Discussion Ringelmann Effect: "My God, it's so accurate that I'm not going to be motivated anymore..."

[tom_mai78101]

Ringelmann effect - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Now, I see why Mojang is a small dev team, with just a few devs working on Minecraft alone. They are successful because of how motivated they are.

And then we go to some big companies, and sometimes we see a few layoffs here and there from them, because some few workers are not motivated enough to continue working, and they just loaf around. There are some who are being wrongly laid off for no reason, but we'll be ignoring that gray area for now.

I'm just saying, two people alone working on one thing might be less motivational than just one person working on the same thing. It's a possibility that no numbers can define.

 

[FireCat]

Well, It's somewhat true!

 

[tom_mai78101]

My comrade, we need to think of something worth being motivated.

 

[Varine]

They're successful in keeping it updated because Minecraft is a single project that, let's be honest, isn't exactly World of Warcraft or something. Like, there isn't that heavy of a workload thrown on them. My initial landscape generators are using almost exactly the same thing as that entire game, minus the networking capacity and adding in tools for large scale transformations (which is what makes Minecraft suck, IMO. I never got into it because I didn't want to explore I wanted to create, but I don't want to sit here for twenty five hours placing a few thousand blocks to make it so that I can have a mountain here. I want to go into an overhead, put the mountain there, and modify aspects of it to my need).

 

[Accname]

Its pretty obvious in my opinion.
With a higher group, your own work isnt as important to the outcome anymore as it is if you work alone. Thus, you see it as a chance to slack off.
You also dont want to work much more then anybody else in the group. You will either be seen as a workoholic who wants to make his teammates look bad or a control freak who wants to do everything himself.
And if you notice the other people becoming less and less productive, you lose your own motivation because you question whether or not the others are interested in the goal at all and if there is any chance for the project to succeed.

I think the best way to work on a game project is to split your group into separate branches with very few, or only one, person working on it.
Graphics, sound, programming, ai, ...
I like to work at least together in a team of 2, it helps to have somebody to talk to and you dont have to feel bad if one of them is doing more work then the other. Because the one working less can act as moral support and develope the ideas together with the other person, like your personal quality assurance.

 

[tom_mai78101]

I did my fair share of questioning myself when I was working on Marble Run. Heck, our team somehow split up in the midst of developing it.

 

[FireCat]

“Competition" is a rude yet effective motivation.

 

[tom_mai78101]

FireCat, that only works on something that is worth being competitive for.

 

[FireCat]

at only works on something that is worth being competitive for.

Yes, But with a group of people, it's pretty effective. It doesn't matter what kind of Competition it is. Well, there's always someone who wants to be best.

Btw: why not make an "fees Competition?" It might even motivate you "to not forget a little thing" Hmm. RIGHT?

 

[tom_mai78101]

Forget it, so much effort that I'm just going to sleep it in.

Anything involving money will get polarizing results, no matter what.

 

[FireCat]

Anything involving money will get polarizing results, no matter what.

Well, Just remember, we're only human.

 

[Varine]

We are clearly bears.

 

[FireCat]

How so?

 

[tom_mai78101]

Either you just got whooshed, or I am also a victim.

 

[camelCase]

FireCat was originally supposed to be FireBear (which would have sounded cooler and made us give him more respect.)

 

[tom_mai78101]

FireBear made me think of Smokey the Bear.

 

[Varine]

Smokey the Bear is FireBear's retarded cousin.

 

[FireCat]

Just NO camelCase

 

[tom_mai78101]

Luckily you're not related to a bear.

 

[FireCat]

Well, I would say the same ! LOL