Lost in the LOST Experience

Those of you who read my articles and blogs regulary, and/or view Thumbn@ils may have noticed that I am a fan of the ABC show LOST.

A few weeks ago, the online game The LOST Experience launched. This game is based on the mythology of the television show and produced by ABC.

I have been following the game since the beginning, like many of my students and friends. Notice how I used the word following not playing. I can’t say playing because this game, like many other online and some CD based games of this type, is just too hard to play.

The game is not a shooter, or an RPG, or a traditional game. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is a Myst type of game. Myst was another game which I tried to play, but could not succeed without online help.

Here’s a typical scenario in the LOST Experience game. You get on the website and some new information is posted. Somewhere in that information is a linked word. Clicking that word will reveal a text field for a password. Where does the password come from? You find that on the secret site, which has a bunch of numbers listed on a page(or in the source code). Now these numbers convert into letters, which when unscrambled reveal the password you need. Are you with me? I would never think of that!

I don’t know how people figure this stuff out, but lucky for me (and I’m sure others) they do. Plus, they are nice enough to make a website and/or a podcast about it so people like me can “play” the game. (http://thelostexperienceclues.blogspot.com/ is a great site)

Don’t get me wrong. I like “playing” the LOST Experience. I just wish I could figure some of this stuff out on my own.