It’s cause it’s approached as a sport, in which you usually want to have an even playing field metaphorically and literally.
Football and tennis would arguably also be more “interesting” (a better word is probably “varied”) if there were random playground elements on the field.
Can’t quickly think of ANY sport where it wouldn’t be the case, actually. But then running 100m in a straight line wouldn’t be that anymore.
Football (futbol) is actually played on varied pitches. A legal pitch can be anywhere from 45m wide to 90m wide, and can be from 90m long to 120m long. Legally you could play a game on a square shaped 90m by 90m pitch, although in practice those are rare. The City of Manchester stadium is the biggest pitch in England’s premier league, and it affects the way the team plays and gives them a home field advantage.
Anyhow, I don’t think there should be an “even playing field” because that’s not realistic. Where would you ever encounter a perfectly flat steel floor, other than at battlebots? It would be fine if that artificial constraint led to more interesting robots, but it doesn’t. It leads to boring fights. I mean, imagine if there were a competitive first person shooter game where the teams faced off against eachother across a completely flat, featureless expanse. It would be awful. As long as every robot has to deal with the same conditions, the conditions are fair. So, I think they should make the arena more interesting.
I feel like my point was missed a bit; let me repost a part of your comment with one detail (the sport) changed:
Anyhow, I don’t think there should be an “even playing field” because that’s not realistic. Where would you ever encounter a perfectly flat tennis court, other than at a tennis game? It would be fine if that artificial constraint led to more interesting humans, but it doesn’t. It leads to boring matches.
It’s cause it’s approached as a sport, in which you usually want to have an even playing field metaphorically and literally.
Football and tennis would arguably also be more “interesting” (a better word is probably “varied”) if there were random playground elements on the field.
Can’t quickly think of ANY sport where it wouldn’t be the case, actually. But then running 100m in a straight line wouldn’t be that anymore.
Football (futbol) is actually played on varied pitches. A legal pitch can be anywhere from 45m wide to 90m wide, and can be from 90m long to 120m long. Legally you could play a game on a square shaped 90m by 90m pitch, although in practice those are rare. The City of Manchester stadium is the biggest pitch in England’s premier league, and it affects the way the team plays and gives them a home field advantage.
Anyhow, I don’t think there should be an “even playing field” because that’s not realistic. Where would you ever encounter a perfectly flat steel floor, other than at battlebots? It would be fine if that artificial constraint led to more interesting robots, but it doesn’t. It leads to boring fights. I mean, imagine if there were a competitive first person shooter game where the teams faced off against eachother across a completely flat, featureless expanse. It would be awful. As long as every robot has to deal with the same conditions, the conditions are fair. So, I think they should make the arena more interesting.
???
I feel like my point was missed a bit; let me repost a part of your comment with one detail (the sport) changed:
Does that illustrate better what I am getting at?