Incentives
 

So someone asked me why I spend all this time learning this language and making an AddOn. I didn’t really do a good job explaining myself. Now I am revisiting the topic for myself and if I should spend any more time on this.

I have some really cool ideas for version 3.0 to my SWAPS addon but I having a hard time justifying more time on this. This project has gotten carried away with my targeted timeline.

What are the incentives for developers to build an AddOn? I am curious to hear what other developers have to say on this. The AddOns are free, but are they required to be? Does anyone really donate to an AddOn developer? I don’t recall seeing any Ads on esoui, but I would entertain the idea of developers getting returns on ads on their AddOn pages.

My primary incentive for an addon is what can I benefit from having in game to improve my game play enjoyment. I find that I am more likely to keep an addon updated and working if I am using it myself than one that I just did because someone asked.

My secondary incentive is to learn. I absolutely love learning new things, but unfortunately I have noticed that unless it is my number one hobby, if I don't keep at it I forget half the stuff. The more I work at something the more I retain for future use.

At present I only have my gatherer addon but I plan to add some other tradeskill based addons over the course of time. Primarily for my own use and secondarily for other people to use. As long as my own use of the addon isn't affected I don't mind adding 'options' to it for other people.

I generally don't donate to addon's I use but then I don't ask for my own time to be paid for either. The only one I ever did that for was nUI in wow as that was a massive undertaking by the addon writer and a small payment to say thanks for the hardwork was worth it for my game play use of his replacement interface.

However, I like the ingeniousness that I have seen whereby in game payment has been suggested. I can see that as a good way of paying for a good addon as a donation/goodwill gesture. I am surprised no one thought of that in wow but I suppose it could be because there were more servers around and it was less likely people on your server were using your specific addon or even knew who you were.

I have written a few addons for ESO so far, but haven't released them yet. I wrote them because I wanted my game improved, and nothing existed to do it. That was my incentive. I released one for wow a long time ago.

There's less incentive to release, at least no monetary incentives.

If you're programming to make money, you should actually program to make money and not donate your time tweaking a game.

Blizzard claimed authors had no rights to charge for their addons, basically asserting that all addons were derivative works of wow. While I have no intention to charge for mine, I found that spurious claim distasteful enough that I stopped dev on my addon for wow.

Otherwise, addon development is largely the group of people that are happy getting a thank you and praise for their time. Unless it's a really popular addon like questhelper, you aren't going to be able to sell it. You aren't going to pay your rent.

I write add-ons because I enjoy the challenge of solving problems using explicit logic, and because something about the game interface bugged me and I had the means to fix it.

I release my add-ons because I figure other people might have the same complaints and might appreciate my solutions, and because I enjoy getting kudos for my work.

I don't ask for money because then I would expect myself to code and maintain to a professional standard, and I don't consider my lua skills or code maintenance ability to be professional-grade. Also, I consider my add-on writing to be part of my ESO-playing hobby, and I don't expect to get paid for my hobbies.

This will be a very I-centric post.. but that was the OP's intent, so here goes:

I write addons whenever I feel the stock UI lack something which I take for granted and there is no other addons providing a solution satisfying my own personal needs.

I write addons because I can.

I release addons to the public because I love getting comments about why my addons can't do this and that and how people hate the fonts I use or the features I added or forgot to add :rolleyes:

I release addons to the public because I hope the stuff I wrote can benefit someone else in the same boat as me.

I release addons just to see how many favorites and downloads I can get (disappointingly few compared to Garkin's addons (he's the king)) :p

I don't do it to learn Lua... Lua is just another scripting language with some pros/quirks and I don't really see myself using Lua for anything else than writing addons which is a pure hobby.

If I am truly honest - those are about the same reasons I do it too.
I wrote UCT because it annoyed me that I had to synch my chat tabs manually.
I published it because I wanted to see how many likes/downloads I can get. There is nothing wrong with having pride in ones abilities and I am good at programming.

It has not occured to me to even ask for donations. I am sufficiently motivated by my own arrogance to continue and I think people that ask for donations propably need them more then I do.
There is an aspect of learning involved, but more about non-language parts of the programming. Things like planning and finding the spot where what I wrote is not perfect - but good enough that I do not need to invest more time.

I have got 0 gold, $0 and 0€ from any of my addons.
However I also didn't ask for any donations in any way
(and I also linked no PP account or anything).

I did it because I like to help, because
I was bored and because I felt like
there was lacking something.

However it 's here like everywhere -
Most people don't donate if they don't have to.
So if you don't code addons that are highly popular,
you 're bound to receive mostly nothing. TLDR:

If you need / want to get something:

Scramble, minify, obfuscate and provide Premium- and Light-Versions
of your Addons (for Donations - I mean real Buckshots).

Because in the end Free is always considered Free
especially when people are anonymous - Take and Take. ;)

LOL this is the best reason ever ! :D Use Comic Sans and Papyrus everywhere! Wait for ppl to complain about it :banana:
Also good way to anoy everyone seams to be resetting the profil after every AddOn update :)

Rofl I must admit I did laugh at that bit myself as well. It's as good a reason as any.

My motivation seems to be a bit different than most people here. This is my first foray into add-on development, and since I was so hyped for ESO I figured I'd invest in more ways than just the usual, and started on my first add-on during the beta weekends.

I managed to get my first version up of my first add-on on the last beta weekend before early access, and, as a first time developer, I was shocked/humbled/excited by my ~500 downloads that I managed to get before early access. That, along with the feedback and climbing favorites number, showed me that people were enjoying what I did. So I kept working on it, refining my add-on and my knowledge and stuff. My numbers kept climbing. Someone asked if I had a donation button, so I added one.

Had a couple more ideas and suggestions, and made those. More success. My stuff is way more successful than I ever would have anticipated as a first-time add-on developer, but I think what really drives me is knowing that people really like my work. On one hand you can say it fuels my pride, on the other you could say it fuels my passion for creating things that people happy and dreams of being in game development in general. It could also be my relative newbieness in the world of add-on development.

It's kinda funny, though. I'm maintaining my subscription to this game not to play it, but to maintain my work. I haven't played in over a month now.


As for donations; I ask for them but I don't *need* them. Think about it this way: there are many personalities in the world. People love in different ways, hate in different ways, and even appreciate in different ways. Sometimes, the way people want to show their appreciation is by giving money. Maybe I'm taking advantage of that just a little bit, but would you decline if someone offered to buy you a beer after helping them with yardwork, even if you love yardwork? And yes, I've made some money on donations. Nothing really significant, but not trivial either.


TL;DR: I do it for the feeling of knowing that what I do is making people happy, if even on a small scale. And because it's a reach into my dreams of being a game dev. And monetary donations do happen.

I just enjoy "modding" in general. It is a hobby for me. Also a challenge for me. And I like a good challenge.

About incentives... as long as I am playing the game, that's incentive enough for me. People using my mods, is a bonus, which makes me very happy as well.

Donations; I don't ask for donations. I don't mind those ask for it neither. There are people willing to donate, I understand that. As long as someone doesn't go and make a free version, and another "donator" version, I'm fine with donations.

I write addons because I am lazy and hate repetitive tasks.

I'd much rather spend time doing something interesting (writing and testing my code in a game) than something boring (updating a spreadsheet, checking my bag space before going into a dungeon etc).

That said, I also like the fact that my work can help others as well.

I enjoy helping others within the author community also. :)

To date, I think writing addons for games has got me the following that can be measured:

* Premium membership of another website for free (and therefore several beta keys & discounts).
* Approx £150 of Amazon vouchers.
* A $20 paypal payment (a guy in warcraft asked me to write him an addon, I did so for free. He then sent me $20 without me asking as all his guild used it loads).

I've never asked for money or donations though.

Why wold people complain? Comic Sans is a hero that often saved the day:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/35...ont-conference

It has also been weaponized: http://www.libressl.org/ Read the footer at the bottom of the page.

I'm more a fan of Neutraface....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHCu28bfxSI

I like how OP just used my idea and resettet the profil with his last update :D

ZO should give addon authors a free/discounted subscription imo...

I subbed for 3 months after the initial first month, but I don't see myself renewing after this period has ended.
Glad I didn't fork out for 6 months which I originally intended.

Thanks and kudos (and even donations) are not enough motivation for me to keep a subscription for a game I'm not playing.
Maintaining addons without access to the game is not really realistic beyond updating API version numbers...

Oh, yeah. I expected to love this game for at least three months. Bought a 3-month sub, but haven't played much at all. The I'm discontinuing my support once I lose my sub :P

Mahh you can't leave before I go! (have payed 6m at the start). Leveling slow and working with the addons is fun for me :)

Don't worry, I still have two months left!