Follow six guildies in their struggle to keep the raids going.

Many guilds in MMOs are built up of vast numbers of people who have never met in real life. These people spend hours upon hours gaming with one another to gear up their virtual characters and yet they never go for coffee or hang out. Personally, I have been a member of such guilds (and eventually quit them due to lack of unity), but I have also been a member of close knit guilds in which we all know each other in real life and love to go over our raid plans at the local Denny’s. In either situation, it can be a complex kind of friendship that is only strengthened by the online world shared between us. Am I a total loser because I love spending my Friday night yelling in vent to avoid the cone attack and let the tank do his damn job? Absolutely not! Fun is in the eye of the beholder and I think that The Guild really captures that.

Written by the recently appointed Geek Goddess Felicia Day, The Guild follows The Knights of Good and their struggle to keep a once anonymous guild in tact after they all meet up face to face. Each webisode runs between 3-8 minutes long and starts off with Cyd/Codex in front of her webcam recording a vlog of her thoughts and fears. Once we get the somewhat insecure and shaky thoughts of Codex the show moves onto the days’ plot and hilarity ensues.

The Knights of Good consist of:

Cyd Sherman aka Codex the Priest | Portrayed by Felicia Day (also writes the show): She is shy and non-confrontational, and quite insecure as well. She was seeing a therapist for gaming addiction, but failed to follow her therapist’s orders and was dropped as a patient.

Sujan Balakishnan aka Zaboo the Warlock | Portrayed by Sandeep Parikh: He is amazing with computers and can find anyone online. He uses these skills in order to track down Codex both to escape his overbearing mother and follow the relationship he thinks he has with Codex. Once he finds her, she makes it clear that there was no relationship, but he presses on with a schoolboy crush nonetheless.

Herman Holden aka Vork the Fighter (and also the guild leader) | Portrayed by Jeff Lewis. He is a cheap guy who enjoys running the guild and enforcing the rules and laws of both the guild and the game they play. He steals his dead grandfather’s social security checks, wifi Internet, and buys his food with food stamps. Although many of the guild members claim to hate him, the guild could not function without him.

Simon (couldn’t find last name sorry!) aka Bladezz the Rogue | Portrayed by Vincent Caso: He is a high school student who is constantly bothered by his younger sister while he plays the game in the basement of his home. He has a crush on Tinkerballa, makes lewd sexual jokes all the time, and later gets himself into trouble trying to please her. He is rude to the male members of the guild and hits on the female members constantly.

Clara Beane aka Clara the Mage | Portrayed by Robin Throsen: She is a stay at home mom of three kids that she often neglects so that she can play the game more. Her marriage suffers because of the game as well and she is a ditzy, scatter-brained, party girl who is bored with her real life.

Finally the last member is Tinkerballa, who doesn’t reveal her real name. She plays the Ranger and is portrayed by actress Amy Okuda. Tink is a pre-med student with a sizeable gaming addiction. Even while raiding with the guild, you will often see her playing on her Nintendo DS in addition to being a part of the raid. Cold and manipulative, she uses men to get what she wants in life and has no trouble calling things as they are with no sugar coating.

When I began watching the guild it blew me away how close to reality it really was. It follows quite a few stereotypes all at once and manages to have a genuine quality that only enhances the humor. I later found out that it was after two years of gaming addiction that Felicia Day wrote the series, and I feel that might be why it feels so realistic even though it is clearly meant to be satire. As it turns out, they ran out of money to produce it after only three webisodes. Luckily, the fans loved the show so much that they funded it through a PayPal donation button placed on the website. Seems I wasn’t the only one to resonate with the feel of the show. Now they are sponsored by Microsoft/Xbox and production on the 4th season has begun!

Felicia Day based many of the characteristics of Cyd/Codex upon her real self. While not as insecure or timid as Cyd/Codex, she certainly has that sweet quality you see shining through in the series. I found a fun little interview with Felicia that I thought you all would enjoy.

Felicia Day interview on AOTS

One of the endearing things about the production of this show is that it is truly for the fans. At no point is Felicia Day planning on removing the free to watch aspect of the show, and therefore you can see it all either on www.watchtheguild.com or on their YouTube channel. I personally prefer the YouTube channel if you have never seen the show before because their website has some funny bloopers in between the autoplay videos that accidentally let future events slip. So if you’re new, watch via YouTube by clicking the image below, and then head over to the website to catch the hilarious outtakes.

If you really love the show now, and desire to own it (after all you never know when your Internet connection might fail you! onos) then you can click the links below to pick it up on DVD from Amazon.com.

The Guild on Amazon

Fresh off the press is a new comic book series! The first issue is out now and the second is on the way later this month. The comic is actually a prequel to The Guild, and explains what happened to drive Cyd/Codex into gaming in the first place. The comic is also written by Felicia Day and has some excellent artwork. Each issue also has more than one cover to choose from and the cover art is amazing.

Buy the Comic

Who can forget the ridiculously catchy music video The Guild put out, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?” I simply couldn’t write an article about The Guild without putting the video in!

If you love the song as much as I do, you will probably want to buy it. Click on the image below to get it.