Tough to read. The points about Foursquare's supposed lack of business model has nothing to do with game mechanics. Game mechanics is about fostering user engagement.
A less attention-grabbing headline might have been "Game mechanics is no substitute for a revenue model".
The too-cool-for-school writing style isn't really my thing either, but hey, that's just me.
Seriously, why is this even on HN? I would have loved to see a coherent argument against putting game mechanics into everything, but this certainly is not it.
Not only could you not read it (or I), but Readability couldn't even parse it:
"Sorry, readability was unable to parse this page for content. If you feel like it should have been able to, please let us know by submitting an issue."
A less attention-grabbing headline might have been "Game mechanics is no substitute for a revenue model".
The too-cool-for-school writing style isn't really my thing either, but hey, that's just me.