if you have a comfy life, yes, why not..
i myself if i was a bit more rich (not alots, but a bit more to be able to not stress about end the month with food) i will gladly do a game just for the fun to create a game. without expecting anything in return than the pleasure to others peoples to play my game.
maybe i m unique, but i will probably not care at all about getting money from another source than my actual job
I've had this conversation a million times in lots of different areas, whether it's businesses in general, finance, sport (professional sport), politics, education, gaming, porn, whatever, it's always the same argument, same points and same questions.
So not that I'm feeling exceedingly zealous and confident about my experience and knowledge, but I thought I'd share a little of what I think I know. (the real reason is this is a subject that I find very interesting
)
Basically, there is no black or white, think of things in this conversation as a rainbow, there are different colours, but no limits between each of them, and differences within them etc.
You could say there are generally two colours for this question (it's an over-simplification but just for the argument); when answering the question "why do this?" :
1. for the money
2. for the passion / interest
Again, no matter the field, from music sales to video gaming, artists creators and producers all share this situation.
Traditionally, "old school" entrepreneurs, creators, artists etc have the reputation of doing the things they do because they love it and are good at it. It's easy to see in video games with companies that very famous today who became popular because they made unique and creative games because they were good at it and loved it (and didn't do it for the money). [cough some are now part of EA Games :XD]
Recently, contemporary developers, artists and so on have more the reputation of doing what they do because it makes them money.
Before, the "old school" devs would do what they love and get rewarded for it, now, they do what gets them money and try to do what they like in the process.
It's simply putting one priority behind the other, or vice versa.
On the topic at hand, on this very question, I can give you tons of examples of Patreon devs / games which fit both categories.
For example, (this is just my opinion) :
You must be registered to see the links
Is a good illustration of a game made by someone who loves what he's doing. Very often, a dev will make a game because he or she loves to do that, they'll publish it not to make cash, but because having people enjoy what you created is part of the reward.. Often, because the game is made "with passion", it will be good, but not only that, it will be different from all others, and the people who appreciate it, will appreciate it a lot more.
That's one way you can tell the difference between the two kinds of "colours"; in the first case you will find an original if not unique, creative and good quality product, in the other, you will get something that makes money. So that's either patreon bait incest "peek through the bathroom door to see your mother blah blah" cheap to make easy to steal/re-use work, often bad quality, and widely popular because that's exactly the objective, or, something that has been "thought through" and developed professionally, something mainstream (examples are easier to find in mainstream games if you basically look at all the AAA games that require a lot of money to develop, they're all the same and they all do the same thing.)).
TLDR
Basically, it's a balance between creativity and profit seeking, and over the years, in pretty much all areas of art or busines etc, the balance has been steadily pushing towards profit seeking rather than anything else.
And to answer the person's question who originally started this discussion (I think?) :
I agree with your post.
BUT:
Who does it just for the kicks?
Seriously.
Would you waste hours and hours of your day, days, weeks, months, just for the fuck of it?
The answer is simple (if you forget that things are a matter of degrees and not black and white), would you sell your ass in the street for 20 dollars a month? Would you deal cocain for 200000 a month? You can ask any question like that and it all just depends doesn't it?
Basically there will be devs who are professional and need the money to live off, there are those that heard it's an easy way to make some quick cash and that's all they care about, and there are those who instead of going drinking with friends on saturday night will stay home and code cause that's what they love to do.
The thing is though, and that's my whole point, is that on one end of the spectrum the finished product will be creative and honest, often it will be good if not so polished while on the other it will mainstream stuff that everyone has seen a million times but still sells that's not hard to make and doesn't require much effort.
Not suprisingly, people, whatever their interests, tend to prefer one over the other, as a general thing ..