How do you stay motivated?

[Zeealex]

Hello!

I have a burning question for modders past and present, how do you stay motivated when you're doing your projects?

And more seriously, what crushes that motivation?

[ApexMods]

Excellent questions, Alex.

I'll start with what can (but shouldn't!) crush motivation. Well, the internet is an excellent place to accomplish just that, because behind the cover of the web's anonymity there'll always be some people who apparently don't see any need for civility or even human decency, and resort to outright hostility. Partake in online exchange of thoughts words long enough, and you'll indubitably run into one or more of those characters. And of course these fine examples of humanity are the first to come out of the woodwork when they smell a chance to put someone's efforts down in any way they can think of and without a trace of constructive reasoning, so mod creators and their work are a most welcome target.

To engage them on any level or to analyze or even speculate about their motivation is a complete and utter waste of time, so the trick is to simply ignore them. Instead focussing on the feedback of those with constructive criticism, is your time and effort much better spent.

As for staying motivated, first and foremost I create mods because I enjoy modding, so the base of my initial motivation is pretty much self-supporting and largely independent of external influence. I only mod games I truly enjoy and consider to be excellent, and it gives me great pleasure to expand and refine them even further to my liking. Most of my mods are never even published, I simply create them for myself and maybe a couple of close friends. Some projects may begin to take on a life of their own and keep expanding without me actually noticing at first, and maybe they'll reach a stage where I'd consider taking them public.

But I digress. What I'm trying to express here, is that you should first and foremost find your own enjoyment in what you do. If you're having fun with the work and like the result yourself, that should be your main driving force to continue and finish what you started.

If you're lucky enough to release a mod that is well liked by many people, and you get loads of positive reactions and see the download count climbing, that is of course an amazing feeling and can be a huge push to go on even further, but you should never allow this to be your prime incentive. The core inspiration of your work has to be your very own, and you should try to always stay true to that motivation, rather than only running after approval by others.

Finally, even positive feedback can wear out your motivation, if you let it. We've actually talked about this briefly just a short while ago in these forums. Pressure from the outside to continue your work can have a detrimental effect on your desire to go on, as you may begin to feel somewhat obliged to deliver your efforts to those demanding them. Don't! As someone else so eloquently put it in another post, you don't owe anyone anything.

Mods are free. Modders give their work to others without asking anything in return, and that work should be appreciated "as is", without resulting obligations, without warranties of any kind. They should just be enjoyed - by their users and their creators alike.

PS: As a dire warning how absolutely awry things can go, once you allow others to get under your skin, you may want to read this tread from many years ago.

[Jeza]

My end, at i.e arma map http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?123142-West-Kent-Map-UK-WIP

I think the worst aspect is poor community tools and then having to use sometimes third party stuff which is a pain. The map making tools for Ofp/ArmA up until 2 (not tried 3) just made it an incredibly tedious job, and once you have got your sat mask ect, then you have to place thousands of objects down and thinking forward it seems like a massive slog.

What kept me going for a little while was going into game and seeing the work I had done and enjoying playing around in something I created. However sad ending, my motivation stopped and I quit!

Edited April 5, 2015 by Jeza

[wombat50]

I agree, you have to enjoy the endeavor or at the least have the 'want to'. As in I want to help someone share the work or I want to learn to do this. Funny, I have learned to do some things in modding, computers or in real life and once learned I lose all interest in it. But sometimes on down the road I can help someone who is interested in the same or similar thing if asked.

Working with or for someone leads to an obligation of some sort. So yes, that is a motivation for me.

But it always depends on mutual respect. I wouldn't want to work for or with anyone for long without that.

I remember awhile back Apex said something to the effect, " Nothing is a waste of time as long as you enjoy doing it."

That always stuck with me.

Nice work on the Arma 2 map Jeza. To me that is a feat.

Edited April 6, 2015 by wombat50

[twcrash]

First off Zee you will learn the ArmA community sucks. They are ignorant at best. I can tell you from first hand experience and 10+ years of dealing with BIS people. Make your addon knowing you will have dedicated followers who love what your doing but 10000 ###### who wanna see their names in print. If you need proof of that look at the new way people are screwing/reviewing games on Steam now (you will see what i mean) Now you can't even get decent user reviews because of these trolls.

I, probably like 100's of people scroll and read your WIP on the BIS foums. I don't post much there anymore but I go through it regularly and your post is one of them I watch. Keep up the good work. And remember you are doing something even BIS devs havent done for some stupid reason. And girls like my 10 yr old like it when they can play daddys games as a girl. And that carries on to when they get older but wind up with Lara Croft type characters..

[Jeza]

First off Zee you will learn the ArmA community sucks. They are ignorant at best. I can tell you from first hand experience and 10+ years of dealing with BIS people. Make your addon knowing you will have dedicated followers who love what your doing but 10000 ###### who wanna see their names in print. If you need proof of that look at the new way people are screwing/reviewing games on Steam now (you will see what i mean) Now you can't even get decent user reviews because of these trolls.

I, probably like 100's of people scroll and read your WIP on the BIS foums. I don't post much there anymore but I go through it regularly and your post is one of them I watch. Keep up the good work. And remember you are doing something even BIS devs havent done for some stupid reason. And girls like my 10 yr old like it when they can play daddys games as a girl. And that carries on to when they get older but wind up with Lara Croft type characters..

That point most prominently shown for me when the Project Reality guys came in in ArmA 2 to make a mod and some of the reception they got from members new and old was disgusting, admittedly on both sides. But yeah bis community not so nice that said I've made some good online company there but there does seem a significant amount of elitism there not sure if its based on postcount or join date ect ect.

But as crash said your doing something completely unique which is rather rare in a modding community (and of quality) so that should be something to keep you motivated as well.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Jeza

[Jeza]

Ps when you get into scripting, just imagine your end goal can be this.....and that's all the motivation you'll need.

Introducing the A130AC130M1A1Tusk, the future of the USAF

[Zeealex]

the damn truth

I think you summed it up in a nutshell and tied it with a bow there Apex! It's an excellent write up there, I honestly couldn't have said any better myself.

My end, at i.e arma map http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?123142-West-Kent-Map-UK-WIP

I think the worst aspect is poor community tools and then having to use sometimes third party stuff which is a pain. The map making tools for Ofp/ArmA up until 2 (not tried 3) just made it an incredibly tedious job, and once you have got your sat mask ect, then you have to place thousands of objects down and thinking forward it seems like a massive slog.

What kept me going for a little while was going into game and seeing the work I had done and enjoying playing around in something I created. However sad ending, my motivation stopped and I quit!

yeah, it's the worst, especially when theres so many out there and you're constantly given conflicting accounts of what's better for you.

I can tell you from my experience, terrain builder is very buggy and unstable... it hangs my entire PC and forces me to cold shutdown, it's terrible!!

It's a shame you lost your motivation... Kent is a really cool map, I use it in A3MP myself, but I understand exactly where you're coming from about the tools.

Working with or for someone leads to an obligation of some sort. So yes, that is a motivation for me.

But it always depends on mutual respect. I wouldn't want to work for or with anyone for long without that.

exactly right! If you respect who you've obliged yourself to, then yeah, it's motivation enough to carry on. you don't want to pour your heart out for someone who doesn't appreciate your work.

First off Zee you will learn the ArmA community sucks. They are ignorant at best. I can tell you from first hand experience and 10+ years of dealing with BIS people. Make your addon knowing you will have dedicated followers who love what your doing but 10000 ###### who wanna see their names in print. If you need proof of that look at the new way people are screwing/reviewing games on Steam now (you will see what i mean) Now you can't even get decent user reviews because of these trolls.

I, probably like 100's of people scroll and read your WIP on the BIS foums. I don't post much there anymore but I go through it regularly and your post is one of them I watch. Keep up the good work. And remember you are doing something even BIS devs havent done for some stupid reason. And girls like my 10 yr old like it when they can play daddys games as a girl. And that carries on to when they get older but wind up with Lara Croft type characters..

ladies and gentlemen! the arma community summed up! It's cute that you're getting your little girl into games though. teach her young! but yeah, thanks for the kind words there, quite unexpected

but you and jeza are right, there's a lot of rudeness and elitism, I think it comes with this "PC master race" stereotyping going on, they think they're owed the world twice over because they play a PC exclusive milsim, therefore they think they deserve to have their input in the mods that are made... I do genuinely take some of it on board. but some of the suggestions are just ridiculous.

I think i know what you mean about the steam reviews. there's some that have [insert supposedly witty comment here] 11/10. it doesn't tell us anything about the game. and then you get some who don't actually realise what they just bought xD

@Jeza, I once attached a TOW launcher to a sheep... it was the epic killer sheep of arma 2! XD

seriously, nice answers guys you pretty much collaboratively hit the nail on the head here!

on thing I didn't see though, is music, from my own personal perspective, music inspires me and pushes me to carry on in the face of some pretty hard to reach odds, do you guys feel the same?

[Jeza]

on thing I didn't see though, is music, from my own personal perspective, music inspires me and pushes me to carry on in the face of some pretty hard to reach odds, do you guys feel the same?

Its Audiobooks and podcasts my end, not really tried out music, plus having an audio book on medicine when your meant to be studying it rather than playing games makes me think at least im kinda studying

[MrMoon]

"BRRRREWWWWWWWWAAAAARRGGHHHHH GHOST RECOOOOON!!!!!!"

Every now and then I wake up in a cold sweat and scream those words.

Thats what motivates me.

[pz3]

Motivation comes from deep within your soul.

However real life is a freaking killer. I still load my wip stuff up and wish I could finish it. Pretty bad somedays.

[ApexMods]

Please come back to Ghost Recon, mate! We need your incredible 3DSM skills!

[pz3]

If I had that kind of freetime again I would. Maybe oneday but probably not for a while.

[ApexMods]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, buddy!

[twcrash]

Hey Zee you're in good company on the modeling front!!!

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/h1z1-adding-female-character-models/1100-6426831/

[Seo]

This is a serious problem.

I researched military simulations for 20 years.

However, fps game which you see now,

I feel better only graphic.

Based on experiences in actual military training

That's the closest that looking at it

The games that only few.

From all the world's military owned by the game.

(Arma3 ,Ghost recon phantom ,Callofduty AW etc)

Only the latest games are graphic good.

https://youtu.be/OB2Ve9R24J4

Ghost recon the old game, but the only game that can be engrafted in military experience.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Seo

[Rocky]

Hi SEO

Thanks for your post, I find it very interesting!

Can you tell me what the numbers mean next to the game titles, for example, what does 61,67 mean next to Ghost Recon Phantoms?

Also, Heroes unleashed in listed, what kind of list is this, as Heroes Unleashed is a mod, not a retail game?

Where can I see this full list online, can you post the URL?

Thanks!

[Seo]

Sorry for ther late reply

61.67 Mean Total average score.

Yes I games geared toward military purposes was close to reality

Too entertaining or so more like a movie or games played is

The soldier is still a young person who is not even begin to strain the reality.

Ghost recon the original is operation still since flashpoint

Attractive games.

Weak in English, I'm so sorry, sir

Edited June 29, 2015 by Seo

[Rocky]

Thank you SEO.