"As you may guess, it takes nearly 5,000 BYOND Members" in Off Topic

ID:185697
 
Nov 26 2005, 5:25 am
http://members.byond.com/?command=membership_info :

"As you may guess, it takes nearly 5,000 BYOND Members to employ just one person working full time on BYOND at a reasonable salary."

You guys pay full time workers around $53,800 a year? Wow, I want a job at BYOND =P
#1 Nov 26 2005, 5:39 am
I'm wondering why that page makes it seem like volunteerism is a foreign subject... I know that a lot of people wouldn't mind being paid much less (or nothing) but work more voluntarely. I think it'd be much more worth it to get a group of volunteers to work on it for free than hire some dude for 50k a year, and in the end acheive the same result.
#2 Nov 26 2005, 10:37 am
In response to Kunark (#1)
I think it'd be much more worth it to get a group of volunteers to work on it for free than hire some dude for 50k a year, and in the end acheive the same result.

Well yeah, BYOND has come this far with only volunteers!
#3 Nov 26 2005, 10:42 am
You guys pay full time workers around $53,800 a year? Wow, I want a job at BYOND =P

Depending on where you live that isn't really all that much especially for someone with real skill in programming :P.
#4 Nov 26 2005, 3:45 pm
In response to Theodis (#3)
Oh right yeah, I took $50,000 to be £50,000 (about $90,000).

But I didn't know programmers earned any money...I thought they got like $100 a month >_>
#5 Nov 26 2005, 3:52 pm
In response to Kunark (#1)
To offer a service people pay for you kind of want to have dedicated workers running the service, a business sometimes has problems running solely on volunteers since they aren't always in large supply.
#6 Nov 26 2005, 4:21 pm
Well, you have to consider the part-time people, server costs, and other expensives first.
#7 Nov 26 2005, 4:39 pm
In response to DeathAwaitsU (#4)
Hell no. The best of the best get really good cash, man.
#8 Nov 26 2005, 5:57 pm
In response to Kunark (#1)
Kunark wrote:
I'm wondering why that page makes it seem like volunteerism is a foreign subject... I know that a lot of people wouldn't mind being paid much less (or nothing) but work more voluntarely. I think it'd be much more worth it to get a group of volunteers to work on it for free than hire some dude for 50k a year, and in the end acheive the same result.

I'm curious, how many all-volunteer game system projects are out there that are completed and usable? If you can't find any, that may mean it doesn't work so well.

Also, how many game systems out there are free?

BYOND is probably the most successful "volunteer" game system ever, and one of the only ones that is intended to make some kind of income but remains free for developers and players.

After about a decade of this for free, it can't be too bad for the creators to make a bit of a return. We're still far from that, but continue to work on making it happen.
#9 Nov 26 2005, 8:29 pm
In response to Deadron (#8)
Offer a more expensive membership ($50 maybe) and offer yet more features. Even if you didn't add much at all, suckers like me would pay the extra. As it is, I don't feel much like donating gobs to BYOND just for the heck of it, but it wouldn't take much convincing.
#10 Nov 26 2005, 8:44 pm
If BYOND became a large company, affiliated with alot of major companies, seeing their ads everwhere, online, TV's.

Had their own large office building, with hundreds of workers teeking away...
#11 Nov 26 2005, 11:09 pm
In response to Deadron (#8)
Well, I didn't mean not get paid at all... I meant that I think there would be more cons (in the effect of 50k) than pros.

Sure, you could have a great developer working hard to make your program better than what volunteers could accomplish, but what happens at the end of the year? That's a whole lot of money. I don't really find BYOND to be something that will ever be large enough to support more than one programmer like that, if it ever gets big enough to support that one. 20k? I could see that, but 50k? Sure, BYOND is a very advanced program, but man is that a lot of dough.
#12 Nov 26 2005, 11:22 pm
In response to Kunark (#11)
Kunark wrote:
Well, I didn't mean not get paid at all... I meant that I think there would be more cons (in the effect of 50k) than pros.

Since Tom is working full-time on this, I'm thinking he might think there are more pros than cons to actually getting paid...


I don't really find BYOND to be something that will ever be large enough to support more than one programmer like that, if it ever gets big enough to support that one.

Hopefully we can prove you wrong...
#13 Nov 27 2005, 7:36 am
In response to Elation (#7)
With the time Lummox JR puts into BYOND, I wouldn't think he gets really good cash. But that's just a guess.
#14 Nov 27 2005, 11:25 am
In response to Artekia (#13)
From BYOND? No.

I have no idea how good Lummox is with the "proper", commercial programming languages, but if you're in with a big company doing an important job then you're bound to get paid a lot. I mean, programming is pretty intellectually demanding and it takes time to become even half-decent at the job.
#15 Nov 27 2005, 1:01 pm
In response to Sniper Joe (#10)
Sniper Joe wrote:
If BYOND became a large company, affiliated with alot of major companies, seeing their ads everwhere, online, TV's.

Had their own large office building, with hundreds of workers teeking away...

BYOND isn't ready yet for that -enormous- step. =/

O-matic
#16 Nov 27 2005, 2:10 pm
In response to Kunark (#1)
Yeah. if the chance came up, i'd be glad to volunteer & help byond.
#17 Dec 6 2005, 4:23 pm
In response to Theodis (#3)
Yeah, seriously. My brother works for Epic Games, and he only works part time and he get $2000 a month (last year, its probably more like $5000 a month now, I don't know) AND the last time he was home, he said he gets GIANT bonuses for the amount of copies they sell of their games a year. Basically, if they sell 10 billion copies, thats a GIANT BONUS dude! Not to mention, hes part time and he already gets big bucks (He still has coledge and everything, so hes only working like 5 or so hrs a day) Thats a big damn paycheck if u ask me for 25 hrs a week.
#18 Dec 6 2005, 6:45 pm (Edited on Dec 6 2005, 6:51 pm)
In response to Deadron (#12)
Tom is working full time on this and Living in San Diego! Wow, did he inherit some money?!