The Begining

The game had been broken down into distinct stages, with a separate objective in each. Reports suggested it would consist of five stages (i.e. this press release).
Stage 1
Bad Twin, the Lost tie-in novel written by Gary Troup
Bad Twin, the Lost tie-in novel written by Gary Troup

The first stage of the game centred around the "official" Hanso Foundation website and involved players in discovering clues hidden within the site left by a hacker known only at the time as Persephone. These clues cast doubt on the Foundation's claims of benevolence towards the human race, and introduced other characters in the game. This stage of the game was promoted by Hanso Foundation Commercials airing on ABC, Channel 7, and Channel 4, as well as cosponsorship deals with Sprite, Jeep, Verizon, and Monster.com. Additionally, a conspiracy-minded radio host DJ Dan joined Persephone's fight against Hanso.

A tie-in novel, Bad Twin, was published in May 2006 under the fictitious author Gary Troup, who (in the show) was aboard Oceanic Flight 815 and whose manuscript was discovered by Hurley, read by Sawyer, and burned (at least partially) by Jack. Video interviews with Troup were scattered across the web, containing references to Troup's out-of-print "nonfiction" book The Valenzetti Equation. The exact relationship of the novel's story to that of Lost isn't clear, but the timing of the book's publication, as well as the 'scavenger hunt' sensibility of the interview clips, suggests that Troup and Bad Twin were another piece of The Lost Experience puzzle.