Misleading title. Not thriving.: Virtue Is Its Own Reward

I dislike any use of the word mercenary, as it sounds too much like somebody hired to do good things rather than this trope.

Hm, the noun means that, but the adjective is "working or acting merely for money or other reward". Venal? But that is more about bribery.

True, but the "money" part is the first thing people are likely to think of and makes sense.

9 times out of 10 I hear the word "mercenary" it is being used as an adjective to mean "doing it for the reward and not because you believe in it / it's the right thing to do / etc". Has exactly the right connotations and says in one word what might take half a dozen otherwise. Ok, tho :)

edited 8th Mar '12 1:22:17 AM by rodneyAnonymous

And I disagree, the connotations of mercenary are that the reward is 99% of the time money or something else tangential, not approval.

I think the gist of this trope includes a desire for praise as often as a material reward. I'm not sure a "prize" without some kind of qualifier fits.

I'm under the believe that the desire is almost exclusively toward praise or approval of some sort, rather than money. Where as the word "mercenary" to me, at least, means either contracted payment, or an explicit desire for monetary reward. The only time I think of mercenaries doing work without an upfront payment/contract is when they're trying to make a name for themselves. That's why I feel that the name doesn't fit.

I did add Wants Praise For Basic Decency if people dislike prize.

edited 9th Mar '12 11:22:51 PM by Deboss

Crowner called.

I've moved Virtue Is Its Own Reward and all its wicks to Wants a Prize for Basic Decency, and updated Renamed Tropes and the FAQ thread

After the discussion and YKTTW(?) move, we should be done here.

The only comment in Virtue Is Its Own Reward discussion is about how misleading the title is, and since the rename takes care of that, there's no reason to move the discussion.

Locking.