Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
FRC isn't about having fun.
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I wholeheartedly disagree!!! Fun is the
number one reason kids get interested in robotics through FIRST. Take fun away and you might as well kill the whole thing.
Corey is right about how the off season events offer an alternative to expensive FIRST regionals. I wouldn' t go so far as to say abandon the season altogether but I will say that our team has a lot more fun at off season events these days than at many official regionals. Frankly what has made the official season so unenjoyable is more the human, "official" beaurocratic factors than the game itself.
The off season, at least around here, offers a fun time at a cheap price where playing is often more valuable than winning. And there aren't picayune inspectors and over zealous refs to ruin the good time.
FIRST is about changing the culture of how people think about engineering. Making it fun makes it desirable to the kids and shows them that they can actually get interested in something academic that can also be entertaining.
Most of our teams here learn about FIRST by having FUN at an off season and then going through the agony of their first build season.
Of course we could show them that engineering is tedious, boring and nothing but hard work. I am sure that would really bring in the new teams.
WC