[MUD-Dev] code base inquiry

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> No, I said average. There are several high quality free muds available, I
> agree. And yes, if people don't put in the effort, it won't be anything
> interesting. This is entirely my point. Why do most free muds have little
> effort put in them? Lack of motivation and ability. What is an
> all-but-universal and generally squeezably good motivator? Money. Money
> attracts quality people and motivates them. That's not always the case of
> course, as demonstrated by the handful of high-quality free muds, but
> generally speaking, money is a fantastic motivator for people. There is a
> reason that it takes money (and lots of it) to retain the best people in
> almost any area of life.

Not really. The best people (as in intelligent) are retained by
interesting work, peerage, status, freedom, see universities. The key
issue is self perception, not money.

AFAIK research on job satisfaction suggests that money is not a good
motivation, but the lack of money may inhibit satisfaction. Good
motivators are "meaningful job", "social networks", "good feedback"...
Generally, if you think that you receive less money for your work than
your peers, then you are likely to feel dissatisfied, exploited etc. It
isn't the amount of money in itself, but peerage. (Assuming you get
enough to cover your running expenses and then some, of course)

A person with a decent day job and income, and who has never really
_felt_ that money has prevented him from doing what he wanted to do can
clearly be highly motivated and run a free mud, provided that he views
it as meaningful (by helping other people for instance) and get
constructive feedback from a decent number of users.  Maybe there is a
difference between social muds and PK muds. I suspect that the social
ones provide more motivating factors.

However, with the increased visibility of commercial muds maybe there
will be a shift towards pay muds even in the hobbyist arena. (due to the
"my free mud is better than that pay mud, I am being exploited" feeling)

Ola.
(I think the effect of money pretty much boils down to religious
beliefs, identity, personality / childhood experiences, general economy
etc)





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