FOSS, Fire Fighters, and Big Breasted Skyrim mods: The Unmotivating Profit

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Within a functioning society, the means by which we ensure productivity is an essential, foundational component of economic policy. In traditional economics, one key driver of productivity for businesses is the profit motive, the desire to generate more revenue than the costs incurred, resulting in profit. Here, "profit" typically refers to a surplus over expenses, such as a return on investment. For workers, a related but distinct driver is the financial incentive to work, earning wages or salaries in exchange for labor. While this is not profit in the strict economic sense, it similarly reflects the role of monetary motivation in sustaining productivity. In this model of economics, people engage in labor, and capitalists engage in investment and the formation of businesses with the intent of earning money. As such, capital is viewed as a central means of motivating economic activity. This model is, however, incomplete when compared with the observed reality of human and organizational motivations, where the growth of capital is not always a concern or motivating factor. Because of this, any claim that a society must rely exclusively on profit motive and wage incentive to succeed is, at best, incomplete and, at worst, incorrect. Other means of deriving motivation for labor and capital investment are observed not only in individuals, such as artists who create art for its own sake or volunteers serving their communities through fire departments, but also in organizations such as the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. In these projects, which often involve thousands of contributors working within a hierarchical system of distributed labor similar to that of corporations, participants contribute substantial work not because they expect a capital return, but for entirely different reasons. These individual and organizational modes of motivation are the focus of this article, which also seeks to challenge the belief that humans only work if they are paid and that capital investment flows only to ventures promising monetary returns. To begin this analysis, it is important to first address individual motivation, of which wage incentive is the traditionally expected motivator, but other motivations are often observed as being even more impactful.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an author of little commercial success. During his life, he published dozens of works of strange fiction and horror, but they reached only a small audience, and he ultimately died without earning significant financial reward for his prolific writing. Yet, despite this lack of income, Lovecraft continued to write until his death. Similarly, Vincent van Gogh created hundreds of works that would go on to define an entire artistic movement, yet he sold very few paintings in his lifetime and lived in poverty. Much like Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe was a remarkably talented writer who created genres with his brilliant prose, yet just like Lovecraft, he died in obscurity.The list of artists who did not receive commercial success is longer than history even remembers, but even within history's limited grasp, we have: Emily Dickinson, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Vermeer, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Franz Kafka, and so many others. Here are writers, composers, painters, and poets who shaped generations and are celebrated today for their artistry, but who saw little financial return for their genius. In each of these artists, we observe people who, perhaps hoped to achieve financial reward for their work, but ultimately never did, yet even deep into their lives and careers as artists, continued to produce masterworks all the same. For them, art was not just a means of earning money, but a necessary part of who they were. As a writer who has earned very little from my work, even when briefly writing professionally on commissions, and who now writes entirely for free, I will never stop writing. For me, writing is not a way to earn money, it is a means of internal and external exploration. Through it, I come to understand myself, the world, the people around me, and the essential components of reality. Money is simply a way to secure the time and energy to write. Although I cannot speak personally for these other artists, I can say that they very likely have experienced a similar relation to their art, and the creation of their art. They, like me, never stopped writing, never stopped painting, never stopped composing, because their work was not about money: money was about their work. If we were to apply a strict adherence to the wage incentive model of labor motivation, these people--me, could not exist. We create art without any expectation of capital return, and as such, the model of wage incentives fails to capture our experience. This individual motivation is not limited to the traditional arts. Once tucked away in the recesses of the internet, but brought into the mainstream with the success of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is video game modding, which stands as a clear instance of these alternative motivations.

Within the world of sexually explicit video game modifications, two of the most prominent examples for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are Caliente’s Beautiful Bodies Edition (CBBE) and Schlongs of Skyrim. These free modifications of Skyrim are far from hastily produced, masturbatory works; they represent more than a decade of refinement, ongoing development, and genuine artistic skill. Both CBBE and Schlongs have received consistent updates to remain compatible with new versions of Skyrim, incorporating improved textures, revised character models, and technical adjustments to match newly released content. Their authors have gone far beyond simple sexual experimentation, demonstrating intense dedication to producing adult content of remarkable quality. Although I will not include images of these modifications for obvious reasons, the texture and modeling work alone likely represents hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of unpaid labor. For the creators, producing these adult modifications is not solely about expressing sexual preferences; it is also about asserting creative control over the games they own. This sense of modification as an expression of autonomy is common in the Skyrim community. From large-scale unofficial patches to expansion-sized content packs produced entirely out of personal passion, video game modding collectively represents an almost immeasurable quantity of unpaid work. Adult mods in particular, such as CBBE or Schlongs of Skyrim, rarely bring their creators prestige or widespread respect, given the social stigma surrounding explicit content. It is unlikely, for instance, that the author of Schlongs of Skyrim would list the project on a professional resume. Here, the incentive for labor is neither financial nor reputational, but something more abstract: creation for its own sake. While the creators’ personal sexual interests may influence their work, the sheer scope and quality of these projects suggest a deeper passion for both the subject matter and the act of creation itself. Even so, artistic expression, whether socially respected or not, is only one example of work done without financial reward, as can also be observed in volunteer firefighting

Firefighting is one of the most dangerous professions a person can undertake, often requiring entry into burning buildings to rescue those who cannot escape on their own. Firefighters risk serious injury, and sometimes death, to save people they may have never met. In many small towns and rural areas, this work is performed not by paid professionals but by volunteers who serve without financial compensation. These volunteers act out of a desire to help others in the most altruistic sense: at their own expense. Here, there is no obvious reward, financial, reputational, or otherwise. Unlike adult mod authors, who may still find pleasure in the act of creation, volunteer firefighters perform work that is grueling, dangerous, and physically exhausting. They do not save lives for fun or profit; they do it because someone must, and they choose to help those in need. Volunteer firefighting is not an anomaly, for centuries, in many countries, community-based fire brigades have risked their lives to protect their community without expecting a reward. While society may respect and admire such acts, that respect is hardly sufficient compensation for the danger and effort involved. The motivation is deeper: a genuine commitment to the well-being of others. Within a strict wage-incentive model, such work should not happen without pay. Yet volunteer firefighters are willing to risk, and even lose, their lives without earning a cent in return. Their existence demonstrates that the wage-incentive model fails to account for one of humanity’s most enduring traits: the willingness to protect others simply because we care. Up to this point, I have emphasized the issues with the wage incentive model on individuals, but this individual focus extends very easily to an organizational model when analysing the Free and Open Source Software Movement. And in this, I will focus on the Debian Project.

One of the most influential and enduring operating systems still actively maintained within the FOSS world is the Debian project. Started in 1993 by Ian Murdock, Debian represents decades of work by thousands of consistent volunteers to develop a stable, reliable, and essentially free operating system for anyone and everyone to use. Currently led by Andreas Tille, the Debian project contains almost a thousand active contributors who all work and communicate digitally to bring the best OS they can, adhering to a philosophy of freedom. Here, the volunteers at Debian work without pay for thousands of collective hours to produce an OS that acts as the foundation for more branches of the Linux world than any other, including distributions such as Ubuntu and its derivatives based on Debian, and its .deb software repositories. This labor is not purely ideological, however, as these developers work to create an OS that reflects what they would like to have for themselves, being active users of their own software. Beyond the developers, much of the internet's infrastructure depends on Debian, as the server variant of the OS is one of the most popular and commonly used operating systems for back-end servers due to its stability and reliability. Much of the online world exists because of the work of these passionate volunteers who care about both the ideology and practical use of software, all without an expectation of financial reward. This is consistent with the dependence on volunteer work within rural communities for fire fighting, as the cornerstone of essential industries and practices that allows the profit motive to function at all relies on free labor performed for the passion and ideology of those who perform it. In this sense, the claim that the profit motive is necessary for organizations to invest capital resources toward productive ends is clearly false, as the structure of the Debian project mirrors that of a typical corporation, with a leader, a technical committee, a secretary, and hundreds of members who serve the decisions of the leader and voting committee. This structure bears direct resemblance to the CEO–board of directors model of most corporations, an organizational system that strict adherence to the profit motive would suggest requires a return on capital investment to exist and be productive. Yet Debian does not produce a return on capital investment but instead a return on ideology and pragmatic software application. Here, Debian is an organization that works on a volunteer basis and covers operating costs through donations and contributions from the broader tech world, yet if one were to analyze revenue versus expenditure, Debian should not exist, as it does not generate a capital profit. Yet it does, because the profit motive is an incomplete and flawed model for understanding why humans work.

From software and the arts to combating fires, unpaid or low-paid work in challenging and technical fields has appeared throughout human history. No matter the time or place, individuals work without an expectation of profit, and organizations act without capital returns, all without coercion. People are not the emotionless, purely rational actors assumed by traditional economics; they are highly emotional, personally unique, and deeply passionate, often dedicating their lives to labor that provides no obvious reward. Money is rarely the ultimate purpose; it is a means to sustain oneself so that one can pursue true goals. Artists create and may earn money not to accumulate wealth, but to support their survival and continue their work. Modders create not for payment, but out of passion for the games they enhance. Volunteer firefighters risk their lives not for pay, but to protect their communities. FOSS developers and organizations create software not for financial reward, but to fulfill ideological and practical goals. Money provides the conditions necessary for life;food, water, shelter;allowing individuals to pursue higher-order needs. In this way, money is not the motivation; it is the means to an end.

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