So what do you think of the new game?

[AnonymousMan]

Well, before I start, I just want to let you all know how much I respect the brilliance and amazing engineering I see on a daily basis from this organization. So, I'm not going to sugar coat this forum; I'm going to be brutally honest. As such, I've gone as anonymous as I can.

So, to be frank, and to state my point: This game is not only a severe disappointment; it is a waste of the money I worked hard to raise.
his game lacks several crucial elements of a "good" US FIRST challenge. I define good as intriguing and challenging for the players, allowing them to reap the reward of their hard work; and as enjoyable for the spectators, who want to watch interesting high school students express themselves through intelligence and engineering. The main element it lacks, from the definition of "good", is engineering value. As was shown in the video, and was highlighted by the human robot explanation, each and every robot is the same, more or less. Like Woody said: "this one has better vision, but this one has better speed. This one has TWO manipulators, but poor eyesight. ..."

Confining the brilliant roboticists and engineers of FIRST, perhaps even those who have been around for years, to construct the SAME robot that a rookie team / inexperienced engineer to create, is not only a disservice to FIRST engineers, but is a form of COMMUNISM. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this game is a game of equality. Each robot is the same, and each robot should perform the same. Sure, "efficiency" is a factor, but, quite frankly, making my robot slightly better than yours is not what drives me; it's not what FIRST is about. I want to make a robot that is different from yours, better through uniqueness, not simply through a slightly different arm design. Some examples of this are: the team that could move left and right on the bar last year, the team that turned the Stack Attack ramp into a steeper ramp, the team that knocked over the entire wall of boxes within 2 secs with a giant arm in Stack Attack. Those are unique FIRST solutions, and some that are UNAVAILABLE this year.

This year, there is only solution. Each robot must have the same ability, to pick up Tetra's, and place them on cones. Every robot is the same, and the only thing that changes is a team's strategy per game: attack, defend, create rows, etc. That is BORING: no spectator wants to see the same thing over and over again; no self-respecting engineer wants to recreate something that is already been made.

What pisses me off the most this year is the price increase. That extra $1000 went to waste, as far as I'm concerned. Sure we got cooler parts, cameras, more motors, better electronics, but they mean nothing. This year, they spent more time on making a better kit than they did on making a better game.

Well, at this point, you should know how I feel on this game. FIRST really let down it's core group of kids: young engineers who like to tinker, create, design, and to solve problems with beautiful solutions, to learn and to "earn" their way to the top. It is most certainly not brand new rookie teams, without previous experience or knowledge of any hand tools, electronics or programming. It seems that this year, the game has been dumbed down to an extreme.


FIRST: you disappoint me. I expected better from you.


Now, with the majority of my argument/rant over, I want to encourage any remaining readers to respond to this: tell me why this game is a true FIRST game, tell me how there is more than one solution, tell me how this is more than a one-dimensional game. Tell me why this game doesn't suck.