IBM is proud of Innov8, its zeitgeist-flavoured service-oriented architecture training tool. A three-dimensional virtual environment, it leads players by the pixelated hand through the sort of analysis and decisions that end up with an SOA solution to all your business-process management needs.

The idea that videogames are a good way to present business functions isn't new. Nobody's made it work yet, for the simple reason that the difficulties people have with work are rarely with the hows but much more commonly with the whats. A dull meeting with finance is a dull meeting with finance, whether you have it in a room with a bloke in a tie or floating in orbit off Arcturus IV with a giant fluorescent squid.