I believe the answer to that in several cases is an emphatic "YES," ckrtech! I'm with you; it seems bizarre, but it's there nonetheless. I don't want to name any names, but there was one legend in particular that seemed to have little to no personal regard for any of his work; it was strictly business. He was on the opposite end of the scale from Romero, who is just as much a gamer as he is a developer.

One of them explained that it was comparable to doing any kind of work--you don't want to do it all day and then go home and do it in your spare time. Take my dad, for instance--has to be an electrician at work, so the last thing he ever wants to do on his days off is monkey around with wiring or electrical components. Still, I agree that anyone who really wants to do the best job possible has to be more invested in it than just wanting a paycheck. You had to have a burning ambition to be the very best that you can be, whether that is coding a custom interface for a bank or designing levels for a FPS. Truth be told, I don't see how you could do either one if you didn't take a personal delight in the work and making people happy using your product.

I guess technically speaking I'm a paid author, but that doesn't mean that I hate writing except when I'm working on a paid project. Hell, if that were the case I wouldn't have written this, even. :)