They are a joke, yes. I worked on some server side code back in the day when a game server could be a nice self-contained executable on an EC2 instance. Even back then, I think it would’ve been a formidable task.

Now that game mechanics often necessitate more complex cloud infra, there’s a lot more going on that you can’t just Charles/mitmproxy your way through because it’s invisible to the client.

At the very least, you’ll need more than one dev, and that means coordination. For a ragtag group of hobbyists, AI is more likely to be a poison pill that kills the project before MVP.

Like the other person who replied exemplified, lack of wills. You could do it. Destiny recently ending development is a great example. It would be hard but its not impossible. One person probably couldn't finish it, but they could start it.