+1 on the community aspects. There's a Resistance cell in South Bay (of San Francisco Bay Area) that's pretty highly organized and set us up meetups to go item and experience farming, posts "target" lists (high-value portals to be taken down) and the like. There are meetups for all kinds of things of course---Hacker News, Less Wrong, Reddit, whatnot, so this is just one more, but it's nice getting together with a bunch of strangers that you end up getting along with.
The game enforces this subtly; higher level players (I'm level 7) need high level items, but the way to get those is from (equally) high level portals. Players can't make a high level portal on their own---a Level 7 player can make a level 5 portal on her own, two can make a level 6 portal, and 8 are required to make a level 7 portal. Since a high level portal hands out excellent items, it's a target, and it makes sense to build it, exploit it immediately, and not try to hope that it stays up long. Community building!
The game enforces this subtly; higher level players (I'm level 7) need high level items, but the way to get those is from (equally) high level portals. Players can't make a high level portal on their own---a Level 7 player can make a level 5 portal on her own, two can make a level 6 portal, and 8 are required to make a level 7 portal. Since a high level portal hands out excellent items, it's a target, and it makes sense to build it, exploit it immediately, and not try to hope that it stays up long. Community building!
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