Lost IS a Video Game.

DHARMA's Bent Reality: The Video Game Sensibility of Lost
by Elwyn palmerton for Pop Matters
http://tinyurl.com/5hk4ok
(To give due credit, this was posted to Jump The Shark Yaho! Group by Telstar)

[Forget the Lost video game - this article states that Lost IS exxentially a video game. It's a three page article - follow the link. Here are excerpts:]

Lost appears unique in the degree to which it has absorbed the influence of video games. Lost captures the specifically over-loaded sense of place and a talismanic weight accorded to objects.

In Lost, the discovery of new locations generally serves a narrative function

Given The Island’s overall lack of man-made clutter and its delimited geography, the objects and places that are of importance are granted a sort of iconic value

When Locke discovers the hatch, for example, we’re feeling, basically, just like we do when we encounter a door that we can’t open. We try throwing everything that we have at it but it’s not enough. Aall items in games, as in Lost, are potentially keys. Locke had not yet been to “The Black Pearl” and, therefore, had not found the dynamite. Ssignificant as it epitomizes the relationship of “place” to “item”


In other instances, this talismanic value of objects is exaggerated by allegorical design, as with the Virgin Mary icons full of heroin.

It’s not coincidental that the finales of Seasons one, two, and four were all accompanied by the appearance of important new locations: The Black Pearl and the opening of the Hatch, The Looking Glass, and The Orchid.

Lindelof has cited Myst as a particular influence and the stylistic parallels between that game and the Lost set design (specifically of the Dharma Initiative stations) is startling and significant.

As a “virtual” landscape, The Island is bordered on all sides by an impassable boundary, the ocean. The ability to leave The Island requires a particular item/code combination: a boat and, more importantly, the bearing.