Instead of drowning the comment section of Wonderland’s entry (Link) about the television show Lost and its link to videogames, I thought I’d post my comment here and use the trackback feature appropriately. So, in response to Jez’s comment, here goes:

I’m familiar with the alternate reality gaming aspect of Lost. I posted my original thought the morning of May 26th (Link). The ARGN website posted news of the ARG side of Lost the evening of that same day. I saw their post the next morning and posted an entry regarding it afterward (reLink).

But ARGN news doesn’t go into the possibility of the show actually being about or taking place inside a videogame; only about it having a component that’s invaded ViewerSpace as a game.

Early on, like most viewers, I thought the show’s characters were in Purgatory. But after reading an interview of someone involved in the show wherein they effectively discounted the Purgatory theory when they said all the happenings (the “monster” that kills the pilot, the polar bear showing up, aso) had plausible explanations, I got to thinking about the ways in which what we were watching might make sense. That’s what prompted my original post that Lost might be a show happening inside a MMORPG.

Maybe television viewers are in Spectator mode and watching actors/players and NPC’s in a virtual game world. It’s just that no one’s told us! It’d be like accidently walking into an arena full of video feeds (or maybe one of Mark Cuban’s digital theaters) and watching a CPL championship for a MMORPG that looks entirely realistic (the future of gaming/television/entertainment???).

In this case, maybe in the “story” – assuming there even is one – the characters are actually on the Oceanic flight and hooked into a videogame to help pass the time (trans-Pacific flights can be killer). Their activities in the game might be other people’s entertainment, broadcast from the plane and reaching “viewers” everywhere; nice way to get productivity out of idle travelers and people might actually receive compensation or discounted airfares in the future for just this sort of “work” (I’ve previously gotten into the blurring definitions of “work” and “play” on this and other blogs).

The show 24 portends to air hourly segments of simulated realtime, but Lost might actually be stretching out gametime to fit the “really real” time of ViewerSpace. An entire season in the television show’s ViewerSpace realtime might only be a few hours in the show’s Character/Player’s flighttime. And that time is itself distorted when the Characters/Players enter the simulated world of the MMORPG.

If you start looking at the possibilities of what this could be and what it suggests, my entry (reLink) discussing Peter Molyneux’s virtualspace experiment “The Room” might make more sense. It’s also the reason I post about Lost on this blog, because I came to see it as related to the topics I cover here.

Remember the post from last May where I speculated that the hit television show Lost might be a videogame? No? Let me quote myself from that post then (Link):

But then, after watching the season finale last night it hit me: maybe “Lost” is actually an ARG of some sort, or an MMORPG. It could really be nothing more than a documentary of a group of players engaged in a game not unlike Majestic.

Well, I guess that possibility has finally dawned on a few people. Check out this post on Wonderland (Link) and some of the links in it.

Heck, I don’t know if I’m the first person to come up with that explanation or even if that is the explanation, but for now all I can think to say is: PWN’d!

Okay. That was fun. Back to work.

As follow-up to my earlier post from last October (Link), Infoworld is carrying news that Adobe has released something… wonderful? From the article (Link):

Adobe Systems Monday is releasing software that will allow designers and engineers to save 3-D images as PDF (portal document format) files and share those files with anyone who has the free Adobe Acrobat reader, the company said.

{Quick note: the writer is incorrectly calling these “3-D images”; they’re actually saving 3D file data… not 2D images.}

A new product in the Acrobat family, Adobe Acrobat 3D, allows users to convert 3-D designs from major CAD (computer-aided design) applications into PDF files…

There’s plenty more in that article to read – from intellectual property to design communication – so it’s worth going to the source. And if you’re a product designer, make sure you also stop by the Adobe Acrobat 3D page (Link) and get some details since this concerns many of us. I’m interested, but the addition of another 3D format (.u3d) doesn’t thrill me.

via TP Wire Service

{Update: From someone else’s blogsearch tracks, I found this interesting blog entry – Link – by someone apparently involved in the development of this upgrade. Right Hemisphere? That came outta left field.}

Now here’s a surfing collision for you: AdAge is hosting America Online’s curious new commercial, “Why The Internet Is Bad”. For those of you willing to register on their site (it’s free), you can see AOL’s Orwellian pitch(?) for yourself (Link – to video page) and try to figure out exactly how it fits in with their recent announcement to create “AIMspace” (see my earlier entry – Link). Personally, I’m getting the feeling they’re going after the older, forgotten demographic; people like … *ahem* … little old ladies who are intrigued by this stuff but scared off by what they read and hear on the tele.

Right after seeing that, I happened to surf through YouTube only to notice that Aphex Twin‘s “Come To Daddy” music video is there for everyone’s viewing pleasure (I’m not sure if this video is violating any copyrights, but given what I’ve read previously about the people behind this effort, I wouldn’t be surprised if its uploading is officially endorsed; consequently, I’ll give credit and watch to see if it gets yanked).

For the unfamiliar, this video is a brilliantly-made cult flick and one of my favorites. Directed and masterfully edited by Chris Cunningham, this bit of filmmaking, in addition to being visually stunning, has a storyline/message that’s particularly relevant now. And the really scary part is that the “monster” in it might turn out to be AOL!

I want your soul.
I will eat your soul.

Sing along everybody.

By the way, I’ve just noticed that Cunningham is no longer slated to direct the film adaptation of William Gibson‘s Neuromancer. Bummer.

{Top image Copyright © America Online, Inc.; bottom image source: YouTube, Inc.}

Given my previous post regarding AOL’s announcement of their forthcoming “AIMspace” service (Link) and my comments over on Mashable saying that I believed AOL would still purchase or partner up with someone, I thought this bit of news over on Next Generation provided a good example of what I had in mind. From their short article (Link):

Xfire, a free online PC gaming application that facilitates in-game messaging, stat-tracking, voice chat and other community-based features, has exceeded 3 million users.

The service is supported by big-name advertisers such as Pepsi, Dodge, Fox Studios and Electronic Arts. Xfire claims its platform is the fastest-growing in the world.

When I made that comment about AOL, this is exactly the kind of company I had in mind. If you have the patience to dig through my post from yesterday (Link) you’ll notice how I use MS’s XBox Live service as part of a potentially much larger “profiling” system. I mean, just look at this part taken from the Xfire website:

Xfire automatically keeps track of your gaming stats, such as the games you play and how many hours you’ve played them, and displays them on your profile page.

Folks, this company is ripe for purchase.