This article sounds like a result of that marketing, although it does sound like an interesting game. The best part is the mention of inbflat.net that I hadn't heard of before and is awsome.
That's the dream, followed by the nightmare
What do you want? For-profit stuff can never show up on Hacker News?
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.