NotNiantic Q&A

Niantic’s Brian Rose recently held a Q&A on Niantic Social. The transcript of the answers are on the Ingress Community Forum. This means it’s time for us to do another NotNiantic Q&A. Brian answered 6 questions, so that’s what we will do here.

Q1: Can you get your infographics/calendars delivered in game for us to see?

A: Apparently thanks to some issues with timezone calculations, they will be released after the events. In the meantime, here are the most recent graphics for upcoming events.

Q2: Why was *I* given a comm ban, when *they’re* the ones that suck?

A: A comm ban is a blessing in disguise. The first rule of comms is don’t.

Q3: Can Pokémon players have a portable poke stop so they can stop asking for everything to be a poke stop?

A: The issue with that is that any time their PokéStop moves within 20m of a portal, the portal will immediately cease to exist.

Q4: Why does Ingress not have every feature I like from every other Niantic game?

A: See next Q.

Q5: Why does Ingress keep copying features out of Pokémon?

A: See previous Q.

Q6: What is your favorite lasagna recipe.

A: I’m glad you asked. This lasagna recipe starts with a 1500-word essay on my travels through Italy, where I had the best lasagna ever. It was in Rome, in a neighborhood called Trastevere, south of Vatican City and on the opposite side of the Tiber from Rome’s most famous attractions, it’s a relatively quiet part of the city with narrow cobblestone streets and picturesque piazzas. It is here, in the Piazza del Drago where I first experienced the delight of authentic lasagna. On one early fall evening, I was wandering aimlessly – this was before Ingress – even before the era of smartphones, so I was unable to use the scanner to identify interesting places to visit. But even then, I knew how to make a walk much longer than it needed to be by meandering down unfamiliar streets and alleys.

<my editor has asked that I remove the remainder of the essay so here’s the darn recipe>

1. Go to Trader Joe’s.
2. Pick up Trader Joe’s Family Style Meat Lasagna in the freezer section.
3. Go home and preheat the oven.
4. Lift the corners of the film and place the lasagna dish on a baking sheet.
5. Throw the lasagna in for 60-70 minutes, removing film for the final 10 minutes of cooking.

For an authentic Italian experience, open a bottle of a inexpensive medium-bodied red wine.