Dharma Special Access

A few weeks ago, everybody who had been playing along at DharmaWantsYou.com -- a site where you could become a recruit for a new generation of the Dharma Initiative -- got an e-mail that hinted that the entire thing had gone belly-up:

Our plan was that together we would commence a glorious adventure: the revival of the Dharma Initiative using the myriad talents of all our amazing new recruits. We imagined not just fulfilling long abandoned goals but taking the Dharma Initiative to a new level of greatness as an organization promoting the peaceful social and technological advancement of all humankind.
Then the financial crisis struck.

Sadly, our benefactors were not immune to this crisis. In fact, unconfirmed reports suggest that much of the money designated for the work of the new Dharma Initiative was tied up in highly leveraged mortgage derivatives. This, however, cannot be confirmed because, I am sorry to report, the principals representing the benefactors - my employers - have gone missing. Based on bills still coming into our office we believe they are somewhere in South America.

This stunning reversal of fortune has forced us to abandon our ambitious plans. In fact, absent this funding, the Dharma Initiative was forced to make the only sensible decision we had available: we sold the Dharma Initiative to the television show LOST.

It was a little hard to tell if this was just part of the game or not, but by now it seems pretty clear that some higher-ups at ABC decided they didn't want to keep investing a chunk of money in alternate-reality internet games that only a few tens of thousands of people end up playing. (Which begs the question -- if that's the case, why did they just seem to start a new one?)

Anyway, since DharmaWantsYou is no longer active, everybody that actually was participating is totally left hanging, right? Well, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse came up with a pretty good consolation. I just got this e-mail:

We didn't want to leave Dharma recruits high and dry, so we decided to start something we're calling Dharma Special Access (DSA).
Every week leading up to the premiere, we're going to e-mail you exclusive LOST content, information about the upcoming season and details about what's going on here at LOST behind the scenes. [...]

This content is only going to Dharma Recruits first. It will be available to you guys exclusively for 48 hours before it's officially posted anywhere else.

Though I can't confirm this, you might still be able to register at DharmaWantsYou and get these exclusives yourself. Somebody try it out and let me know.

In the meantime -- though I love to feel special, I love sharing content with you guys even more. So head on over to DharmaSpecialAccess.com and type in the password "LaFleur." You'll get the first three exclusive videos.