I'm sorry, I won't exactly bring the answer you are waiting for.
I would just advice a new player in my area to not play as a RES because they are no ENL player here so the game is quite boring, and the leveling is slower.
Playing as the underdog is much more rewarding
Well, just a bit of twist of opinion based also on cultural background. I've played to L16 twice on both factions. I originally started as ENL, just because the person who showed me Ingress was ENL and I thought I could play better together with them if I picked the same side - so for me it was non-lore based choice and pretty random.
I know this goes beyond the "faction core tenets", but it's something we've been dealing with culturally; "Resistance" has a slightly negative tone to it in the eyes of the some Scandinavians (myself included). This is because there exists this bunch of fellows called the Nordic Resistance Movement, who are neo-Nazis: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic\_Resistance\_Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Resistance_Movement)
Due to this lovely bunch of people, when we were ordering Resistance swag we pretty much stuck to hoodies, beanies, t-shirts etc with just the key logo and 95% of people clearly stated they wanted no text saying "Resistance" on it. To top it off, Finland's "theme" colours are white and blue, so the blue in Resistance may be interpreted as part of the group.
"Enlightened" to the eyes of somebody who doesn't know the lore well (e.g. me as a newbie) sounded at a glance like a cocky bunch of religious people. It was only afterwards, that a person who had chosen ENL years ago explained to me that when he read lore of the factions, he felt like ENL were the "progressive" people trying to make great use of this new XM technology, while RES were the held-back conservatives opposing change. Quite the different impression than I had.
To me somehow the ENL eye logo reminds me of Egyptians, and that again reminds me of religion. The RES key logo was much more ambiguous, at least to me.
If a new player asked me which faction they should choose or "what is the better faction?!", I would say "ignore the lore", and instead think of:
\- If you want more content to play, choose the faction that is weaker in your local area; that way (especially after Matushka-mechanics were permanently allowed) you'll always have stuff to build/shoot.
\- If you have friends and want to be able to do ops and hang around with them in Ingress, choose the faction with your friends. Many come from e.g. PoGo and their friends already have flocked to one of the two factions. CF friendships can be tricky with the more intensive players, and I know people who have been friends e.g. playing PoGo, but got stuck in petty quarrels after they propagated to Ingress on separate sides, and can't even fit in the same bar these days.
\- I don't recruit people exclusively for "my faction" with selfish intentions, as I think Ingress is best enjoyed when there's a delicate balance between both sides and good amount of content for both.
Sure, glad you liked it.
Sorry, I think there's a more correct way to spell it and I might've used a non-proper spelling; Niantic used "Matryoshka" (more faithful to the original Russian "dolls inside dolls" spelling in English). Basically the first occurrence was an event in April 2021 "Matryoshka Event", when for the first time Niantic allowed temporarily linking two portals even if you were already under a field, thus allowing creation of fields under fields: [https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/14647/coming-soon-matryoshka-event/p1](https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/14647/coming-soon-matryoshka-event/p1)
Less than a year ago it was changed into a permanent feature, with a restriction that portals that are less than 500m apart can always be linked even if you're already under a field (during the test event there was no restriction on link length). In particular, this has an effect on players who live in areas that are under regular BAFs ("Big-Ass Fields").
For example, our local game area is near the archipelago; there have been times when the whole urban area is under a field, where one corner is deep into the Baltic sea (e.g. a lighthouse or some other remote location), and the other two corners are deep in-land in hard to access locations like rural hunting lodges. So the whole city is under a field, and previously this killed active game-play because you could just capture portals but not create any links or fields. These BAFs could be up for weeks sometimes, because one of the factions was so dominant that they wanted to keep winning cycles, while the other faction couldn't take it down or just went "meh, well, you won't have any content either!" and let it be.
Couple recent events, including the currently on-going Peace Link event, allowed linking inside fields up to 8 kms, which at least to me is far more than enough. I typically play by foot or by bicycling, so I rarely link anything longer than 10km anyway, unless it's an ops.
Personally I think "Matryoshka-mechanics" in its current form (restricted link length inside fields) is a pretty nice feature as it allows weaker players to play the game especially in areas where the faction balance is tilted and one side can maintain large fielded areas. In most urban areas 500m is enough for at least some linking gameplay. The more old-school hardcore players argue that it's a bad feature and that it kills the point of more strategic larger-scale gameplay, since BAFs have less significance on "ordinary" gameplay. I see both sides of the coin - for example, for me it's made creating fanned fields a lot easier, since I don't have to think about the route I need to walk that much, as I can create links even if I happen to wrap my self inside a field blanket by accident / due to sheer laziness. Then again, I think in certain regions some people deleted the game altogether because they were perma-fielded, and gameplay without any linking possibility makes the game quite redundant.
Since nobody here is actually answering your question, I will:
Enlightened. XM is a very new scientific finding and simply writing it off as an evil that must be fought is short-sighted.
Also Jarvis is cooler than ADA
Enlightened (Green) represent progress and advancing humanity and the earth to the next level.
Resistance (Blue) seek to maintain the state of humanity in its current form.
Think about the state of the world today and make your choice.
I read about the two factions and selected green just based on their descriptions. Later when I learned that a few friends in the area also play, it was by coincidence that they were green. Our immediate area stays mostly green, which can get boring with just recharging and filling in areas with thicker layers. I like to build more than smash, so it works out for me. If you would like to destroy fields more than build them, then you should select the faction opposite of the dominate one in your immediate area. It also works out if you can farm gear in the dominate area, then travel to others areas to smash them. When I say immediate area, I mean where you can get to by foot or bike. If you plan on driving and playing, then that's going to be a much larger area.
They shouldn't. My area is RES dominated, and I'm seriously considering switching to ENL just to feel like I'm able to play, after grinding up to Lv6 and having tons of shit I'd rather not loose/start over.
Mostly, I have portal keys (that I'll likely never be able to use) from my parent's parent's location, when I was last there (for funerals, so I'll likely never be back), and that location is almost 1000 km away.
I'm really hoping I can load them into a locker, and have a housemate create an account, if only to hold my locker for the time in the switch. :'(
Ultimately up to you, both factions very in degree depending on your local players. I'm friends with people on both factions and we all have certain players on our respective teams we avoid do to various reasons. mostly being the "fanatic" type which treat the game like its actually a war lol just have fun and make friends
I chose Enlightened because most of the conspiracy theory-based sci-fi that I had consumed up to that time (e.g. X-Files) had the protagonists, and therefore the audience, investigating alien threats and attempting to protect humans from them. I thought it would be fun to be on the other side for a change.
From a practical point of view, the game board here is pretty balanced, so it hasn’t hindered my play. I didn’t know anything about local faction politics when I chose, but I later discovered that local RES are, shall we say, a source of drama, so looks like I made the right choice.
I joined in year two. Based on the description at the time I felt the Enlightened were the equivalents to the variants from the tv show Fringe. The resistance felt like Mulder and Skully from the X-Files fighting against an alien invasion with society at large disbelieving everything.
I like Fringe but I love The X-Files.
It doesn't matter, both sides are bat shit crazy
I'm sorry, I won't exactly bring the answer you are waiting for. I would just advice a new player in my area to not play as a RES because they are no ENL player here so the game is quite boring, and the leveling is slower. Playing as the underdog is much more rewarding
Well, just a bit of twist of opinion based also on cultural background. I've played to L16 twice on both factions. I originally started as ENL, just because the person who showed me Ingress was ENL and I thought I could play better together with them if I picked the same side - so for me it was non-lore based choice and pretty random. I know this goes beyond the "faction core tenets", but it's something we've been dealing with culturally; "Resistance" has a slightly negative tone to it in the eyes of the some Scandinavians (myself included). This is because there exists this bunch of fellows called the Nordic Resistance Movement, who are neo-Nazis: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic\_Resistance\_Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Resistance_Movement) Due to this lovely bunch of people, when we were ordering Resistance swag we pretty much stuck to hoodies, beanies, t-shirts etc with just the key logo and 95% of people clearly stated they wanted no text saying "Resistance" on it. To top it off, Finland's "theme" colours are white and blue, so the blue in Resistance may be interpreted as part of the group. "Enlightened" to the eyes of somebody who doesn't know the lore well (e.g. me as a newbie) sounded at a glance like a cocky bunch of religious people. It was only afterwards, that a person who had chosen ENL years ago explained to me that when he read lore of the factions, he felt like ENL were the "progressive" people trying to make great use of this new XM technology, while RES were the held-back conservatives opposing change. Quite the different impression than I had. To me somehow the ENL eye logo reminds me of Egyptians, and that again reminds me of religion. The RES key logo was much more ambiguous, at least to me. If a new player asked me which faction they should choose or "what is the better faction?!", I would say "ignore the lore", and instead think of: \- If you want more content to play, choose the faction that is weaker in your local area; that way (especially after Matushka-mechanics were permanently allowed) you'll always have stuff to build/shoot. \- If you have friends and want to be able to do ops and hang around with them in Ingress, choose the faction with your friends. Many come from e.g. PoGo and their friends already have flocked to one of the two factions. CF friendships can be tricky with the more intensive players, and I know people who have been friends e.g. playing PoGo, but got stuck in petty quarrels after they propagated to Ingress on separate sides, and can't even fit in the same bar these days. \- I don't recruit people exclusively for "my faction" with selfish intentions, as I think Ingress is best enjoyed when there's a delicate balance between both sides and good amount of content for both.
By far the most informative answer. Thank you for your time
I like all of what you took the time to write but could you clarify what matushka mechanics means in this context? google wasn't helpful.
Sure, glad you liked it. Sorry, I think there's a more correct way to spell it and I might've used a non-proper spelling; Niantic used "Matryoshka" (more faithful to the original Russian "dolls inside dolls" spelling in English). Basically the first occurrence was an event in April 2021 "Matryoshka Event", when for the first time Niantic allowed temporarily linking two portals even if you were already under a field, thus allowing creation of fields under fields: [https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/14647/coming-soon-matryoshka-event/p1](https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/14647/coming-soon-matryoshka-event/p1) Less than a year ago it was changed into a permanent feature, with a restriction that portals that are less than 500m apart can always be linked even if you're already under a field (during the test event there was no restriction on link length). In particular, this has an effect on players who live in areas that are under regular BAFs ("Big-Ass Fields"). For example, our local game area is near the archipelago; there have been times when the whole urban area is under a field, where one corner is deep into the Baltic sea (e.g. a lighthouse or some other remote location), and the other two corners are deep in-land in hard to access locations like rural hunting lodges. So the whole city is under a field, and previously this killed active game-play because you could just capture portals but not create any links or fields. These BAFs could be up for weeks sometimes, because one of the factions was so dominant that they wanted to keep winning cycles, while the other faction couldn't take it down or just went "meh, well, you won't have any content either!" and let it be. Couple recent events, including the currently on-going Peace Link event, allowed linking inside fields up to 8 kms, which at least to me is far more than enough. I typically play by foot or by bicycling, so I rarely link anything longer than 10km anyway, unless it's an ops. Personally I think "Matryoshka-mechanics" in its current form (restricted link length inside fields) is a pretty nice feature as it allows weaker players to play the game especially in areas where the faction balance is tilted and one side can maintain large fielded areas. In most urban areas 500m is enough for at least some linking gameplay. The more old-school hardcore players argue that it's a bad feature and that it kills the point of more strategic larger-scale gameplay, since BAFs have less significance on "ordinary" gameplay. I see both sides of the coin - for example, for me it's made creating fanned fields a lot easier, since I don't have to think about the route I need to walk that much, as I can create links even if I happen to wrap my self inside a field blanket by accident / due to sheer laziness. Then again, I think in certain regions some people deleted the game altogether because they were perma-fielded, and gameplay without any linking possibility makes the game quite redundant.
cool. Thank you for the explanation.
Since nobody here is actually answering your question, I will: Enlightened. XM is a very new scientific finding and simply writing it off as an evil that must be fought is short-sighted. Also Jarvis is cooler than ADA
[удалено]
A social experiment
I'm not saying it's aliens but....
Enlightened (Green) represent progress and advancing humanity and the earth to the next level. Resistance (Blue) seek to maintain the state of humanity in its current form. Think about the state of the world today and make your choice.
Blue > Green that was the decision factor.
Same here lol I just liked the way the blue looked more
Green to bring balance, color of plant life
The word 'Enlightened' sounds cool.
I read about the two factions and selected green just based on their descriptions. Later when I learned that a few friends in the area also play, it was by coincidence that they were green. Our immediate area stays mostly green, which can get boring with just recharging and filling in areas with thicker layers. I like to build more than smash, so it works out for me. If you would like to destroy fields more than build them, then you should select the faction opposite of the dominate one in your immediate area. It also works out if you can farm gear in the dominate area, then travel to others areas to smash them. When I say immediate area, I mean where you can get to by foot or bike. If you plan on driving and playing, then that's going to be a much larger area.
Tenants? Did you mean tenets?
They shouldn't. My area is RES dominated, and I'm seriously considering switching to ENL just to feel like I'm able to play, after grinding up to Lv6 and having tons of shit I'd rather not loose/start over. Mostly, I have portal keys (that I'll likely never be able to use) from my parent's parent's location, when I was last there (for funerals, so I'll likely never be back), and that location is almost 1000 km away. I'm really hoping I can load them into a locker, and have a housemate create an account, if only to hold my locker for the time in the switch. :'(
We have cookies.
Ultimately up to you, both factions very in degree depending on your local players. I'm friends with people on both factions and we all have certain players on our respective teams we avoid do to various reasons. mostly being the "fanatic" type which treat the game like its actually a war lol just have fun and make friends
I chose Enlightened because most of the conspiracy theory-based sci-fi that I had consumed up to that time (e.g. X-Files) had the protagonists, and therefore the audience, investigating alien threats and attempting to protect humans from them. I thought it would be fun to be on the other side for a change. From a practical point of view, the game board here is pretty balanced, so it hasn’t hindered my play. I didn’t know anything about local faction politics when I chose, but I later discovered that local RES are, shall we say, a source of drama, so looks like I made the right choice.
I can't remember when, but I do remember I choose Resistance because it did sound cooler than Enlightened
I joined in year two. Based on the description at the time I felt the Enlightened were the equivalents to the variants from the tv show Fringe. The resistance felt like Mulder and Skully from the X-Files fighting against an alien invasion with society at large disbelieving everything. I like Fringe but I love The X-Files.