The Howard Home and Ingress

At this year's REH Days in Cross Plains, Texas, I met several people from California who had developed a multi-player online video game called Ingress. In fact, my friend David and I were sitting in one of the two chairs directly behind the Howard home when one of the Ingress developers approached us and asked, "Are you guys part of the resistance?" I really wanted to reply, "Resistance is futile," just to joke around with him, but since I did not know the guy I replied, "I'm not sure what you're talking about." He then explained to us that the game app marks various different spots across the country/world. These places give off a certain energy force that cause people to be drawn to them. They can be physical locations, monuments, structures, etc. Some have been built by human hands, others purely natural.

There are several teams that wander to these various places to visit. Most have been chosen due to various factors, the main factor being that these locales are where, through the years, people have gathered to visit, watch, see things, etc.

The Robert E. Howard home was chosen as a locale because of REH Days and the number of people who come to visit the house from all around the world. At the official Ingress website there is a brief video that explains the game (see the above video).

The overall concept looks very interesting. Apparently there are a group of people called The Resistance whose sole aim is to debunk the game's theory/concept about these places. Each player can go to the chosen key places that are considered possible portals and visit. So if you choose to play the game it can take you all across the country. I thought it was pretty cool that the Howard home was chosen as one of the portals. And found the whole concept quite interesting, to say the least. Wiki has a whole article on the game if you're interested.