Kudos to Matthew Stibbe for his recent two-page spread in the latest issue of Wired (12.11) titled "How Pong Invented the Internet." The text is available online, but the real draw is the sprawling web of dozens of games, organizations, people and more that connects concepts as disparate as Zork, Starbucks and the Strategic Defense Initiative through a few color-coded lines.
The graphic is a good example of outside-the-box journalism on its own, but its also a good illustration of how video game journalism can be about more than just games. The business side of games can be tied to monolithic companies like Disney, the cultural side to institutions like the Simthsonian, and the technological side to people like Tim Berners-Lee in just a few steps. Sure, some of the connections are largely tangential (Star Raiders -> Star Trek -> William Shatner -> Priceline.com) but journalists should keep in mind the larger web of relationships when looking for interesting new angles in the video game beat.
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