PGO
Apparently you do not understand what I am saying.
I don't know if you have an Ingress account, but you can post your concerns and questions on the Ingress forum, as can any level 1 newcomer to the forum, just as you can on this forum.
If your concerns and questions are shared by all, Brian, Thia, and the Ingress players out there will listen.
@Gendgi-PGO
I recall that you had an Ingress account, and you may want to inquire on the Ingress forum why it is "OPR" instead of "Wayfarer" in Ingress, and why the Ingress medal is still "Recon".
Your opinion as a Wayfarer Ambassador may be answered by the Ingress team and members on the forum.