[Allison K]

Note: I have yet only had the chance to watch through the web cast, which I believe makes things harder to understand and you are under the direction or somebody else's eyes, however...

First things first...the original point of the thread...Is the game easy to understand to the casual spectator? It seems to me that it is. I'm probably not a very good judge as I've been immersed in it for eight weeks now, however my two little brothers (ages 9 and 11) often watched over my shoulder and they had no difficulty figuring out what was going on, despite various penalties, and not having control over where they were looking (web cast). It seemed that the announcer did a fairly good job of explaining why penalties were assessed, so that probably helped.

I can't say much about the penalties yet as I haven't seen anything up close, and I try not to comment on that which I don't know. The best I can do (as coach) is learn what the penalties are, and do what I can to avoid them. The only thing that worries me is having no control over the other robots on the field (both on my alliance and the opposing one), but I shall remain opptimistic and hope that GP is enough to prevent anything too messy.