>A good case in point are the two Dave's over at Adventions [...] [I]t is
>quite evident that they are making no money at all [...] This doesn't seem
>to deter them in the slightest.
I always viewed making money from IF as a bonus, not a requirement. On the
other hand, if I could make a living writing IF, I might consider doing
that instead of working a "real job." (At the moment, my real job is very
interesting anyway, so this is totally hypothetical.)
In the long run, I doubt I'll be able to keep writing ambitious IF works.
I don't see myself able to make the time; there is a significant
opportunity cost. So in that sense, the fact that there is basically no
financial reward for IF authorship *will* deter authors like me, whether we
like it or not.
I've got half a dozen good IF ideas that will probably languish for lack of
spare time. They certainly wouldn't if I could write IF all day, every
day.
>I don't think anyone really expects to be compensated anymore. Rather they
>would LIKE to be compensated.
This is like saying, "I don't expect anyone to compete with Microsoft, but
I would LIKE to see a better PC OS standard." Doesn't mean it's a happy
(or, really, even acceptable) status quo.
Dave Baggett
__
dmb@ai.mit.edu
"Mr. Price: Please don't try to make things nice! The wrong notes are *right*."
--- Charles Ives (note to copyist on the autograph score of The Fourth of July)