Westshore Train Show 2014

VicLUG was at the Westshore Train Show and our resident trainhead, James, designed an outstanding display. The train show was on hiatus for a few years until last year, so this time around I feel we really shook the rust off and knocked it out of the park. Along with James and Peter’s trains, there was James, Ted’s and my own buildings and street ephemera. I haven’t made too many buildings but my contributions were the cluster that included the red clock tower, the green bank building ( new for this show! ) and the gingerbread house, along with the newly created wrought iron fencing.

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Ingress

Couple of players hacking a bench

That is the one word answer as to why I’ve been neglecting my Lego hobby. I’ve kept up maintenance on a local front, been active with my Lug but really have let a lot of other stuff slide. I’m about 6 months into playing and think that I’ve hit a good pace, and with our show season kicked into gear I’m back into the bricks too.

Since LU closed I really have not been playing many games. The occasional TT game, started Aquaria again on my tablet, Star Command, but really nothing has come close to capturing my attention. Until this game. For those who don’t know about it, Ingress is an augmented reality game that uses google maps as it’s backbone, in fact it’s a pet project by Google. It’s essentially capture the flag with an X-files backstory twist. If you are familiar with geocaching or other gps augmented reality games then this will make a lot more sense. If not, imagine a game where it exists wherever you go… outside. There’s very little you can do in the game from your home, all of the game happens on location.

I’ve always been fond of the great outdoors, and quite fond of my city, it was not hard to immerse myself in this game. I’m not so sure I can recommend this game to anyone though as this game’s particular’s experience is hinged on your location, which includes the amount of people playing in the area and most importantly… the kind of people! You don’t know when you start necessarily how many people are on either side, let alone what kind of people they are. I’ve been pretty lucky where I am, felt I picked the right side ( blue or green ) and the people playing locally are mostly great on both sides.

What I found was a sense of exploration ( often a bit subversively ), building mammoth constructs, smashing up a storm, espionage and a pretty amazing community. Sound at all familiar? If you loved LU, have an Android or iPhone, you might want to check this out.

I’m getting back to regularly scheduled posts this week, but wanted to let y’all know where I’ve been. If you have any questions about his game let me know!

 

http://www.ingress.com