ABC/Disney is Discriminating against DVD Users!

I make this outlandish claim because I have discovered (well, they make it blatantly obvious) that Lost University will be exclusive to the Blu-ray version of the fifth season.

I was so ridiculously excited about Lost University when I saw Lost’s Myface (Facebook) fan page post something about it back in July. I couldn’t wait to enroll – it seems so incredibly interesting. I even felt that they had stolen and then morphed my idea, since I had thought it would be a great idea to have books like The Philosophy of Lost, The Psychology of Lost, and The Gospel According to Lost, like they do for The Simpsons, and it seemed that’s what Lost University was all about, sort of.

UPDATE April 29, 2010
I suddenly felt compelled to see whether the Lost books I envisioned might, in fact, already exist, and they do!  Well, 2 out of 3 -- The Psychology of Lost doesn't appear to exist at this time, but Lost and Philosophy and The Gospel According to Lost do exist!  Woohoo!

I had hoped at the time that they were only suggesting the purchase of Lost Season 5 on Blu-ray. But after I excitedly enrolled today, I discovered that not only is that a requirement, but almost the whole University exists solely on the Blu-ray. It’s not even on the DVD!

I vowed never to buy Blu-ray discs, largely because I do not own anything that will play such a format. I also vowed never to buy Windows Vista, and thanks to Windows 7, I will never have to, so it worked. (It seems my Blu-ray avoidance might have to come to an end at some point in the future, according to Wikipedia.)

I wasn’t even sure I would be willing to buy the DVD of Season 5, but if Lost University would be on it, I probably would have. But now I won’t. I won’t buy any Lost DVD now, in protest of their exclusionary behaviors.

Hey, ABC/Disney, why don’t you put Lost University on a separate DVD if you don’t want to put it on the Season 5 DVD? I would definitely buy that, even if it’s just the non-interactive portions. Or better yet, why not put the whole thing online, you know, like at the Lost University website that already exists (see link below)? You could throw some ads on there and make money that way, or you could even charge “students” to enroll. Despite my proclivity towards cheapness, I would probably pay for such a fun, exciting, and interesting online university. But I won’t buy a Blu-ray player just for the joys of said university.

If you own a Blu-ray player and want to enroll, or if you want to enroll and see what you can get out of it without the stupid Blu-ray like I’m doing, go here:

http://www.lostuniversity.org/

UPDATE January 24, 2010
Well, so much for that – I caved. Amazon has (or had – I don’t know how long the sale will last, if it’s not over already) the DVDs of all the past seasons (1-5) for really low prices, so I bought them – all of them. It was a difficult decision – I was filled with guilt for betraying my own (pointless) cause. My sister was kind enough to allow me to “pretend” I bought it for her (which works out nicely if they end up releasing a fabulous box set of the complete series that I would obviously need to buy), but alas, it is still a betrayal of my non-worthy cause. What can I say, I’m weak.

Of course, the Blu-ray versions of all 5 seasons are (or were ) also on sale at Amazon, but their sale prices are still high, of course, because it’s Blu-ray, and Blu-ray is expensive.

I really hope they put the Lost U things on a DVD, even if it is just the non-interactive potions, because (assuming it would be cheap enough) I would buy that.