While we have secretly held suspicions that Majestic was too gimmicky to succeed, EA's next big idea may be far more insidious, and addictive, then we'd feared. The email, which can be seen on an identical web page here, looks rather harmless at first. It's nothing more than a promotion for the game.

However, being the nervous, giddy types that we are, we highlighted the body of the text with our mouse, and sure enough, got our first hit of the sweet stuff; we uncovered a clue. There in the white-on-white text were curious words and numbers. "Search…," "INSLAW," "ABELL 39," "ALLIANCE." There was even a longer string, "SevenZeroEight2SixZeroSevenEightNineOne," which really caught our interest. So naturally we picked up the phone and dialed...

Since then we've been thinking about passwords and clues, web searches and message boards, fake companies and more clues. Majestic immediately takes a hold of us for a lot of different reasons, not the least of which is it taps into everyone's natural curiosity about what's under the box. It's hard to make a breakthrough and find a new phone number, only to let it go when you are stopped by a password request. And each extra minute you devote to the quest becomes another piece of time you're investing in the project. The longer you play, the harder it to stop.

But games like Everquest and Counter-Strike absorb time for an entirely different reason. Both games offer the promise of increased skill with the more time you give over to it. With EQ, you'll slay bigger creatures and gather more gold; in CS you'll learn every map and master every weapon, becoming a better player. For many, many consumers, that's like crack. Being good at something is far more valuable than their time.

But Majestic doesn't offer the promise of become better at anything; it only offers you the promise that you'll discover something. It preys on everyone's desire to be in on the secret. That's why we gossip, read the Enquirer and watch the X-Files. But it also demands that we figure out the puzzle. Many gamers play games like The Sims not to win, but to break it, to find out what the limitations of the world are, to see what the designers did and didn't think of. Majestic issues the same challenge. Are you smarter than the writers? Can you find their clues? Can you put two and two together to get eight, like they want you to?

For gamers who aren't interested in goblins and dragons, or rockets launchers and machine guns, Majestic will be the drug du jour. You can play at your own speed, investigate when you're up to it, or just sit back and read the forums, leaving the gumshoe work up to the kids with more time. Our only concern? The story itself could be colossally stupid. Who wants devote six months of their life to a whole episode only to discover that aliens really did land at Roswell! Gasp!

We'll find out more in the coming weeks. If you don't want to join the service, stay tuned to Daily Radar and we'll tell you how it's going -- without giving any spoilers to the readers who are playing. We really don't need a new addiction right now, but, hey, the Survivor buzz is finally starting to wear off.