The Lost Experience is an alternate reality game that is part of the ABC television drama
Lost. The game will play out during Lost's second season in the United Kingdom and during the summer break in the United States. The Lost Experience, which began in May, 2006, has used websites, television and newspaper ads and a novel to give
players clues to the game. Many websites have been set up by fans who are collecting and comparing clues of the game.
Background
On April 24, 2006, the television network ABC announced
an interactive game related to the television drama Lost, called the Lost Experience. ABC is working with United Kingdom's Channel 4, Australia's Seven Network and seventeen other networks to bring the game to players.
ABC Entertainment's senior vice president of marketing, Mike Benson, described the game as
a hybrid between content and marketing. This type of marketing was tried by ABC when Lost first began with a website for the
fictional Oceanic Airlines, owners of the plane that crashed in the show's premiere.
The game
The Lost Experience began on May 2 in the United Kingdom, May 4 in the United States and Australia, with a television
commercial that aired during an episode of Lost for the fictional Hanso Foundation, a corporation mentioned on the television
show. The commercial gave a telephone number which, if called, brought up voice mail for the Hanso Foundation and some of
its employees. [3] The following week of May 9, there was another commercial for the Hanso Foundation. This commercial led
viewers to the site www.sublymonal.com. After visitors click on the colored squares, a tv screen appears with text on it.
Below this is a link to the Hanso Foundation's website.
Messages in the voice mails gave clues that would be used in the Hanso Foundation's website.
ABC set up several different fictional websites for fictional organizations or people mentioned on the show or in part of
the Lost Experience. The websites, particularly Hanso Foundation.org, contain clues to the overall plot. Players are being
guided along by someone named Persephone who is helping the players uncover the game's mystery. Most clues on the website
are revealed by clicking on faintly marked anomalies in the web page design, or by entering questionnaires. Some require passwords
found elsewhere, such as in the voicemail service.
The clue revelations are designed as minigames, though with little challenge as they are completely
linear. A notable exception is the coded messages on persephone.thehansofoundation.org involving simple encryption schemes
such as ROT.
Also in May Hyperion published the novel Bad Twin a book written by fictional author Gary
Troup who was on the plane that crashed on Lost. Bad Twin is a mystery novel that contains references to the show and mentions
the Hanso Foundation occasionally. On May 9, various newspapers ran quarter-page ads from the Hanso Foundation which condemned
the novel for giving misinformation about the Hanso Foundation. [2]
Fans of Lost have been looking over the clues and discussing them on internet forums, and
several websites have been set up which give detailed information on all parts of the game.
Timeline
3 May 2006
(event took place on May 2nd in
UK, and May 6th in Australia)
Updated www.thehansofoundation.org
web site and TV ad.
First clue: visitor is contacted
again by Persephone when signing up for newsletter.
4 May 2006
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Gary Troup
interview is released on the Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon websites respectively.
5 May 2006
Press release is issued by Hugh
McIntyre. The release includes a hidden link to persephone.thehansofoundation.org where the second clue was found.
7 May 2006
Message on persephone.thehansofoundation.org
updated.
8 May 2006
Message from Persephone in the Executive
Bio about Alvar Hanso having not been seen in public since 2002.
9 May 2006
The Hanso Foundation places a newspaper advert: 'Don't Believe "Bad Twin"'
A hidden link and a TV commercial
both direct viewers to www.sublymonal.com, where a puzzle reveals a code.
After using the code at Thomas Mittelwerk's
executive bio, Persephone questions his Caltech credentials, including a concealed message about Gary Troup.
10 May 2006
Yesterday's Persephone clue has
changed. The Gary Troup message is no longer readable.
A note from the Publisher is placed
on hyperionbooks.com and Gary Troup's websites regarding Hanso criticism in Bad Twin.
12 May 2006
A new press release is issued on
thehansofoundation.org website about BAD TWIN with a link to the May 10 newspaper ad.
A hidden letter from Hugh McIntyre
to Robert Miller, President of Hyperion Books demands that Hyperion cease selling BAD TWIN.
16 May 2006
A link
is found in the source code of thehansofoundation.org to www. djdan.am.
persephone.thehansofoundation.org
has been changed to a new number set from original, which reads "stand by".
17
May 2006
Hugh
McIntyre's picture is removed from the Executive Bios page. A password entry field for press releases also appeared on the
same page.
One
of the active project pages directs viewers to a link: www. letyourcompassguideyou.com
