[EricH]

Originally Posted by RayTurner1126

when thinking in terms of simplicity, lets not forget that our main goal in FIRST is not to entertain an audience, but rather to learn about engineering through building a robot. So, we wouldn't really want a simple challenge, because the experience gained from that is not nearly as great as it is from a difficult challenge, even if it makes the game hard to understand.

Are you sure about that?

FIRST's vision is "To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders." (From the FIRST website)

FIRST's mission is "to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership."

The robots are just a vehicle--you could do just about any STEM mentor-based program with the same effect. The culture transformation needed is accomplished by getting more people involved with the program. If people are not attracted to the program, they will not get involved. Therefore, we do need to make the games attractive. Part of that is making it so that they are easy to understand, which involves making them simple. The simpler, the better--to a point, as you do need to keep the existing teams challenged.

And, something I've been wanting to say for a while: This whole thread is pointless, as the GDC is already working on the 2013 game. Therefore, we should be discussing the 2014 game.