PROPUESTAS PARA EL MEJORAMIENTO DE GESTIÓN DE CALIDAD PARA LA

The most mentioned form of motivation among the 19 respondents was extrinsic motivation, with over 70 examples recorded. I found three sub-categories that would explain the nature of this motivation, namely (1) community driven, (2) tool driven, and (3) outcome driven motivation. With a community this big and active, it was not surprising to see that ‘community’ itself was one of the biggest driving force/source of motivation for the members to participate. The community acted as a catalyst for participation, luring people to be involved in the discussions. One of the most quoted accounts that surfaced from this sub-category (community driven) that of co- dependence on others and the overall supportive atmosphere of the online

community. The general tone of the community, especially among the community- carers, was supportive and friendly, at times light hearted. Most members who were at the receiving end of help were also reportedly very appreciative. As N mentioned:

“When I try to help people with issues they usually respond very nicely:) I really like the gamesalad community!” – N (1)

This created a conducive environment to establish relationships, foster sense of community, and encouraged more participation from members. When asked about acknowledgement and respect, the majority of interviewees mentioned the pleasant experiences that they had while interacting with others in the community. Mutual

160 exchange was the crux of echo-interaction - the back and forth bouncing of

conversations that built up the community. As I reflected on his community experience:

“If I had somehow not been greatest with the curtesy(sic) I have...or more than one or two people saying my ideas were stupid or that I was being an ass...Id probably back away from the forums. Part of it is me being nice to others...the other is they have been nice back to me.” – I (1)

Interviewees worked and behaved in a manner that was apt for the situation. The community was guided by rules and regulation, moderated by community-carers and moderators, and as a result, this created ‘asynchronous-collaborative’ environment.

Another aspect of motivation (as seen earlier) was sharing of information and experiences, as members joined conversations when they knew they could

contribute something. They chose discussions that were interesting, and worthwhile. The point about the community was that there was social presence, there were other people in the community, and this led to the community becoming communicative and social. At times this also meant attempting to impress others. Members who had finished building applications, would share their success with the community, as noted by B:

“And the thing was, people seemed to always want to impress each other with what they'd made.” – B (2)

The ‘showing-off’ also extended to creating video tutorials or instructional threads in the community. Sometimes they were motivated to produce even more resources because of feedback from others. As mentioned by I:

“Makes me feel good "toot toot"...I get at least 1-2 subscribers a week now it seems. [...] It does make me want to do more things” – I (2)

There was another element that was embedded in the structure and the system behind the community that had an effect on participation - gamification. The community was built on top of a forum/bulletin board system, and one of the core functionalities was the scoring points given to people who participated in the

community. There was a section where members could view the weekly leaderboard. These points were given based on their participation e.g. posting a comment, or answering a question. On top of that, there were also points awarded to them when other users voted their comments as ‘awesome’, ‘insightful’ etc.

Figure 13: Point-based gamification system in the forum, showing types of reactions users could cast vote on for each comment.

The points were viewable on each member’s profile. A large number of points meant that the person was active and if paired with the date when he or she joined the community, we could tell how active he or she was. Points add credibility, and often, points and votes were viewed as an added bonus. There were those who valued them highly, such as with I:

162 “I guess some times I feel "compelled" to answer and can also be for selfish reasons..lol. Maybe a point for first answer...or if I answer correctly for that person to hope I get a like or awesome.” – I (1)

The central attraction to everything that happened in the community, was a shared interest in the software GameSalad (tool driven). GameSalad enabled users to build their own mobile applications, with the least amount of programming in its traditional sense. Although dubbed as an ‘easy way to build mobile games’, an understanding of the logic of programming flow was needed to be able to use the software successfully. The idea of visually coding an application is intriguing, compared to the ‘traditional’ approach which would require an understanding in specific programming language such as Objective-C or Lua, and for the application or games to be ‘hand-coded’, line-by-line. GameSalad software simplifies everything, making building mobile games easier. This had encouraged users to take up the software, and the community, since the community was where the resources and knowledge of how to use the software laid. This had made the users to be

dependent on the community. For the majority of the interviewees, the community complemented the tool. As A noted:

“I would say I use the forums for the following purposes: To find out how to better use GameSalad… It fit exactly what I needed: a tool that was easy enough to learn, powerful enough to get excited about, and flexible enough that students could do almost anything they imagined with it.” – A (3)

Interviewees had varied goals (outcome driven). It’s hard to separate members in this community, with their goals: monetary gains, submitted apps in ‘app store’, a business setup, having a ‘piece’ of the app-sphere, or simply gaining experience of app-development. Members had something that they were looking for, when

building apps using GameSalad. Most cited monetary outcomes. There were mixed reviews on the ROI (Return on Investment) for any application, as competition was stiff, yet there were success stories discussed in threads. For example, a mobile game application built by an independent game developer was a simple and endless game, yet it was found to be extremely difficult and addictive. It became an overnight success, a global phenomenon. Although there were concerns raised by some on the methods he used to market the game, his overnight success story became an

internet sensation, particularly when the news revealed that he raked in a considerable amount of money through in-app advertisement. This might have sparked the motivation to pursue mobile game business for some. Some

interviewees questioned this motivation, relating it to the decrease in quality on apps produced due to shortcuts and hurried marketing. Affected by this, B mentioned that:

“I find that most of the questions on the forums seem to be focussed on 'how to make money quickly with no effort' or something to do with templates or ads or IAP or how to make a clone… the forum's general descent into something more 'business'

orientated/cutthroat/clone-happy has meant I've cut back on the amount of time I spend on the forums/helping people.” – B (1)