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Split in the community
I think with the benefit of hindsight well see this was a phase the community and the EOs went through, adjusting to the issues created by competition in the Robot Event business. As Mike says, in established markets this happens all the time. The main problem is that the EOs businesses involve the participation, and in some cases the paid employment of builders, so the spheres of business and competitor overlap, sometimes creating conflict. Irrespective of the Space Centres behaviour, it may be unreasonable to expect two competing businesses to always collaborate for the good of the community if its not in their best business interests. That said, I think it usually will be in the EOs best interests to communicate with each other about their event timetable and even issues like this one, to make it easy for builders to attend as many events as possible. Its also sensible for EOs to acknowledge that, at this stage in the development of robot combat in the UK, stepping on each others toes is bound to alienate and even infuriate teams that have affiliations with their competitors.
As to public perception Andy, yes itd be better to present a unified front, but this is a discussion forum, not an advert. Some fans (hi there!) may judge us harshly, but Id hope that most of them realise that as with anything in peoples lives that they feel strongly about, debate is bound to get heated sometimes.
John.
I think with the benefit of hindsight well see this was a phase the community and the EOs went through, adjusting to the issues created by competition in the Robot Event business. As Mike says, in established markets this happens all the time. The main problem is that the EOs businesses involve the participation, and in some cases the paid employment of builders, so the spheres of business and competitor overlap, sometimes creating conflict. Irrespective of the Space Centres behaviour, it may be unreasonable to expect two competing businesses to always collaborate for the good of the community if its not in their best business interests. That said, I think it usually will be in the EOs best interests to communicate with each other about their event timetable and even issues like this one, to make it easy for builders to attend as many events as possible. Its also sensible for EOs to acknowledge that, at this stage in the development of robot combat in the UK, stepping on each others toes is bound to alienate and even infuriate teams that have affiliations with their competitors.
As to public perception Andy, yes itd be better to present a unified front, but this is a discussion forum, not an advert. Some fans (hi there!) may judge us harshly, but Id hope that most of them realise that as with anything in peoples lives that they feel strongly about, debate is bound to get heated sometimes.
John.
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