Introduction

The model

The idea with this model is to define what QuakeNet is and why it exists.

I began thinking these thoughts years ago, and from time to time they have returned to hunt me. It has always been a very basic concept of reality for me to act on behalf of who and why I am, meaning that when, once in a while, I take the time to consider an action, I do it based on those premises. To me, the same thing goes for QuakeNet. We have to know why we are here and what we are, if we want to make genuine decisions that come as close to our common idea of reality as possible.

To begin with I often came to the conclusion, that QuakeNet only existed due to the users, thus placing the users in the center of all questions. Later on I realized they weren't necessarily the only entity behind QuakeNet. Talking to other staff members and thinking about it myself made me realize that there are more aspects to consider. I came up with the idea of making a model to describe and visualise what QuakeNet is, and this is the result.

The model divides QuakeNet into three parts:

• the staff
• the users
• the sponsors

These parts are interdependent, meaning that no two parts can exist sensibly without the third. If you remove one part, the structure will malfunction. I do realize that the servers could run with the users using them without a staff part, but that's only theoreticly. In reality we have built a network where these interdependencies exist.

Here follows a short description of the three parts:

The staff is everyone in the staff, including the admins. Some admins also belong in the sponsors part because they are employed there and therefore are motivated differently. However in this model, admins are part of the staff. It doesn't really matter, but it makes it easier to keep track of.

The users is all of the users without the staff. Any given staff member can share the same motives as the users, but it doesn't work the other way around.

The sponsors are the companies and institutions who provide server- and service capabilities to the network.

Description of the different motives in the model

Interrest. This isn't very specific, but it covers the motive as being an interrest in the network in general. Some people like playing with the technicalities, and some people like being part of an organisation of QuakeNet's type. Others again, like the admins, might be motivated by leading people, and some might just like to code. This motivation isn't necessarily directed at any person or group in particular, but mostly stems from an internal motivation towards the self.

Status quo.The same goes for status quo. This motivation is very subtle and therefore easy to miss. It covers the motivation that "you are just here because you are". To make an analogy one can look at other everyday activities. Take sport. Foo starts playing soccer. The initial reason may wary. Maybe he just wants to do something new. Maybe he heard playing soccer is great fun. It doesn't really matter. What matters is, that after a while, say a year, the initial motivation is not the only motivation anymore. It might still be there, but a new motivation has surfaced: the motivation of status quo, or in other words, he just plays soccer, because that's what he does. The same goes for some staff members, and probably also some users (though I've left that motivation out for users in the model). They are just staff members because that's something they do. Naturally they can also have other motivation simoultanously.

The idea of status quo can also be applied to QuakeNet as a whole. Why does QuakeNet exist? It exists because the staff and users wants it to. If staff member, Bar, stops being a staff member, he usually still wants QuakeNet to exist and prosper, just because QuakeNet is a nice thing.

Helping.This is one of the obvious motivations, though probably not the most seen. It's about being a staff member because you want to help out users. As the reward is often hard to see, this motivation is most common amongst new staff members.

Power.Power, on the other hand, is what keeps many motivated. It's a common misunderstanding that wanting power and being motivated by it is a bad thing. It's the abuse of power given to you that's bad, but wanting power to do good is a nice and often warrenting motive.

Acknowledgement.Closely connected to power, this is also a very common motivation. Having other people look up to you and acknowledge your work gives most people a nice feeling which both helps self esteem and motivation to do more work.

Communication.This is the main reason the users use QuakeNet - to communicate. It is the purpose of IRC, and the primary service QuakeNet provides. In other words this is the "why" for our users.

Branding and community.Our sponsors are both commercial and non-commercial. Some of them use QuakeNet to profit from branding and some just want to provide the gaming community a service. In any case they do it for the users.

Cooperation.It might be hard to see why cooperation is a motivation imposed on the sponsors by staff members. The word is used due to lack of a better word. Actually it just covers admins who feel an obligation towards their sponsor and thus are motivated by cooperation. Naturally it is in the interrest of the network as a whole to keep a good relationship with the sponsors.

The what and the why

As can be seen, the model can be used as a means of describing what QuakeNet is. It is the interdependency between these three parts; users, staff, and sponsors. These three parts make up QuakeNet who through them is able to provide an Internet Relay Chat Network for the gaming community. The model shows that QuakeNet is not simple but complex. It isn't possible to define exactly why it exists anymore. It's possible to define why it was created, but it has developed into a network of many motivations.

Therefore making decisions is not a simple matter but a complex process which is bound to many kinds of motivation. It's important we realize that it's not just about the users or the sponors, but about all three parts. Therefore a mission statement should take into account all or most of these motivations.

However the interdependency is reality. This imposes another issue - power. The ground stone of QuakeNet is the sponsors, not the users. In the beginning naturally, it was the people who started it all, but once started, the sponsors hold absolute and real power. Thus the motivation of the sponsors and consequently the admins will weigh more than the motivation of others'. Decisions should reflect this and so should the organisational structure of QuakeNet. This doesn't mean the users' or the staff members' motivations become null and void. The formal (notice the difference between formal and actual/real) power must reflect the motivation model in order to keep everyone (staff, sponsors, users) happy - this is dictated by the interdependency.

I know it's complex, and I might be wrong, but it's a model that explains what QuakeNet is and why.