My only gripe with Blueprint testing is that the factors aren't indicative of real lane play. Often there will be "tests" that show "no visible" or minimal difference in reaction. These tests don't have the factor of 9 other bowlers on a league night creating transition. Especially houses that have older surfaces, use older oils, or mixed league bowlers that see 3-4 bowlers a night that use plastic down the middle of the lane. I highly doubt that static weights will have any noticeable difference in a blueprint test, but other tests... especially those regarding track flare I feel produce inconclusive results because the test environment is too controlled to mimic real time adjustments/reaction in a competitive setting.
It would be a bear of an experiment to do with 10 league bowlers and 1 being the control for a Blueprint experiment, but I would love to see if any of the results change, especially in one ball-multiple layout testing.
Should it matter how many balls are thrown on a shot? A Blueprint study will show the difference between two balls on the SAME shot. That is what matters, not the difference between the first shot on fresh of one ball and the last shot on burn of another. You need identical environments for the study to have any credibility.
You kinda made my point. The game isn't played in one static condition on one shot. Yes it's good to know the shape through the lane of that one given shot. These studies with just the proof of the testing environment tell you about the ball path on that one shot. How can you take that information from these tests and apply it to a real scoring environment? This game can get all kinds of screwy and nonsensical once USBC starts making rules that affect everyone's bottom line ($) built out of a robotics test when the benefit or reaction in the test environment means nothing.
RG, Diff, Side-Weight, Track Flare and the scoring pace are mutually exclusive. The tests aren't creating bylaws to level a playing field or setting a benchmark for a scoring pace.
I look at like this. A bowler throws a ball on a shot (any shot) and assuming the bowler does not know which ball is in his hand what would be the difference between the two balls? If he stands 20 hits 10 with the same release with both balls, what would be the difference? If you want variety, you can repeat the same experiment on burned up lanes. This is how I view the importance of Blueprint. To show the difference between two different balls thrown identically on the exact same condition.
If you want to bring in pattern degradation along with a smorgasbord of other conditions, then you will have to bring in bowler accuracy and repeatability. Blueprint can somewhat simulate bowler ability but it can't simulate pattern degradation. I guess you can try to input a "pattern" that represents a used pattern.
Either way, if you use real people, no one will believe any of the conclusions probably anyway. I feel people view results based on this hierarchy: #1 Blueprint, #2 Throwbot & #3 Pro Bowler, #4 random Joe. You see this in the responses to the random Joe video review.
