BTSC reporter: Indeed less known as a helper behind scenes! That's some impressive medals! So when did you join the Ingress game?
Ethan: If I recall correctly sometime in late 2013. I may be off a few months.
BTSC reporter: I envy anyone with a Founder badge :p
Tell us about your favorite badge? And what's the deal behind the Bronze Mission Day badge when you helped with so many Mission Days?
Tell us about your favorite badge? And what's the deal behind the Bronze Mission Day badge when you helped with so many Mission Days?
Ethan: My favorite badge has to be the Recursion anomaly badge. Mostly because it was the first one they offered for an anomaly
Ethan: Yeah so I think at this point I've helped agents organize about 100 mission days but for me the act of actually doing missions is not my most favorite part of the game. Also I really like the design of the orange MD badge and don't want to lose it
BTSC reporter: I agree! Recursion is very cool and actually one of the most unattainable badge for Chinese agents. And orange MD badge is my favorite, too. (If only the older one……
BTSC reporter: Can you share with us how did you join Niantic as a staff, though? What brought you to them, and what's the process feel like?
Ethan: Well my joining Niantic is a long story. The short version is that I started traveling the West coast attending several anomalies. That eventually led me to meeting my current boss. Our first interaction was very brief but about a week later I received a G plus message from him asking for my phone number. I was a little Leary at first but sent h my number and about an hour later he called me asking if I was interested in a short term job on a new project Niantic was working on. That project turned out to be NL-1331. Fast forward 5 years later and NL is still incredibly popular And I find my self as a legit full time employee at Niantic..... go figure 😃
Ethan: I will admit it's been a pretty amazing experience growing up with Niantic. Which started at maybe 25-30 employees to now a company of over 250 people.
BTSC reporter: So that brought us to the central topic of today - can you introduce what's NL-1331 to Chinese agents who're not familar with it? How did it begin? What's the van like, and the event.
Ethan: So NL-1331 started as a part of the ingress story line but it really turned into something much more. The strpy line almost takes a backseat to what NL-1331 is now. That is to say I think NL is an amazing tool to reach out to communities that maybe have never had an anomaly or feel like they are too small to receive attention from Niantic. Of course we go to big cities but in between those we always try to visit smaller communities that the larger ingress community may not be aware of their existence.
Ethan: The events are designed to be very casual and laid back. We always encourage agents of all skill level and length of time playing to join and meet the rest of their local community that they may not know is out there or they've been to nervous to contact by themselves.
BTSC reporter: Going through NL-1331 venues in North America is definitely a good geographic lesson and I admire the noble cause for the NL-1331 event.
BTSC reporter: It started as a US event but now across the world, tell us what brought the events to the world wide? How many countries have you been for NL-1331 events?
Ethan: So yeah it started in America. Which was logical because that's where we were are all mostly based in the beginning. But we started to see a flourishing community in Europe and Asia. I tried to convince my boss at a much earlier point that we needed to expand or area of influence and initially that was met with a bit of resistance (no pun intended). I was eventually able to convince my boss to let me go to Europe and try out the same format. That turned out to be a very successful move. That I turn gave my boss confidence to let me start exploring places in Asia. Thanks to a lot of help from local agents and test run in the Philippines we find ourself continuously expanding our range of influence.
Ethan: I'm not sure I remember how many countries I've been to but it's probably around 40 or so
BTSC reporter: That's amazing record! Do you have a favorite country (or a few?)
BTSC reporter: And I'm curious - in many countries there're local version of vans, what's your favorite van and can you tell us how many versions were created?
Ethan: I have several that enjoy quite a bit. Mostly it's cities that I fall in love with. My favorite city is Prague. A few the follow close behind are Lviv, Valencia, Amsterdam, Bangkok, and Luxembourg.