I really consider this article lacking for not including the experience of people running online games. But again, there aren't that many of them in GM to start with, so the oversight is expected.
It has been over 3 months since I've last played the indie title 100% Orange Juice, and just yesterday I played about 5 online rounds end-to-end. In one of those games, a bug cropped up where one of the players was not leveling up despite meeting level-up requirements. I won that game only because I was not that player, and had been consistently leveling up when I should have.
Guess where that player and his equivalents in other online games are heading?
Anyone with half a pinky finger in network development knows that things start going wrong once traffic exceeds a certain point. With online games, these kinds of traffic spikes happen when people have time to play, and weekends and holidays are two examples of such occasions. Support tickets and server warnings flow in. Free time for the common folk becomes your crunch time.
How many people who play online games ever stop to consider the technical and human costs of making a game server tick?
How many people who write reviews for indie games suggesting MMO lobbies know the authors probably can't afford the resources for that suggestion?
If there's anything that ought to get the "how do I make an MMORPG" star-eyed types to shut their trap this holiday season and forever, it's coverage on what the upkeep for online games is like. And the day I never have to answer that dumb question again on the Q&A is my birthday come early.