The purpose of the Web site is to give Lost fans a Lost alternate reality game to play during the hiatus between season's 4 and 5.
For this Dharma Wants You game overview, I will update the happenings of the game and give my thoughts.
5/29/08 - Octagon Global Recruiting Introduced
The third Lost alternate reality game began when a commercial came on for Octagon Global Recruiting towards the end of the season 4 finale, There's No Place Like Home Part 2.
The commercial said to go to www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com. On this Web site was an option to put in an email address. Several days later, those who had entered their email addresses received an email from Hans Van Eeghen stating that the recruiting would take place in San Diego as well as over the internet.
7/26/08 - Dharma Sponsors the Lost Panel at Comic-Con
As the sponsor, the Dharma Initiative had the head of Octagon Global Recruiting, Hans Van Eeghen, speak for a few moments. Hans pointed out that Octagon Global Recruiting was giving eligibility tests for volunteer positions for at Dharma Initiative. He showed a clip of some people testing.
In the clip, the testers were asked a series of questions, such as: What does terror sound like? What's your favorite animal? Describe your first kiss in three words.
Hans was not pleased with the results they had gotten so far and asked that everyone go online to take the eligibility test at www.dharmawantsyou.com (available July 28th and beyond).
He did mention three exceptional recruits and asked them to come on stage. After applause, he took them to the Dharma booth for the next phase of the test.
Later during the program, one of the recruits came running in with a video of what Hans had them do. Hans had showed him and the other recruits an old video of Dr. Marvin Candle in street clothes from the 80s. With a crying baby in the background, Dr. Candle, saying his real name is Pierre Chang, explains that there is going to be a purge and they are all going to die and that the Dharma Initiative must be resurrected.
The recruit was asked to leave and Hans Van Eeghen returned to the stage and shut down the panel.
7/28/08 - Dharma Wants You!
Dharma wants you, but apparently not that badly.
The Octagon Global Recruiting site was supposed to go live today with their eligibility testing for those who couldn't make Comic-Con (or for those of us who were there, but couldn't get an appointment).
Three lovely ladies were at the Dharma booth at Comic-Con setting up appointments for testing. Those who were able to get an appointment went into the booth for testing. I was bummed that I wasn't able to get an appointment, but figured it wasn't that bad since I would be able to test online today. I jumped out of bed and went to www.dharmawantsyou.com, but alas, they weren't ready for me.
The Dharma Wants You site should go live any moment now to allow you to test for eligibility.
7/29/08 - Dharma Wants You Now
The Dharma Wants You site is finally up and running! For a limited time, you can take the test to see if you are smart enough to work for the Dharma Initiative.
During the five minute test, you answer multiple choice questions. Then, once you pass (I can't imagine anyone would fail), you register as a Dharma volunteer.
I hope to see you among the volunteers!
8/20/08 - Dharma's Official Launch
Today was supposed to be the official launch of the Dharma Initiative's Volunteer Recruitment Program, but so far nothing is happening on the DharmaWantsYou.com site.
For those who have completed the eligibility test, you are supposed to be able to download your official Dharma Initiative ID card and participate in further testing. So far, the site just says that it's updating.
Update: I finally got in and took test number one. The site is really slow (lots of people on it?), but I finally got my test done. It's a spatial test where you have to put the broken pieces together to form a square. You get 100 seconds to do it and for every second still on the clock when you finish, you get a point. I got 12 points.
I'm sure 12 points isn't enough to get me on the Leader Board, which they are still updating.
8/21/08 - Dharma Test 1
The Dharma Wants You site is working much faster today. Today I scored 19 and then 35, but the Leader Board is still being updated, so I don't know if I made it on. With only 10 slots and many, many extra smart Lost fans out there, I doubt that I'll ever make the Leader Board, but it's worth a try!
8/28/08 - Dharma Test 2
The second test of the Dharma Wants You Web site is now up, and boy is it a hard one! You have to give multiple choice answers to ten questions in which you might know the answer to maybe one or two. Just give your best guess.
You don't even get to know your results at the end (which isn't a big deal for me, I already know I only got one correct, unless I just happened to guess another one).
How'd you do?
8/29/08 - Dharma Cheats
Okay, well I’ve known this for a couple of days and I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t divulged the information, so here it is: There are cheats to get further in the Dharma Wants You game.
They’re not actually cheats as in work arounds, but a real part of the game. Want to know how to do better on the tests? Check out: Dharma Wants You Cheat Sheet.
