R/C Naval Combat

But what is the name of our hobby, actually? Consider this website: RC Naval Combat. That term was coined by Justin, wasn't it? (If not, then by someone else.) Robotic Warship Combat was coined by me. And RC Warship Combat was coined by someone else. It doesn't make any difference to me, what it's called. It could just as easily be called, Model Ship Demolition Derby.

Very true. You just reminded me that the actual central organizing body for the robot combat community is the Robot Fighting League (RFL). That's not a name everyone knows. Every event calls itself whatever it feels like. For example: BARF (Bay Area Robot Fights) is comming up in June. That's a name it's hard to forget. Robotic Warship Combat, RC Warship Combat, Warship Fighting League, or Naughtybots, call it what you like it's still basically the same game.

Posted By Knight4hire on 13 May 2009 12:21 PM
But the word "Robot" conjures up thougths of "Robbie", "Tobar", "Gort", "Lost in Space", and "I Robot"

And this is a bad thing, how, exactly?

A big problem that we have in this hobby (or is it a sport?  See 'hobby vs. sport' threads for simlar controversial discussions) is that we tend to "market" to ourselves rather than to the world at large.

Honestly, who really cares what thoughts are conjured up in the mind of 1, 2, 4, or 200 of "us", who are already "in"?  Unless, of course, the goal is to close the group to outsiders and deny entry to new people.

On the other hand, if we are sincerely interested in growing the hobby/sport, attracting new members, then we need to do some real marketing.  There's a big reason that people aren't beating the doors down to get in.  That reason has everything to do with perception.

People complain about the lack of interest in this hobby, and seem to think that cost of entry is the limiting fact.  Check out what it takes to buy or build, maintain, and fight a combat "robot".  Somehow, the sport (or is it a hobby?) of combat robotics has exploded from nothing at all a few years ago.  Cost doesn't deter those folks, for some reason, so why should it be "the" limiting factor for us?

This hobby is in dire need of a serious image makeover.  Unless, of course, it's OK just to occupy a small, back-water niche in a declining segment.  If our goal is to gradually fade away to nothing, then we're on a fine course to achieve that.  Do nothing, and we'll get there eventually. 

The issue should not be what "we" might think about a particular name.  "We" are not going to join this hobby.  "We" already have joined.  It's the other 99.999% of the population that we need to address.  What is going to attract the attention of the large majority of people who really are not interested in slow model boats?  That's what we need to consider, not whether technicalities of a definition do or do not apply.

JM

A big problem that we have in this hobby (or is it a sport?  See 'hobby vs. sport' threads for simlar controversial discussions) is that we tend to "market" to ourselves rather than to the world at large.

This is soo... true. If you randomly talked to 100 people on the street odds are you wouldn't catch one who had ever heard of us. 0% is not very good market penatration.  Events like Maker Faire, and a couple of spots on obscure web TV shows are about the extent of the outside recruiting I've seen so far. There was a comment in another disscussion that I will paraphrase (since I'm too lazy to look up the quote) 'People want to have fun. We all priortize are time to do the fun things like building and battling.  Very little time is left to do the boaring organization stuff.'  I know I'm guilty of that.

I'm sure if Justin added it, we could fill a new forum section just with ideas to help expand the hobby. Maybe we need to start  trying them out instead.

just my 2 cents.

Posted By Knight4hire on 15 May 2009 08:06 AM
Maybe there should be a thread on how to advertise the hobby!!!!

Instead of Hi-jacking the "Robot" thread.....

There's already a whole sub-forum for the subject:  Communication/Propaganda.

JM

Posted By CWebster on 26 May 2009 01:44 AM
Rob, I certainly see the reasoning for using "robot" and no doubt it draws a great many people; however, speaking for my self, I can safely state that if the word had been commonly used in connection with this hobby a couple of years ago, I would probably never would have become involved. The term leaves me absolutely, totally cold. Again, that's just my opinion.

Same goes for me here.  It would of had me thinking of wedge robot ships going around trying to capsize other ships w/ ever so rare robot ship circular saw blades going around on the water...

 

Posted By CWebster on 26 May 2009 01:44 AM
Rob, I certainly see the reasoning for using "robot" and no doubt it draws a great many people; however, speaking for my self, I can safely state that if the word had been commonly used in connection with this hobby a couple of years ago, I would probably never would have become involved. The term leaves me absolutely, totally cold. Again, that's just my opinion.

I'm going to follow this up over in the "Propaganda" forum.

JM

Posted By Gardengnome on 26 May 2009 12:04 PM

Posted By CWebster on 26 May 2009 01:44 AM
Rob, I certainly see the reasoning for using "robot" and no doubt it draws a great many people; however, speaking for my self, I can safely state that if the word had been commonly used in connection with this hobby a couple of years ago, I would probably never would have become involved. The term leaves me absolutely, totally cold. Again, that's just my opinion.

Same goes for me here.  It would of had me thinking of wedge robot ships going around trying to capsize other ships w/ ever so rare robot ship circular saw blades going around on the water...

 

We could start a SciFi/Anime class. I remember someone out there wanting to build a Space Battleship Yamato.  A Grappler ship or 2 from Outlaw Star might give us the proper 'robot' look.  

Eh...robot isn't the most accurate term(though I agree it's subjective), but it does attract attention.

I agree that it's broad enough of a term that people could easily envision a "battlebots on water" thing...which is fine, but would be a different game entirely. For advertising, I don't know that this is a bad thing. General terms and names are mostly there to attract initial interest. You can't possibly describe the hobby entirely in it's name.