while this is interesting on its own, keep in mind that the writers have said that the video game is not canon.

yeah, it almost certainly isn't miles now. the man on the boat was definitely on the boat with sayid and desmond. though i agree that there could have been something coded or not-how-it-seems about that conversation anyway.

the way you write about it, the different sides trying to figure out the mysteries of the island is starting to remind me a lot of alias — a race to decode the clues.

yeah, i wouldn't be so quick to assume that ben is plain evil. he clearly is unethical in a lot of ways, but he may be on the "good" side, compared to whomever is running the freight expedition.