the lost experience

Initially, I thought this (possible spoilers) would be a fun puzzle-solving game to play over the summer, while waiting for season three to start, figuring out what Dharma is about, Hanso Foundation rabbits with Persephone . . . but after last week’s Sprite tie-in, and last night’s stupid Jeep commercial, I’m beginning to think the big secret message from The Hanso Foundation will be "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

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23 thoughts on “the lost experience”

That’s what you get for watching Lost. Not that you shouldn’t watch Lost, although I never have, it’s just that it’s easy to get sucked into these stupid shows. It’s happened to me, but with Dr. Who. I n e e d t o w a t c h D r W h o.
Cheri

That’s why I “just watch” Lost. The other suck in is the “Don’t miss the exclusive deleted scene on tomorrow’s Good Morning America”. Deleted scenes are deleted for a reason.

I’m completely hooked on this show! The additional websites don’t seem to provide too much info…and whatever info they do provide makes no sense whatsoever. If you’re somewhat interested in what’s going to happen, spoilerfix.com is a good place to get info.

Yeah, I must admit the “extracurricular activities” for Lost are a GREAT time kill at the office…but I really don’t want a show ruined by the whole “be sure to drink your ovaltine” angle…which is why I’m slightly troubled by Cheri’s Dr. Who comment. Cheri – do you mean the current incarnation of Doctor Who?! Man, don’t tell me – I absolutely LOVE the new (Ninth) Doctor…And I would be totally devestated to have it ruined by some subliminal message to eat more Twiglets..
OH! Wil – I got the chapbook in the mail yesterday! Luckily it arrived on the one day it hasn’t rained in Massachusetts! Thanks so much I look forward to reading it tonight!
Thank you!!!

Why does all the hype around lost remind me all the hype around Myst? “Discover the islands secrets”…
Me, I like resolutions to my mysteries, so I’ll stick with Veronica Mars.

I don’t know man, I think it’s all about the aliens. Maybe it’ll all end with a rope ladder coming down from space, they’ll climb it and there will still be no resolution.

Big LOL on the “Ovaltine” comment. Brought back a nice Ralphie moment…

A crummy commercial?? 😉
You’re going to find out The Others are Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, and Lee Iaccoca.

Makes you feel violated and dirty.. At least the breasts on the show are not 30% larger, so you know that Carls Jr. hasn’t had a plug.. yet….

I LOVE the show, but I don’t go for any of the extras. I take the show at face value. Its sheer entertainment and has just enough going on to really keep me interested in what’s going to happen next, and that’s enough for me. I will avoid the games and such just to keep the show more interesting for me.

Well, as long as it’s not “We want to convert you to a new breed of Scientology”, I’ll be all for it.

I feel a similar letdown from the DaVinci Code Quest on Google. I knew that part of it was a contest, but based on the Google blog entry, I had hoped that even after the contest, you could still do some of those “12,358 original puzzles”.

No, Wil, as I pointed out in my LiveJournal post this week, “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine” is the secret of The Da Vinci Code, not Lost…

I agree a little Wil, but think about it this way.
When Tapper came out, it was sponsored by Budweisser. Did that make it less enjoyable? It would piss me off to no end if the Lost Experience game JUST led to hidden advertising….but it does shed light (albeit VERY slowly) into the Hanso Foundation.
Besides, the actual act of looking for these clues is fun enough to me.

The Ovaltine example is content pushing you to a commercial message. The Lost example is a sponsorship of content. The advertiser is giving you clues about the game, not the game giving you clues about the advertiser.
I rather like Lost’s approach. The advertiser is weaved more seamlessly and believably into the storyline, plus the most important part of those site (subLYMONal & letyourcompassguideyou) are the passwords to additional Persephone messages on the Hanso Foundation site.
I like it.

Valid point, Seth.
What I didn’t make clear in my effort to be oh-so-clever is that the overt sponsorship breaks the fourth wall, and disrupts the ARG aspect of the entire experience.
Maybe it would have been more accurate to say that next week’s clue will lead us to besuretodrinkyourovaltine.com

I’m glad to see someone else make the reference to Myst/Riven. I felt like I was playing the game last week when they opened the hatch to Pearl. I too am disappointed by all the sponsor tie-ins. However, it’s still fun.

Exactly, Wil! I participated in what might be considered the first ARG ever and this sort of of shameless “let’s make you watch an entire advertisement prior to receiving a lame clue” is disappointing beyond belief. It goes beyond the spirit of what was potentially a new medium for telling a story into simply another method for pushing a product.
Signed,
sad cloudmaker gracie

Okay, I’m very upset. I followed your link, and I’ve spent my entire day mired in non-productivity. I don’t watch Lost, so I had no idea about most of it, but I’m sufficiently intrigued. I’m going to have to get cable now, and Amazon is going to have to send me whatever seasons I can get on DVD.

I got sucked into the AI movie real life game. I lost way too much of my time in that one. I don’t want to do it again.
But I did decide to take the time to watch Lost. I’m completely caught up now.
Actually, my experience with the AI game has me convinced that most of Lost is not well designed puzzles and clues. I’m sure they have some large story arc, but most of the details are just interesting stories.

I kinda figured it was inevitable that there would be a bit of advertising in the LOST Experience, I mean, it is ABC and somebody’s gotta pay for this huge game/marketing campaign.
It doesn’t bother me though, because I interpreted it as this huge sinister organization, Hanso, is so powerful that even Sprite and Jeep are in cahoots with them, so it all makes sense together.
I’d never heard of ARG’s till The Lost Experience and was blown away by it’s scope -websites, telephone numbers, published books, fake newspaper ads. I’d play it, but there’s just way to much for me to get (sucked) into. Looks fun though.
Oh yeah, and thanks to you I cannot be doing ANYTHING else Wednesday nights but have my eyes glued to the tv for LOST. Damn you, Wheaton!

I thought you may find this interesting.
Lost… the Game…
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6151618.html

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the lost experience

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