Nick Ochsner

WVEC-TV, Norfolk, Va.

NORFOLK, Va. — A popular game for Android devices has some raising concerns about attempts to breach security on military bases across the USA.

The game, named Ingress, requires players to travel to historic or cultural sites to claim them for points, a twist on other apps like Foursquare that want users to check in at locations. The smartphone works like a scanner, picking up energy and helping a player identify the real-world "portals."

By joining together and capturing portals, players help their teams on the global scoreboard. The more portals a player visits, the more points a person gets for his or her team. That's how to move up in rank.

"It's kind of like geocaching meets capture the flag," Ingress player Crystal Grause said.

Most portals — a million or so have been established worldwide — are at landmarks or historical markers. But some are on military bases, including Naval Station Norfolk.

The rules of Ingress, developed by a Google division called Niantic Labs, require portals to be open and accessible to the public. So some think portals on military bases shouldn't be allowed, said Grause, an avid Ingress player since the game began in November 2012.

And players have complained to Niantic to get some of the portals on bases removed because some are on bases far removed from areas, such as museums, that might be accessible to everyone, according to GoogleGroups discussions.

One player complained last year of a sailor hoarding portals at a Navy base, a Navy air base and a Marine boot camp — places accessible to him but not the public. Players can upload landmarks of their own for inclusion in the game; other players have to contact Google to report an issue with a portal to get it removed.

"You can get on base," Grause said of Naval Station Norfolk. "You just have to explain to the guard what you're doing and it's their discretion whether to let you on or not."

Nobody is allowed on base without a proper ID, Navy spokeswoman Beth Baker said.

Retired Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said the game could pose a real security problem for bases as players try to access portals.

"If your intent was to take a picture of that entrance gate, that's perfectly fine. And there's lots of buildings and facilities on any installation in the area that are perfectly innocuous," he said.

But unauthorized visitors to a base could mean extra work for security forces, Quigley said.

"There's also other areas that are off limits for good reasons," he said. "Of course, those would be the most desirable if you're playing this game, and therein lies the problem."