OK this is a three-part question:
By now we’ve all had a chance to watch Battlebots (CC), Robotica (TLC) and now the new RobotWars (TNN) so I was curious how you would rate them relative to each other. Do you like the combat nature of BB & RW or do you prefer the challenges of Robotica and to some extent RW? Do you like RW housebots over the Battlebox hazards? Which competition is more “FIRST like”? What are your thoughts?
Second question:
Three robot shows have made it to TV in the last year. BB is going on its fourth season, Robotica will be filming season 2 & 3 within the next month, RW is very encouraged with its debut and has started plans for season 2 and Battlebots IQ (high school league) should be recorded early next year. The question is, how important do you believe a TV presence is to promote & inspire science and technology as well as potentially get young people interested in an engineering career.
Third question:
With the near competitionless “challenge” the FIRST game was last year, do you believe that we will have a new game this year with more head to head competition and a lot more of a “Made for TV” feel to the game? Should FIRST be pursuing the TV publicity?
*Originally posted by K2unit *
**Third question:
With the near competitionless “challenge” the FIRST game was last year, do you believe that we will have a new game this year with more head to head competition and a lot more of a “Made for TV” feel to the game? Should FIRST be pursuing the TV publicity?
**
I haven’t seen enough of the “combat robotics” programs to really address the other questions, I can say that FIRST has said there will be a return to a head to head competition format for this coming year, but they have been predictably vague as to what it means when they say that. Will it be a return to 2v2 as we have seen in years past, or something new? We’ll have to wait a few more months to see…
As far as pursuing the TV publicity, while I commend the other programs for their efforts in getting on TV, I think that at the same time, it also hurts our efforts, not so much in getting on TV, as things such as the A&E program shows, but getting the viewers that it would need to keep us on the airwaves. I feel personally that people any more, when you tell them that another robot show is coming on TV, will automatically associate it with the shows they already see. What their reaction will be when they see something entirely different, I honestly don’t know.
I personally don’t think that we should develop the game and the competition in general specifically FOR TV, as doing this, I feel, will cause us to have to lose a lot of what makes FIRST stand out among all of these competitions. When you start trying to design something specifically for TBV, you have to take too much into account what Joe TV-Watcher at home will want to see. I know this question has been raised before, but the question still remains in my mind, do we really need the nationwide, series-style TV coverage to continue to grow? The fact that FIRST has seen a 50% growth rate without massive, or even substantial, amounts of TV coverage makes me think that we would be fine without our own series. Yes, getting a spot on nationwide, or better yet, local news, will help, but the massive amounts of coverage that Battlebots and other similar programs have I view as simply a perk, not a requirement.
1.) I like Robot Wars and Junk Yard Wars, I do not like Battle Bots. I’m not all that excited about Battle Bots IQ, it just doesn’t interest me. The reason I like Robot Wars and not Battle Bots is because of the strategy involved in Robot Wars. Although the robots get destroyed, there is much damage to be avoided. When the robots get into the pinball aspect tof the game there is strategy much like FIRST. Before a match starts there must be a game plan. JYW, has the time limit and other aspects relative to FIRST. The show also teaches the viewers about what’s going on in the show. To me BB is nothing but destruction. It makes me think of wrestling in a way. People watch to see who will defeat whom, and they follow it the same way as wrestling fans follow the wrestlers.
2.) Given the mentality and activity level of most Americans, based on statistics, I think that TV is vital to the longevity of anything. Without TV there is very little knowledge of existance. It’s much like underground music, only people who search for or already know about it will ever know about it. It spreads by word of mouth. That’s not to say that without TV nothing will ever get spread around, but would people want to be Crocodile Hunters or Jack Hannahs without having watched National Geographic at some point?
3.) Based on what has been brought up about competition in the game this year, I think there will be head to head. As far as designing a game that is viewer and TV friendly: if FIRST does do that they better make darn sure that they figure out away to handle way more people than they ever had because there will a mad rush of people who want to jump on the band wagon. They won’t know what hit them and they’ll get some bad press if they start telling people they can’t handle the numbers. I will now avoid a rant.
