Bart Van Haver For me it would be interesting smaller "Mom and Pop" stores that you would find catering to a local need... I.E. A delicious bakery that has the best cookies for miles around. That obscure local restaurant that has delicious local dish that can't be described has to be experienced.
The fault with submissions like this is that it's a large chain store, where you loose that "community connection" with the local community at large. You can walk into any Walmart all over the country and you're walking into the ~same~ store.
Bart Van Haver It's funny, that phrase "culturally important." Arguably, a local Walmart can be incredibly important to the community around it and it is, to be honest, a better reflection of our culture than some hipster boutique that sells artisan dog toys. If I was a future anthropologist and wanted to understand life in early 21st century America, I'd probably go digging at the site of the local big box stores. But I think Ingress is actually looking for, capital C, "Culture"-- basically the oddities that future museum goers would pay to see. For example, we have tooooonnns of pot shards left over from ancient Egypt-- millions of them-- and they are exactly the sort of thing that tells us how the ancient Egyptians lived. But you don't see them on exhibit. You see the one or two sarcophagi that a settlement made for the ultra-rich. Overall, I think the criteria are really a search for uniqueness over ubiquity. If the Walmart has a mural that celebrates local commerce, that's a portal... But the facade of the building itself is not portal worthy.
Ryan Schoon yeah, we're on the same page then. It was the (legit) bit that tripped me up but I now understand it only refered to the description not to the portal quality
Under which criteria do you consider a store to be a legit point of interest?
ReplyDeleteBart Van Haver For me it would be interesting smaller "Mom and Pop" stores that you would find catering to a local need... I.E. A delicious bakery that has the best cookies for miles around. That obscure local restaurant that has delicious local dish that can't be described has to be experienced.
ReplyDeleteThe fault with submissions like this is that it's a large chain store, where you loose that "community connection" with the local community at large. You can walk into any Walmart all over the country and you're walking into the ~same~ store.
Bart Van Haver It's funny, that phrase "culturally important." Arguably, a local Walmart can be incredibly important to the community around it and it is, to be honest, a better reflection of our culture than some hipster boutique that sells artisan dog toys. If I was a future anthropologist and wanted to understand life in early 21st century America, I'd probably go digging at the site of the local big box stores. But I think Ingress is actually looking for, capital C, "Culture"-- basically the oddities that future museum goers would pay to see. For example, we have tooooonnns of pot shards left over from ancient Egypt-- millions of them-- and they are exactly the sort of thing that tells us how the ancient Egyptians lived. But you don't see them on exhibit. You see the one or two sarcophagi that a settlement made for the ultra-rich.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think the criteria are really a search for uniqueness over ubiquity. If the Walmart has a mural that celebrates local commerce, that's a portal... But the facade of the building itself is not portal worthy.
Ryan Schoon yeah, we're on the same page then. It was the (legit) bit that tripped me up but I now understand it only refered to the description not to the portal quality
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ReplyDelete