I gave settings a stab and it really wasn't that bad.
IRC didn't always work for me time-wise, so I used forum messages as needed to bridge the gaps.
Working on a team project like this is about helping the project to achieve it's goals. If you are more interested in achieving your own personal goals at the expense of the project, then that's not really useful to the team or project. If there is some overlap so that helping the team with its goals also helps you with your personal goals, then it's mutually beneficial and everyone wins. An example of this would be getting some practice with writing, art or development in return for offering your work.
As for using stuff from other sites, or not meeting the expected quality, that's just part of meeting the project's requirements. Leaning to produce quality work that meets expectations is important whether its for a leisure project like this or for your career.
One of the nice things about the PS team is that you are not pressured for work as you would be in the workplace. Things seem to move at a fairly slow pace, which works well for folks like myself who are busy in real life and have a hard time finding continuous time to work on side projects.
I've heard a lot of bitching about people just *handing over* their precious work for... for FREE. That's free as in, "I'm not getting the million dollars that my precious ancient Nolthrir poem or 3d stick with leaf and berry would land me elsewhere." It's not like we're sawing off arms and legs... and fingers.. and giving them away for FREE.
You contribute stuff for several reasons, such as:
* To help improve the game for yourself and everyone else.
* To enjoy being able to see your work in the game and others enjoying it.
* To give back. We've all played the game on Talad's dime. Why not give something back?
* To get practice at doing what we do.
Well, I understand and I've been told, many times, the exact arguments you mention.
Let me first mention my feelings about your post. Sorry if I offend or anything. I have a harsh writing style, I know.
- IRC and Forum messages are both not as good as the plethora of project management methods available. Forum threads become bloated fast, are relatively time-consuming to manage and offer no effective way of uploading large amounts of objects, previews, images, music etc.
IRC is faster, but lacks the ability to send and receive messages when a person isn't online, it doesn't have a any project management functions (not even a simple to-do list easily accessible for the managers), and everything is said temporarily before it fades into the logs. Finally it also lacks an easy way to upload large amounts of objects, previews, images or even large amounts of text. It's simply the plainest thing out there.
- The tradeoff of 'Receiving experience' in return for 'Doing work for the PS team' argument is not realistic. There are a million other ways somebody can get experience without the constrictive (setting-)rules and regulations that apply to anything you submit. Anybody that wants to become good in writing or drawing will eventually cut out the PS middle-man so they can freely express themselves.
- Expecting quality is reasonable, but the way how low quality objects/textures are dismissed until considered good enough kills motivation (Rework after rework is a killer of motivation) Why not accept the object/texture outright and place the object/texture in a public place where it can be improved by others at another time? Then you won't have to return to the same boring subject ten times and lose all your motivation to do so along the way.
- A low-pressure project such as this is great for those who are working hard and have little time... But does this mean the development process is designed to attract and retain people that have little time to spend on PS? And thus prefer a low-pressure project? Isn't this a critical oversight?
And why can't a project be low-pressure whilst actually progressing? By working together, using management tools and using all the available (wo-)manpower, in all it's forms, in all it's qualities, whenever it becomes available?
- Finally, the motivational factors you've mentioned. The reasons why people help:
* To help improve the game for yourself and everyone else.
* To enjoy being able to see your work in the game and others enjoying it.
* To give back. We've all played the game on Talad's dime. Why not give something back?
* To get practice at doing what we do.
These are all internal motivational factors. These all rely on the mentality that the person has undying love for the project and the belief that the project HAS to work. This is not something you can ask from people that haven't got any reason to do this yet.
The first two factors, improving the game and the ability to see(enjoy, experience) what you've done are basically the same. They rely on the notion that you have love for PS and actually care that they are used/placed in-game. However, this excludes the majority of recruits: Unconvinced people that are repelled by the slow and tedious process of actually getting your stuff in the game. The people that remain already have much love for the game. But how can you grow a culture that trains people to have an undying love for PS when the condition to be accepted in that culture is to have an undying love for PS?
The third factor... well... Realistically, nobody who joins today, yesterday or last month will really care whether they give anything back to Talad. They do not know the guy, they do not know how the system operates. Why should they care? Because they are inherently 'good' people?
And the fourth... What if you're already really, really good at what you do? Do you still want the experience for experience's sake?
Personally, I believe the greatest problem is the culture surrounding the development team. On the one hand they desperately ask the community to help, whilst on the other refuse to change a culture which is rigged toward attracting people, with little to no experience in their respective fields, have little time to spend and already have to be somewhat fanatical about the game.
It's not a culture of innovation, team-work, permanent self-improvement and out-of-the-box thinking. It's a culture of traditional top-down management and 'this-is-how-it's-done'-isms.
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Now. I've said all the above and again, it will probably sound harsher than if I would say it. I'll move on to the part where you can rip me to shreds based on my suggestions.
What do I believe needs to be changed* There needs to be one volunteer that is dedicated to welcoming new recruits and sending them off to their respective leaders. They will seek out every complaint, thought, idea or feeling the recruit has. They will also act as a guardian and advocate for the recruits idea's, so that the recruit will feel welcomed, valued and understood.
* IRC, Forum. Keep them, but have a third management tool method available, capable of sending, accepting, completing and storing tasks and messages whether you are online or not. Preferably with a method of uploading several types of data. This can then be used to manage the new recruits instead of Email or IRC. I do not mean the library, the wiki or the Nexus. I mean a dedicated team and project management tool. This will also keep the workload for the recruitment volunteer at a minimum.
* All the information gathered by the Recruitment-volunteer in the management-tool will be quantified, stored and made into reports. This is to understand the motivation of recruits and so that the system can be adjusted accordingly and what could be improved in the team, backed by numbers rather than opinions.
* The notion 'Planeshift is not a democracy' should be killed right here, right now. Whilst I understand that PS is managed as a company, even managers of Fortune-500 companies (actually, especially those) actually listen to their employees. 'Planeshift is not a democracy' kills any innovation, any free thought that any recruit (or member) might bring into the development. It kills progress, it kills motivation and results in the loss of new recruits.
* The notion that people should be thankful to receive experience in exchange for working for this project should be removed from our collective memory. Instead, people should be thankful to be working in such a supportive collective that values the person work (in a way) regardless of its quality. This means accepting almost any work into a central database. If the quality is bad, the offending items will be shelved for improvement. If it is truly horrible, at least the recruit had his chance. But most importantly, the recruit will be kept exactly as busy with new things as he/she wants to be at the quality he/she can provide.
This way.
1. The recruit is less likely to leave the team on his/her own because of the (lack of) feedback he/she receives.
2. You can quickly produce as much content as possible in the few days that a volunteer has the highest amount of motivation, before the person recedes back into their normal life.
3. Give the next artist the choice: To rework or create from scratch, possibly saving them minutes to hours of work.
* In combination with the above, adjust any requirement to join the team to zero. Anybody (18+) should be capable of joining. It is simply not our place to demand anything from the volunteers at the start and it deters people who otherwise could become constructive members. Instead, the team should be a place where new recruits (some without skills) are trained and formed into advocates of the game.
New recruits should get the opportunity to first grow the love for a team that has their back, then the work they need to complete and only finally, the entire Planeshift project.
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I'm not saying this is the end-all, be-all. I'm not saying this is the golden key. I'm saying that clinging on to the notion that what we currently have is 'working' is detrimental to the entire project. I'm saying a system isn't and should never be 'working' because only when you admit its broken in some way, you can improve it.
But those are my ideas on the matter. Who would be the Recruitment-volunteer to set all this in motion? I don't know. It could be me, but only if I get a type of guarantee that people will at least have some willingness to test-drive my ideas.
Extra reading:
http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-Four-Factors-of-Motivation.aspx