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Anitra · 01-11-2006, 10:26 AM

The words ‘amateur’ – ‘professional’ can probably be interpreted in as many ways as ‘free’. To some they give a negative signal, to others a positive.

The original meaning of the word ‘amateur’ is ‘someone who loves what they are doing’, which of course would be positive. Over the time it has often come to imply the not-so-positive meaning of ‘blundering incompetent’. And even the word ‘professional’ is not totally positive to all people. In some countries ‘professional’ is synonym to ‘hooker’ (someone who sells their body for money).

In my country there is a Society called ‘The Garden Amateurs’. In spite of the name that society contains some of the most ‘professional’ gardeners I’ve ever seen (in the positive meaning of the word of course). They know the Latin names and growing conditions of every conceivable garden plant, even some that ordinary people haven’t even heard of, much less seen. And the reason why they are so knowledgeable is that they truly love what they are doing and spend all their spare time on their hobby.

‘Hobbyist’ mud administrators are a bit like that. They develop their muds out of sheer love for what they are doing and spend all their spare time doing it. As a consequence there are several hobbyist muds out there that are quite as good, or even better than the big commercials, but they don’t have as many players and aren’t nearly as well known, because they don’t have the funds to advertise.

I play three muds regularly myself. Two of the three are commercial and one is free. The free one is the one I like best, and it is in any way as good as the two commercial ones. The staff there, although all ‘hobbyists’, are professional in the best meaning of the word, and most of them have academic degrees. The head coder is a qualified programmer, with a very well paid RL job in a big software firm. One of the head builders is an architect, another is a language teacher, a third a history major and a fourth a professional writer in RL. No wonder that the zones and features in that small free mud excel most things I’ve seen elsewhere.

So are these people ‘amateurs’?
Yes, in the sense that they love what they are doing and do it out of love.
No, in the sense that they most definitely know what they are doing and that they do an extremely competent job.

Not all hobbyist muds are good of course. In fact there are lots of totally crappy ones out there, run by immature kids. But to say that all hobbyist muds are inferior to the commercial ones, as some posters have done, is not only insulting, it also shows a vast ignorance.

Because of the ambiguity about the words ‘free’ and ‘amateur’-‘professional’ it’s probably much better to use the word ‘commercial’ as a distinction. That is a pretty straightforward description, that shouldn’t send out any other signals than the obvious one; that the game is expected to yield a profit to the owner, sooner or later.

01-11-2006, 10:26 AM	#60
Anitra Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 123	The words ‘amateur’ – ‘professional’ can probably be interpreted in as many ways as ‘free’. To some they give a negative signal, to others a positive. The original meaning of the word ‘amateur’ is ‘someone who loves what they are doing’, which of course would be positive. Over the time it has often come to imply the not-so-positive meaning of ‘blundering incompetent’. And even the word ‘professional’ is not totally positive to all people. In some countries ‘professional’ is synonym to ‘hooker’ (someone who sells their body for money). In my country there is a Society called ‘The Garden Amateurs’. In spite of the name that society contains some of the most ‘professional’ gardeners I’ve ever seen (in the positive meaning of the word of course). They know the Latin names and growing conditions of every conceivable garden plant, even some that ordinary people haven’t even heard of, much less seen. And the reason why they are so knowledgeable is that they truly love what they are doing and spend all their spare time on their hobby. ‘Hobbyist’ mud administrators are a bit like that. They develop their muds out of sheer love for what they are doing and spend all their spare time doing it. As a consequence there are several hobbyist muds out there that are quite as good, or even better than the big commercials, but they don’t have as many players and aren’t nearly as well known, because they don’t have the funds to advertise. I play three muds regularly myself. Two of the three are commercial and one is free. The free one is the one I like best, and it is in any way as good as the two commercial ones. The staff there, although all ‘hobbyists’, are professional in the best meaning of the word, and most of them have academic degrees. The head coder is a qualified programmer, with a very well paid RL job in a big software firm. One of the head builders is an architect, another is a language teacher, a third a history major and a fourth a professional writer in RL. No wonder that the zones and features in that small free mud excel most things I’ve seen elsewhere. So are these people ‘amateurs’? Yes, in the sense that they love what they are doing and do it out of love. No, in the sense that they most definitely know what they are doing and that they do an extremely competent job. Not all hobbyist muds are good of course. In fact there are lots of totally crappy ones out there, run by immature kids. But to say that all hobbyist muds are inferior to the commercial ones, as some posters have done, is not only insulting, it also shows a vast ignorance. Because of the ambiguity about the words ‘free’ and ‘amateur’-‘professional’ it’s probably much better to use the word ‘commercial’ as a distinction. That is a pretty straightforward description, that shouldn’t send out any other signals than the obvious one; that the game is expected to yield a profit to the owner, sooner or later.