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Ask HN: Morality Question: What kind of programmer are you?

6 points by typedef_void ↗ HN
I have been struggling with a modification of:

    Guy: “If I gave you a million dollars, would you sleep with me?”
    Girl: “A million dollars is a lot of money, and you don’t look that bad, so I guess I would consider it”
    Guy: “Ok, since I don’t have a million dollars, would you sleep with me for $100?”
    Girl: (outraged) “What kind of girl do you think I am?”
    Guy: “We’ve already established the answer to that question. Now we’re just negotiating the price”
The question I'm struggling with is an issue of Social Games. It seems like this great business opportunity: low initial cost -- build something, throw it on the web, see if you can make money; they log everything, do A/B testing, figure out what people like / what people want to buy, and iterate on that.

The downside, it appears is that the amount of money I make ... is directly proportional to how addicted other members of human race is -- which means I become motivated to make the game as addictive as possible.

Have other members of HN dealt with this issue? And if so, how did you resolve it?

7 comments

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JangoSteve
I have a friend who makes a lot of money (way more than me) doing affiliate marketing for adult sites. He's a really cool guy and I respect him a lot. Every time I'm around him, I ponder the things I could have done to make more money. I always come to the same conclusion: that I have no desire to make any amount of money doing anything I'm not passionate about. I think that money is a great incentive, but a horrible motivation.
ohashi
Basically... you have to decide what you can live with. Everyone has a different view/perspective but you're the only one who has to live with your decisions (well and anyone you affect, but im putting them on your shoulders). So, their own fault or your evil genius?
coryl
That's an odd way of looking at it. To me, this is isn't even close to any sort of moral dilemma. You want to make a game and you want to make money. So you build a game thats fun, viral, and keeps people coming back. Last I recall, that's called making something people want and serving the market. There's no possible way to entrap or addict users beyond most of their free will. If they love your game so much that they keep coming back, what exactly is the problem? People WANT to have things to come back to, because there is inherent JOY in doing it.

Furthermore, building hits that can bring people back is not an easy task. It looks easy, but companies like Zynga have mastered the process and dominated the industry. You can deduce the business process of anything into a few simple sentences, yet it grossly underestimates the task at hand.

naradaellis
To take that view to the extreme: say I invented a new synthetic drug that was addictive. People love it because it is servicing a need in the market, but do I not have any responsibility at all for its potential side effects?
coryl
Sure, you could take it there. But the reality of it is games do not have physiologically addictive properties the same way drugs and alcohol do. If you look at the cases where gaming addiction severely impacted a person's life, you would be looking at a few outliers who probably had contributing mental factors (like most addiction problems).

We aren't talking about drugs though. We're talking about social games. If there are stories about people's lives being ruined by Farmville, I haven't heard them.

But in your example, yes, you would have a responsibility for the drug's side effects. Thats what the FDA is largely responsible for.

Kaizyn
Look. It isn't rocket science. Unless you are proud of the work you're doing and do not feel guilty because of it, you should find other work - or in this case different software to program. Only write software you would not only be happy to use yourself but that you'd be happy if your family members used it as well. This is simple common sense and basic human decency. Good luck with your work!
iterationx
Make an addictive learning system that feels like a game.