[archiver]

Posted by David, Student on team #269, BruQuest, from Oconomowoc High School and Quest .

Posted on 3/10/99 11:14 PM MST


In Reply to: Another idea looking for comments posted by Joe Johnson on 3/10/99 7:34 PM MST:



Hi all
Well, Joe you offer an interesting idea. BUT I think it's not a good idea.
Well, maybe it is good, but from what I think FIRST is, it would take away
some of the BIG excitement the competition has right now.

OK, here are my reasons
1. It is a competition. If all the teams publish their good ideas, there
will basically be 30 (or whatever) teams with all the good features and ideas
from the webpage, which results in basically 30 equal robots. Then it's no more
the skills of engineering that make the most part of who wins and who loses, but
just the skills of driving or maybe even luck.

I tell you. We as a rookie team had NO IDEA what the competition would be like.
We had NO IDEA what the other robots looked like and I tell you, I WAS SO SO SO
EXCITED when I walked through the pits and looked at the other robots and when I
talked to the other people about their experiences and when I saw the other robots
in the practise rounds and how they managed the problem.

Your idea would basically take a great part of that away.

The other thing is, that probably especially rookie teams would just look at the
webpage and copy the designs of the veterans. Where's the fun? Where's the creative
thinking? And I tell you something else: As much as I wanted to know what the other
robots would be like, I think knowing that before we built and designed our robot would
kind of take away our motivation to design our OWN robot.

It's like that: You are there for the first time, still pretty unsure about everything and
then you read about the VETERAN'S ideas. And you think, well they must be right.. or even
if you don't think so you see what they designed and it totally influences your design even
if you don't copy... it influences you.

I think as it is right now, it's just fine. Rookie teams are "just" rookie teams. Nobody
expects them to WIN the competition. If they do, it's SUPER great, if they don't, it's GREAT
too. Rookies don't have to win. They have to experience and learn, not to copy ;-)


The other thing is: What if some teams decides not to publish their ideas. And they happen to
have really good ones. And then you go to the competition see their robot which totally kicks
$@#$@#$@# and think: Wow we didn't think about that.... and since we thought the designs on the
internet are already good we didn't even think about designing something else, something new,
something unique, something on your own...

Or do you want to require all teams to publish their thoughts? Apparently you can't.

Another thought: Let's say you have THE IDEA. The ultimative feature for your robot. And then
you just want to give it away? Wouldn't you be proud if only your robot had that feature which
would allow you to win the competition or at least be really competitive?

Your idea would be just great if they gave us the problem and required us to solve it "on the
paper" (or the internet ;-) But since there is still the competition which decides about win or loss
I think it would just not work.

Well, these are my thoughts... comments??


CYA
David (Germanboy from rookie team 269 BruQuest ;-)