NOTE to ABC - Don’t play games with LOST fans
When we ran "www.thelostexperience.com" over the summer to keep fans up to date on the game, (as well as participate in the plot for a fleeting moment), we were in a position to get a lot of feedback from fans. Unfortunately, one thing I heard and sensed a lot was the same old frustration of not developing fast enough, not giving satisfying answers, and worse yet misleading the fans.
A large contingent of fans wanted the game to connect with the universe of the show in a more tangible way. Instead there were several ‘red herring’ moments (the lake in Sri Lanka anybody?) that got those fan’s pulses pumping, only to let them down. This coupled with the non-ending of the game and it’s over-hyped and unrevealing epilogue left a large contingent of fans in no mood for what they expected to be another season of tease and denial.
See Also
Heroes Sued by Garbage Disposal Company!
LOST s03e01 Easter Egg Roundup
Lost Finds Serenity (Spoilers Warning!)
LOST — The Stephen King Connection
Did Season Three Return LOST to Form?
LOST Answers Questions in Season Three
Let’s face it, the game was nowhere near the satisfaction level of the show. For LOST fans who were already growing weary of the shows slow disclosure and, sometimes, unsatisfying reveals not fulfilling the promise of a “self contained” story-arc in the game was unforgivable. The game was, at best, the opening act.
Worse yet, ABC, you allowed your marketing department to make promises that the game could not keep. The reveal that the numbers were the result of the Valenzetti Equation really just amounted to a big group “well duh” moment. When you tell LOST fans you will explain the numbers, you need to come with more than just another serendipitous appearance of them. This was about as revealing as saying “Oh yeah, we have an explanation! They are inscribed on the outside of a hatch! Case closed!”
But all sarcasm aside, where were the missing five million viewers from the Season Two opener? My guess, and its an educated one, is still licking their wounds from this summer. But something tells me that now that real LOST entertainment has returned, they’ll be back. Personally, I think anyone who expected "The Lost Experience" to be entertainment on the magnitude of the show was setting themselves up for disappointment. Worse yet, anyone who thought the game was an important chapter in the continuum of the show was just not paying attention. The promise to folks who did not play the game was that the information revealed in the game was of no consequence to LOST the show. Unfortunately, a lot of people did not take that seriously.
I started playing the game and when I figured out that it was some big advertisement ploy, i stopped. I knew that it was a stupid little game trying to get money. If you played it all summmer to be let down, he is right. You set yourself up for disappointment.
Comment by mdog — October 6, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
I think you’re wrong about the numbers. They have been explained. The origin of the numbers is the Valenzetti Equation. The reason that the numbers where inscribed on the Hatch is because each station on the island is connected to one of the core factors of the Valenzetti Equation.
Lenonard and Sam Toomey heard the numbers being broadcasted from the island as explained by Alvar Hanso in the Hanso Exposed video. Hurley got the numbers from Leonard at the mental hospital. There is probably no reason behind the numbers appearing on the soccer team or behind them giving Hurley bad luck, those things are probably just coincidences, because just like Lost shows that there are connections between people who don’t know each other, the same numbers can show up in different places without really being related.
Comment by Andreas — October 6, 2006 @ 2:32 pm
You want answers?
Here are your answers:
The island is near the south pole in a weather anomaly at magnetic north. The whole place is there and green because of the unique properities of magnetic south and a geologycal anomaly. Thats why people cant return and thats why the listening station was in an arctic region. Thats why you had the numbers needed to be punched it and thats why you have the polar bears and thats why you have the smoke monster.
Ponder
Comment by me — October 6, 2006 @ 2:38 pm
Actually, because the show exsists as a work of fiction within the universe of the game (and as a sort of pravda for the Hansofoundation to boot), any explanation of Dharma, the numbers, et al. is suspect. The show can’t be considered an un-embellished biography of the truth of the game universe. Meta fiction gives me a headache. So no Numbers, Dharma, or Alvar Hanso explanation… except in the universe of the game…
Comment by DocArzt — October 6, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
Good on ya’ for the letter! ABC made things so difficult and so drawn out that only a true obsessed LOST fan, like myself, would continue to follow it, with the promise that some piece of information would be revealed. Those are precisely the fans that you should not mess around with.
Comment by JoefromUtah — October 6, 2006 @ 2:57 pm
People expected too much out of the game, It’s not like they were experts in ARG.
They decided to try a little project, and it worked.. it kept you excited to see whats next. Rachael Blake worked, Horrid acting most of the time but she worked.
I thought they did a good job, and I will continue to say so to anyone who thinks that it was a horrid game, that they didn’t even have to follow, but did.
Comment by Fernando — October 6, 2006 @ 4:01 pm
I second that. I decided to follow it and quite enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece or storytelling on the caliber of the show. Why would I? And, besides, what does ABC owe the fans? They offered the ARG, and if you played it you played it.
Comment by Mike — October 6, 2006 @ 4:11 pm
To be clear, the article is less of a condemnation or critique of the game as it is the impact it had on overzealous fans in relation to the show.
Comment by DocArzt — October 6, 2006 @ 5:04 pm
Rarely comment on these things, but I wanted to note that Lost’s viewership is still very strong, and some loss of viewership might be those who in particular choose to download, watch LOST online or only watch it on DVD. “Lost” unlike many other shows, has found avenues to deliver it’s content that goes above and beyond 10.1 or 9.9 or 11.6 ratings. Even so, it’s ratings are still very, very strong for a show that’s viewed as frustrating or niche.
Beyond that, LOST may have “lost” viewership because it went against American Idol (which is still massively popular) and had scheduling difficulties and, of course, is an extremely challenging show to follow. There’s any number of reasons that the ratings may have gotten smaller…but the third season premiere had a HIGHER viewership than the second season finale. That bodes well, I’d say.
The Lost Experience certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was also an oddball, completely new sort of marketing/branding exercise for a show as mainstream as this one. Lost fans are among the most vocal AND catered to in television. Complaints about quality sometimes go hand in hand with a misunderstanding about just how new and different these types of “experiences” are. Certainly, they’ll learn and come back stronger.
Comment by freeman — October 6, 2006 @ 5:15 pm
What makes you think that the Lost Experience was even known about or participated in by most of the Lost fans? I’d say that if someone were a big enough fan to pay any sort of attention to the Lost Experience at all, they’d be a big enough fan to continue to watch the show, even if they had grievous disappointments with the ARG.
Do you have some sort of collection of figures that reveal the number of those that participated in the Lost Experience?
Comment by MrWho — October 6, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
My take on this? I think a lot of people take themselves a bit too seriously…It’s just a show…albeit one of the best shows ever. The day when it ends, cos of the people who don’t get what THEY expect & complain, a lot of y’all are gonna be really lost…just enjoy the ride & don’t dissect every little flaw the show definetly has….but I’d take any episode of Lost over crap like Friends, Bev Hill 90210, etc…
Comment by EkoBeach — October 6, 2006 @ 7:17 pm
Big suprise. Lost applied the same formula that caused it to tank in the second season to their little marketing scheme. I looked at TLE and knew right off that it would be unfulfilling. I even said so in the forums (and now I can’t get in there…were they shut down or was I banned?).
Make not mistake…Lost was a great show. This summer I reviewed the first season and I was still thrilled even though I knew what was coming. But after the novelty of “they are all connected” runs out, us viewers are left with…not much, as the writers keep tossing us minor connections without moving the story forward.
Maybe they’ll turn it around in Season 3. 5 million people didn’t seem to think so according to last season. I know that if it doesn’t happen by the end of the first six shows, I’ll make it 5 million and 1.
Comment by Grubby — October 6, 2006 @ 7:37 pm
I actually never played the game. I am a big fan of the show, but they didn’t hook me with the game. I thought about it but I just wasn’t interested enough. I am very excited about this season of the show though. My mother-in-law (big fan) was seriously frustrated with the first show of this season because it was so weird. For me, the weirder, the better.
I cannot wait until next weeks episode. I like to be left hanging because it keeps me wanting more.
Comment by Philip — October 6, 2006 @ 8:34 pm
“Lost applied the same formula that caused it to tank in the second season to their little marketing scheme.”
Actually Lost season 2 got the same ratings as season 1. So it didn’t tank, nor did it gain new viewers.
Comment by Neil — October 6, 2006 @ 8:35 pm
This is just a stupid article. Is hte author that far out of touch with reality that he thinks that that many people logged on to play the online game?
If the ratings drop was 500,000 then MAYBE this article would have a shred of credibility
Newsflash for you vrigins who spend your lives online…Most people do not. Most people spend less than an hour a day online, and do NOT go to websites for shows.
Comment by JK87 — October 6, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
As the man in possession of the logs, I can tell you thelostexperience.com avergaed about 2.8 million uniques a month during the game. And the dissapointment with the game was widely publicized. So unlike you, I don’t speak strictly from personal opinion…
Comment by DocArzt — October 6, 2006 @ 8:47 pm
Don’t care how many uniques. This article is flat out wrong.
A couple hundred thousand pissed off game players *possibly*. 5 million due to a game that was obviously just a marketing ploy from day one? LOL.
For running a website devoted to tracking down clues, you seem to have forgot yours.
Comment by Jon — October 6, 2006 @ 9:18 pm
again, Jon, it’s opinion vs raw statistics. The general bad mood over the game only further cemented the concept that LOST is a sport of holding out. I don’t agree with it, but that’s the observation. You may not care about uniques, but if 2.8 million were visiting thelostexperience.com, how many do you think were actually following the game? I’m sure we didn’t get all of them…
Comment by DocArzt — October 6, 2006 @ 9:23 pm
I tried the ARG TLE but quicky lost track and got completely LOST in the game, links to websites, passwords, email signups… I looked forward to some podcasts. But those failed to update me and were annoying and generally bad to guide me through it. In the end the hit counts you would have seen from me went to http://www.lostpedia.com where i could actually catch up and follow the game without spending my entire day and subsequent life on the ARG. Too much work online when i can sit and watch something (the show), or read something (lostpedia) I think all this proves is that the majority of america still doesn’t want or need “interactive” television. It is a passive experience and if needed to be, it can be active via self initiated research, etc. I was pleased with recaps of TLE and the season 3 opener, this viewer is being strung along happily… And keep in mind it’s just a show, you should really just relax… ;)P
Comment by fugitiveALiEN — October 6, 2006 @ 9:49 pm
I logged onto thelostexperience.com about five or six times a day, so I’m not sure if that many people actaully went to the site. it was more likely a third - or a fourth. And, honestly, I’m glad the ratings are dropping. Now the show is more likely to end sooner. This way we’ll get the answers we want sooner.
Comment by bob — October 6, 2006 @ 10:00 pm
Sure TLE explained the numbers but it didnt explain why they had to enter those specific numbers into the computer in the hatch, or exactly why they were stamped onto the outside of the hatch. Maybe the Dharma initiative people just thought it would be cool? They also didnt explain why the numbers were being transmitted. I mean if they are the out put of the valensetti equation what is the point of just broadcasting the numbers nonstop?
Comment by Charlie Lesoine — October 7, 2006 @ 12:00 am
Charlie - it says why the numbers were transmitted in the DHARMA Orientation film uncovered during TLE… The numbers were continually transmitted on a frequency monitored by The Hanso Foundation to see when -if at all- the core factors had been successfully changed, prolonging any apocalypse event. Remember the point of DHARMA was to change the core factors - i.e. the numbers aren’t the result, they are things against which other things within the operation (population, etc.) are operated upon. “Change the core factors and you change the destiny of the human race”.
Comment by ian Abbott — October 8, 2006 @ 1:12 am
I’m not convinced that the 5 million less viewers has to do with people losing interest in the show. One possible reason could be the fact that at the beginning of the 2nd season ABC was not streaming LOST. From what I remember reading before (though I do not remember the source) that the average viewership of episodes LOST streamed was around 5 million. This must of played a part in the 5 million less viewers since this outlet to watch the show for free wasn’t around (since I think the streaming started near the second half of second season).
Comment by Payom — October 8, 2006 @ 4:17 am
DocArzt, you keep referring to the “raw statistics.” You say The Lost Experience had 2.8 million unique visitors a month. Let’s take that at face value. We’ll be generous and say the game ran for 3 months. That’s 8.4 million unique visitors over the whole game, but obviously some of those unique visitors repeated in months 2 and 3. The ones that repeated were the ones that cared about the game, and the ones that didn’t obviously did not.
I’m not sure I can make a solid factual conclision here, but come now… if you think that the number “2.8 million unique visitors a month” proves that the season premiere bled FIVE million viewers because they were disgruntled about The Lost Experience, then you seriously need a reality check.
Your point about the show being percieved as a sport of holding out is legitimate, though, and you might consider that some people who watched on TV in Season 2 picked up on this and decided not to bother with it this year. But to say that 5 million viewers were upset about TLE and decided to take their ball and go home, so to speak, is just ludicrous.
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