To be honest, before I go into some rambling tirade- I've not slept in about 40 or so hours. so if I don't make much sense, I make my apologies in advance.
It seems to me, over the course of the article, the the writer is mad or disappointed in Toady because he opted to *not* make Dwarf fortress into a commercial game as most games are today, and instead elects to maintain sole control in terms of direction of the game.
This, of course, is fine by me- for a few reasons. Primarily, because, time and again, it seems, gaming companies will elect to make a game appeal to a wider audience in order to make more money, and compromise the game itself for that. To be blunt- how many of you, here and now, Honestly believe that, even with a few changes (specifically, a cleaned up UI, as I often hear complained about), Dwarf fort would appeal to most gamers? Especially considering it's complexity, difficulty, and lack of a 'win' condition (other than such as are set by the player- for example, I feel I've 'won' when my fortress is self-sustaining, defended against all attackers, and capable of doing whatever megaproject I set before it) This is to say nothing of a lack of graphics, multiplayer capability, achievements (Boo, hisssss), or measurable (for give the phrase) method of wagging e-peen at other players (since saying, well, MY fort has 50 steel and adamantine equipped champions means nothing when the other guy opted to just use traps and magma).
If it seems i have a rather dim view of most gamers- it's because I do. again, my apologies.
To be honest, I, frankly, admire toady for what he's been able to do- he's living a lifestyle he's comfortable with, doing what he wants to do. I sure as heck can't claim the same thing. Making the game into a commercial venture would be disastrous, in my opinion- just because, if it was kept in it's current state, most average players would reject it, and in a commercially-successful format, it'd be, at best, a pale shadow of what it is right now. Honestly, I find the challenge of setting up a fort that survives the first few years fun, because the challenges involved are usually different (such as the first time I met honey badgers... my god)
again, sorry for the length of the rant. Short version, i guess boils down to: the guy's wrong on most points. Does Toady deserve more money? yes. and as soon as my paycheck goes in, I'll be doing my part to see he gets a bit more. But should Toady compromise his vision for dwarf fort to make it a commercial game? emphatically no. Dwarf fortress has a good guy at the controls, and since he's the only guy there, we can figure the game will continue to be good.
Now, back to that High pressure magma vulcan cannon. also: need more coffee.