It was a nice anekdote, all development will be linked to a project anyway, linking to it just makes sense. Doesn't seem this was targeting a wider audience than devs, and I don't think the main market of the game is devs anyway.

The post is lacking any interesting technical information. It is a bland fantasy about how a poorly implemented scoreboard could be exploited. Based on the dramatic title I expected a deep dive into a large corporation's code that resulted in dark secrets of the highest order. Instead I got an API that doesn't have validation...

Cut the guy some slack. You can get your fill of conspiracy theories elsewhere. I for one enjoy random bouts of small, shallow experiences like these.

Yet it has 145+ net upvotes. Not really the guy's problem that you don't like his post. Your beef is with fellow HN users who upvoted it, but what a waste of time and energy on your part. Relax and enjoy your day as you clock a little bit closer to death.

Almost every article anybody writes is an ad for one thing or another, and be it the person itself.

It's a nice story, and maybe you could just not grudge him a few thousand eyeballs.

maybe the author included it just so people don't come back asking "what was the game from the story" or "where can I sign up ?"

The article did not promise anything, no free xp, no gold coins - it did not even explain how the game works.

Think of it as non-zero-sum content. The anecdote is interesting enough to be worth your time but it also gives the author some attention on their game.

Pretty much.