There are always exceptions of course - I believe both The Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) and Love (www.quelsolaar.com/love) are products of individuals. Neither are typical MMOs, and both embrace different sorts of simplicity. KoL uses rudimentary (yet charming!) graphics and a rather clunky web interface, and Love's world is generated procedurally.
I think it is possible to bootstrap _certain_ types of "massively multiplayer" games, but with the necessity of making significant compromises in design.
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Some problems, MMORPGs being one of them, are not very amenable to the lean approach.
There are always exceptions of course - I believe both The Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) and Love (www.quelsolaar.com/love) are products of individuals. Neither are typical MMOs, and both embrace different sorts of simplicity. KoL uses rudimentary (yet charming!) graphics and a rather clunky web interface, and Love's world is generated procedurally.
I think it is possible to bootstrap _certain_ types of "massively multiplayer" games, but with the necessity of making significant compromises in design.
Also Battlemaster (http://battlemaster.org) (Text based MMORPG)