Happy Guildversary!

At some point I'll write a longer post about my admiration of Felicia Day, Queen of the Geeks, but today is a special anniversary: 4 years ago, the first episode the web series The Guild was released. I wish I could say that I was there when it started, but I'm glad I discovered it last summer. I watched the first 3 seasons before ever playing an MMORPG and thought it was fun and funny. I watched the whole thing again after playing World of Warcraft for about 4 months and loved it.

In hindsight, watching the webisodes may be what finally pushed me into trying an online multi-player game. Cool girls play too! Those look like people I'd want to be in a guild with and maybe even know in real life!

The Guild panel was the only one I made it to at Comic Con over the weekend. We stood in line with several other thousand people. It was totally worth it, technical difficulties and all.

Season 5 started yesterday, and Felicia Day is busier than ever. She's the poster child (no pressure) for illustrating that web-created shows can and do work. Personally, I think The Guild is an even better example of how fan support, crowd-sourced funding, and use of social media tools to market & get the word out can make an incredible difference.

Happy 4th Guildversary!

If you watch the show, check out this behind-the-scenes from design specialist Greg Aronowitz. Great pictures and clips!

And I leave you with this. It's true, my avatar is hotter than reality by far:

Are You Watching The Guild?

Season 4 of The Guild started a few weeks ago. I've really enjoyed the fun, webseries based on the antics of an online gaming guild who become friends in the "real" world. Felicia Day is great. And there's Wil Wheaton as a dicky gamer!

Here's the trailer for Season 4. I believe other seasons are available for viewing on the interwebs, and Season 1 is on Netflix streaming.


<br/><a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse/originals/the-guild?videoId=1038bcb9-8604-490f-8617-e397587e4a32&fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="'The Guild' Season 4 Trailer">Video: 'The Guild' Season 4 Trailer</a>

The Guild

I caught the cold that is going around and it sucks. It especially sucks because I have no pay channels (HBO, Showtime) let alone extended cable (SyFy, FX, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, you get the point). I also watched all my Netflix DVD's and caught up on all the shows I'm watching from both my DVR and Hulu by Sunday afternoon. Honestly, I'm not even sure I could rattle off what all I saw during my congested stupor.

But one thing stood out. As I cruised the Netflix instant play programs, I saw something new in the recommended list: The Guild. Netflix summarizes it as a:

Web series about a quirky group of gamers who take part in all sorts of heroics online but are far less skilled at navigating real life. (Felicia) Day plays Cyd Sherman, a young woman whose virtual-world obsession has led both her boyfriend and her therapist to dump her -- at the same time that her cyber-friend circle, or "guild," has begun to acquire a life beyond the Net.

I wish I was watching more web-based series, but between the TV, DVDs, books, movies, and hours of endless Internet re/searching, I just haven't gotten that far. So I apologize if I am late to the game on what could be an Internet sensation and didn't know it.

You may recall Felicia Day from another Internet sensation, Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." I loved this one to no end and will probably make an excuse to rewatch it again soon because I HAVE to write something about it here.

Anyway, Felicia Day wrote and stars in the The Guild as Codex, a member of a small online gaming guild, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be World of Warcraft. It appears the show is such a hit that they are also making a comic book of it (Day writes it, of course).

While I'm sure my friend Erica will appreciate this webisode even more than me, I thoroughly enjoyed The Guild. It's super low-budget, has great, quirky characters, and some funny dialogue. Most of the characters are so pre-occupied with their in-game lives that they've neglected their "real" lives. However, the game brings them together out-of-game where their relationships get more interesting -- after all, who we are online isn't necessarily who we are in the physical world.

Seasons 1 and 2 are available on Netflix, and it looks like quite a bit of it is on YouTube (though personally, I like being able to watch it all at once on Netflix, but that's me). I haven't pinned down Season 3 yet, but am happy to see that Wil Wheaton guest stars in several episodes.

One more clip, mostly because it shows the Intro with all the great avatars. And because I love Zaboo.

I love, love, love the discussion between Codex and Zaboo about the T1 line toward the end of this clip.

Addendum: Season 3 is available on watchtheguild.com -- and it is awesome.