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Ostoles, I don't think that you really want to know what motivates us all, but rather how you could make your own Builders more motivated, right?
Regrettably there is no easy answer to that question. The replies you've got sofar pretty well reflect my own motivations as a Builder, which I think are also the motivations for most good Builders on the net. But as for the rest...
During my time as Head Builder I have identified three main types of Builders, grouped by their results:
The really good ones, who are driven by creativity and love for the game, and who will keep working and creating awesome zones, as long as Real Life conditions allow them, out of the sheer joy of creating something unique. These are rare and far behind, and if you've got any of those on your staff - treasure them.
The hopeless ones, the wannabes, which I call 'non-builders'. They are driven by greed for power, they usually totally lack both imagination and typing skills - (some of them seem almost illiterate). And they very rarely complete more than 5 rooms, once they find out that building isn't just an easy way to power, it also - and above all - requires hard work. These are by far the largest group, they are truly hopeless, nothing you could do would help, and they are best kicked out as soon as you identify them, because if they ever log on to the Build Port at all, they do it just to disrupt the work and disturb others, so they could actually cause whatever serious Builders you have to leave.
The third group in between consists of the ones that usually complete one single zone, and then stop building. A few of these are really good players, who like to try their hand at building, as a new challenge, or to create a zone that they think the Mud lacks. The zone they make might be pretty good, but their main interest is the mortal game, so they rarely stick to building. And the main part of this group are driven by the desire for power or whatever substantial game rewards you may have put up (an imm char in the Game Port, a crash-proof house, some piece of good equipment, Quest points or whatever). They usually complete their zone pretty fast, because their motivation is strong. But as soon as they got the reward they were after, they stop working.
You may end up with a pretty bad zone, or a fairly decent one, depending on their skills. But you may also end up with a bad imm or an overpowered player, because lust for power is usually a very bad motivation both for an imm and a mort. So you have to weigh the consequences, when you put up the rewards; is the zone you get really worth the negative side-effects? The bigger the reward you put up, the greater the chance that the 'wrong person' jumps to the chance of getting it - and the greater the chance of disrupting the balance of the game.
So mainly, I think that offering the Builders big rewards to keep them motivated is a bad idea. As long as you run a mud that is decent and original enough to attract and inspire the potentially good builders in the first place, as long as you provide them with the right manuals and tools and reasonable freedom for their creativity, as long as you treat your staff right and listen to their opinions, give the proper credits, allow them the copyright to their own work, and back them up with any support from the code they might need or ask for, there is not really much more you could do.
The good ones will keep building, the bad ones won't. It's mostly a matter of luck which type you attract. If it's any consolation, sooner ot later the right type might come along, if you have the patience to wait. Until then you have to adjust to the fact that you may have to build most of the important zones yourself, if you want to make sure that they ever get completed.
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