[Aignam]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

If you really feel so strongly that Defense is THE KEY to the success of FIRST, perhaps you should start a letter writing campaign to Dean, Woodie, the FIRST board of directors, NASA, Delphi, DCX, GM, Baxter, Motorola, etc. insisting that FIRST change its name to FIRD (For Inspiration and Recognition of Defense, of course).

Think about it. FIRST's mission is not to make sure that defensive strategies are part of the game. Again, changing the culture is the name of the game.

While I am inclined to agree with the majority of your post, and I do agree that we should all be more than grateful for the opportunities that FIRST is providing us with, I do feel that the game FIRST chooses is quite important. Robotics, more specifically the competition, is FIRST's vehicle to inspire. Thus, the FIRST game is the name of the game, because that is how they will change culture. It would follow that in order to be most efficient in changing culture, a game that comes as close to possible to pleasing everyone, i.e. being well rounded in both offensive and defensive strategies, would be the best vehicle for changing culture. I do understand that FIRST will never create the perfect game and there will always be people complaining, but I also have faith that FIRST might've been able to make this year's game more well-rounded. But don't, by any means, skew this into an attack of FIRST's choice. Thank you, FIRST, for everything! Keep up the good work.