Petition to end things that confuse the public

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

Yes, we do allow this in FRC. It is not for the spectators. It is for the students.

Exactly. You deserve a cookie :-)

[Steven Donow]

It's interesting to see what confuses people...my roommates stopped by the Northeastern District this weekend and I spent probably 20 minutes afterwards trying to explain alliance selection to them...("Wait, so you're picking to use another robot in the finals? Why wouldn't you use your own robot?") The game made perfect sense to them, aside from litter ("doesn't having a human player defeat the purpose of it being a robotics competition?")

Then there's my grandma who thought last year's game made the most sense out of every game she's seen (2007 onwards)

Then there's my dad who texted me after a match in Rhode Island, "Why did your ranking go down when you won the match?"

The public is just generally confusing themselves....

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Exactly. You deserve a cookie :-)

No, Cheesecake!

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Christopher149

Between both teams and announcers, it can get very confusing when people refer to the game pieces variously as totes, containers, RCs, litter, noodles, crates, bins, barrels, garbage cans, yellow totes, coop totes, "cooperation" totes, cans, et cetera. Can we get some consistency (especially from the announcers)?

Edit: Regarding chanting "red/blue alliance", it's very similar to chanting "Let's go Huskies [or insert other team name here]".

My favourite is "1310 going for the coopertition stack in autonomous!"

[BlueLipstick]

Originally Posted by Steven Donow

It's interesting to see what confuses people...my roommates stopped by the Northeastern District this weekend and I spent probably 20 minutes afterwards trying to explain alliance selection to them...("Wait, so you're picking to use another robot in the finals? Why wouldn't you use your own robot?") The game made perfect sense to them, aside from litter ("doesn't having a human player defeat the purpose of it being a robotics competition?")

This^ Of all the 'confusing' things to work on, the dances seem like the most comprehensible to the public, because it resembles other sporting events.

[JamesCH95]

The premise of this whole thread is silly in my opinion.

Main-stream professional sports have all sorts of traditions that seem weird to outsiders: the Red Wings' lucky octopus, playoff beards, vuvuzelas, shouting "ole ole ole", the Red Socks playing "sweet caroline", dumping gatorade on the coach, endzone/goal dances, drinking milk after the Indy 500... the list goes on and on.

It's all weird. It shows that no one is taking what they're doing TOO seriously, and I think it is good that we do kinda weird things at robotics events. It helps everyone get into the spirit of the event and feel more like a unified group.

Having said that, I'd be okay if "cotton-eyed joe" was never played again.

[Bertman]

with the exception of some specific songs, there are certainly parts that I can personally do without, but buy and large it ain't broke and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Explaining things to new folk will be a universal constant.

We could definetly say goodbye to Y M C A and I would not mourn it's loss

[matthewdenny]

The one thing that hurts the spectator value in my opinion is match turn around. 2 minutes of action and 7 minutes of field reset can make it hard to get into it for spectators. The entire event is basically 3 hours of excitement that takes a day and a half. I have no idea how to change this (or if we should even try), but if by magic you could watch the whole thing in 3 hours strait it would make for a more spectator friendly environment.

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by matthewdenny

The one thing that hurts the spectator value in my opinion is match turn around. 2 minutes of action and 7 minutes of field reset can make it hard to get into it for spectators. The entire event is basically 3 hours of excitement that takes a day and a half. I have no idea how to change this (or if we should even try), but if by magic you could watch the whole thing in 3 hours strait it would make for a more spectator friendly environment.

Kinda like baseball?
I don't know if you have ever watched a video of only matches, one after the other, non-stop. It gets a little tiresome.
Sometimes, the space between the movements is as important as the song itself.

[AJCaliciuri]

Growing up with FIRST, the thing I always loved an looked forward to most was the dancing. It's so quintessentially FIRST for me at this point, I can't imagine a Regional without it. I think it adds to the excitement and energy of the competition and can also be a great display of sportsmanship with members of teams on both alliances dancing together and having fun.

I agree, to outsiders, it may be a bit confusing during the Playoffs to have random dance breaks, but there aren't many alternatives. Most of the Regionals in Canada this year showed the "FRC Rhapsody" and "All about Them Totes" music videos, which filled a few timeouts.

I like the idea of some more audience interaction with facts, quizzes and playing the animation a few times.

However, I don't think its a good idea to hold awards during those 6-minute timeouts. Logistically, it's just too much. With the judges and MC having to be on the field while game elements are still in place, with robots on the field, and with entire teams having to come down to collect, it's just way too much and would probably cause more delays than time it would save.

To address this:

Between both teams and announcers, it can get very confusing when people refer to the game pieces variously as totes, containers, RCs, litter, noodles, crates, bins, barrels, garbage cans, yellow totes, coop totes, "cooperation" totes, cans, et cetera. Can we get some consistency (especially from the announcers?

I was a rookie Game Announcer this year at the North Bay Regional, and I get it. I admit that I interchanged a lot of terms while I was calling matches, and the other veteran Game Announcer admitted that he did too.

Before this season, I always called Totes Orbis Bins, which unfortunately caused some confusion during Matches.

I can tell you that I definitely did not use the wrong terms on purpose. I know what terms the FRC Manual uses, but in the heat of the moment, I was less concerned with using the wrong term and more concerned with keeping up with the action on the field.

I can't speak for anyone else, but that would be my answer to your question.

[sanddrag]

After starting this thread, I've realized a few things:

• The goofy songs are highly valued by many in our program
• We don't have a clear and consistent focus on anything that confuses the public
• Rather than changing our program for the sake of the public's understanding, we need to work harder to educate the public about what we do

Those points said, I think I've gained all I was looking to get from this discussion. I'm fine with letting this thread fall into oblivion. Now, let's get back to our cleanup work on those handful of events where yelling "Robot!" is still a thing.

[MooreteP]

The dancing at the PNCMP is epic.