Their good standing in the community would have obviously helped them approach players/candidates (or at least led to a high response rate - even if the respons

Their good standing in the community would have obviously helped them approach players/candidates (or at least led to a high response rate - even if the response was 'no thanks'), but it's unfair to accuse them of selling out the community. They built a free game, and the way I understood it was that players of that game might get a congrats when reaching a certain level, and that might be followed by a "Hiya" from Patrick saying something along the lines of "you're a good player, and if you're interested in jobs we can help you with that too". Getting that "Hiya" from Patrick was basically the cost of the game - not unlike having to watch an ad - which I think players should be fine with if they really like the game and also understand that the business is indeed a recruiting venture. At least that was my understanding based on what I read and a couple conversations with Patrick.