We mentioned the somewhat odd BusinessWeek Arcade back when it launched; now Ian Bogost has taken up the whys and wherefores over at the Journalism & Games Project blog.
The titles selected for BusinessWeek Arcade had little to do with business, being a collection of seemingly random indie hits. Ian turns an eye towards the comment section, which expressed surprise at the collection:
The best part of this incongruous effort is the comments that call out its incongruity. One reader queries, "is this a desperate attempt to attract an audience? what does this have to do with covering business?" Another adds, "Why is BusinessWeek stooping to this sort of thing? A couple of months ago they had a blog about the best airport pickup sites and now this. Grow up and stick to the basics! If this is what I can expect from this website in the future then I'll have to reconsider my subscription." What's interesting about these comments is that they don't have anything particularly negative to say about games as a medium for entertainment, business, or journalism; they simply question the wisdom and relevance of including seemingly random, if quite lovely, independent games on a business magazine website.
He notes that the design of the BusinessWeek Arcade page implies something more than a "see also," but it hasn't been updated since its launch last March — was it (is it) a mere curiosity, or a "an openness to something more"?
BusinessWeek Arcade [Georgia Tech Journalism & Games Project]