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I think this is just a game advertisment.

Maybe it's somewhat promotional, but there's a meaningful and interesting story here.

What do you want? For-profit stuff can never show up on Hacker News?

Of course not. But it's extremely clear to me that the primary focus of the article is promoting the game, and the story is secondary.

After having seen a lot of these articles, it becomes easier to distinguish the real story ones from the "ad" ones. And thats why they do it, its effective, so many people can't tell its a paid advert.

It’s positive coverage, but that doesn’t mean it’s paid. When game journalists like things, they write positively about them.

I sincerely doubt this is a marketing piece. If anyone's to blame here for that feeling that some may have, it's Kotaku. Jason was one of the most genuine and wonderful people I've met while working at the same co-working space. In fact, all of the people I met in my time at the Gamenest co-working space were quite memorable.

He means that this seems like a submarine PR piece (http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html). Journalists on a deadline will frequently publish what a PR firm sends them, and it's worth being on the lookout for articles that probably started that way.

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