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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
I really enjoyed reading the OP's message, and agree with a lot of their posts. But I always took a step back and thought of WHY I liked their post so much, and here's what I came up with.
Granted take this with a grain of salt so I don't sound like a crochety old man. As far as the message repetition goes, I do agree that it does get a little grating after several iterations. I remember when I was a rookie (back in '01) the message was clear "let's spread the word of FIRST so we can grow to every school in America"...11 years later the message is still pretty much the same thing. It isn't changing at all, and I think that's what it's growing tired of. The message that they are giving us is to go out and show the world that we're not a bunch of shut-ins with little robots, that we have become mainstream. In my opinion, the best way to accomplish this is SHOW people not TELL them. The best way to demonstrate this, is to appeal to the common spectator that wouldn't otherwise know of us. For instance, when a comic book movie comes out, the movie studios aren't making it FOR the die hard fans of the comic (because they know that the die hards will see it regardless), they're making it for Joe Schmoe that wouldn't normally go see something like that. We have to do the same thing. Yes the games are interesting for us to watch because we know the blood sweat and tears that went into designing our robot. But unless we start pumping out materials that makes the average person go "holy @#!> that's awesome" it's not going to do us any good. '08, '06' and '04 are good examples, because the games were high action, high scoring and made people excited to watch it. I also agree that it's become WAY too political for our own good, so much so that it often trumps the events themselves. Yes meeting politicians is a great honor, but not when it inconveniences thousands of people. One particularly egregious example of this was the 2008 NYC regional. We all knew that the mayor of NYC was going to visit, but the only problem was that we didn't know WHEN he was coming. Well he didn't make it in time for opening ceremonies on the last day of competition, but he did make it in the afternoon. In order to accommodate him, we stopped qualifying matches with TWO matches to go, and we stopped for lunch. Then we came back, he talked for 5 minutes (and made a corny joke about how we should build a robot to help the Knicks) and then was wisked away to the back rooms. After that we played the last 2 matches, then immediately went into alliance selections, and then immediately into eliminations. The teams had NO time to prepare or strategize, and it was very very unfair and totally interrupted the flow of the competition. Granted I might be making a bigger deal out of the mayor's disruption than need be, but it really irked me that we had to put an entire regional on hold and not let teams compete to the best of their ability because he decided to show up when he did. Well I could rant a lot more but I think I've outstayed my welcome. |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
Just to get this straight, this thread is about the way FIRST makes its games each year, and what we'd like to change. If you'd like to debate if being called a "Nerd" is a bad thing, please start another thread.
Thank you. |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
I am proud to be a nerd. Just saying. I would define a nerd as an addict... Addicted to knowledge. Some things I do in life is just for the pure knowledge gained from it. Sure, writing in Assembly probably will not give an advantage to my team, but I am doing it for the knowledge gained from the experience.
I will be frank with you, I do not like how FRC is run, but I really can't do much about it. I do not like the standardization of every aspect of the game. |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Being single-minded and obsessed is not exactly healthy. Variety is the spice of life. Acting like FIRST is, to use Akash's words, a cult of nerds is counterproductive to FIRST becoming accepted in mainstream culture. |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
If we give this thread a chance, it could be a very thought-provoking thread and provide a lot of insight into what people are thinking as we move towards the end of a long season. I'd like to see a thoughtful discussion with some thoughtful posts contributed rather than watch the discussion devolve into blanket generalizations and accusations. Those are never interesting or fun.
Jane |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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2. agreed. the coopertion i think is a shot to the foot. for gaining publicity. If you want FIRST to be come adopted as a sport, then there MUST be competion. thats what most people want to see. GP is great off the field, but on the field it should be a show of who has the best bot. you know you have a bad ranking system when boxes on wheels end up as a allaince captains 3. agreed. 4. i think you have it half right. robotics can be nerdy but is not always nerdy. we need to accept that we can be nerds but also accept that we not always nerds. FIRST needs to as well. 5. agreed. i think games should be: 1. easy to get the basic concept of 2. a good mix of offence AND defense 3. challenging 4. simple fielded and using easy to find game pieces (to ease up build season) 5. setup so there are no sudden death situation other than red cards (like heavy endgame bonuses) |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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I will have to totally agree with Akash. Nerd may be "Cool" for you and your group of kids. But Nerd gives off a negative connotation, your not gonna win over many people, especially not the people FIRST is currently aiming at. The General Public. FIRST isn't nerdy, its one of the coolest things I've ever been apart of. If we (the FIRST community) are not ready to change our own perception, how will we change others? Personally I like what Amir (frc1717) told people at various events, we have to sell this program as the "New Cool". Many of the kids on 1323 are athletes or cheerleaders, most will even ditch practice and come to robotics because its "Cool". My kids never like to be called nerds and will promote the program as cool. I've met a wide range of people and not one of them coming to a FIRST event for the FIRST time described it as Nerdy. Instead they called it "The Best Kept Secret". This isn't promoting "The New Cool", but I truly believe the book and FRC1717 are on the right path and we should hop on that bandwagon instead of complaining about FIRST. -RC |
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
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Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
Wow. I don't feel a need to debate it or to try to change anyone's mind, but I have to say I disagree with practically everything in the original post.
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