I honestly don't know why Felicia Day isn't a bigger star than she is; I kind of see her as an American Simon Pegg (Simone Pegg?), and if all were right with the world, she'd have her own Spaced-type show by now (this is more of an Arrested Development reference than a dig at the McG-produced American version of Spaced). The Guild certainly has some similarities with the incredible British show; both are about the mundane aspects of real life and follow twentysomething underachievers as they try to use fantasy to "improve" reality.
The Guild was the brainchild of Day after she became a bit of a World of Warcraft junkie. It was originally going to be a sitcom, but it ended up as a webseries since it could target the niche audience it was intended for and not be concerned with ratings (the show is financed by donations, and as soon as the donation link is reestablished on the site, found here, I will be making sure that there will be episodes beyond the upcoming Season 2). Day incorporated some of herself into lead character Cyd Sherman, such as the fact that both Day and Cyd were child prodigy violinists, and one of the main ideas behind the series is that, contrary to popular belief, not all gamers are overweight dudes who live in their mothers' basements. In fact, there is no overweight male to be found on The Guild (there is a plus-sized woman, but she is the mother).
The first season takes place over the course of three or four days. We are introduced to the Knights of Good, a World of Warcraft guild composed of a bunch of unemployed internet and video game addicts. Day's Cyd (avatar name of Codex) is a somewhat depressed young woman who was recently "dumped" by her therapist and lost her most recent boyfriend when she caught him cheating on her (she lost another one when he, along with Cyd's father, "turned gay"). Her craving for a real social support system is what causes the guild to meet in person for the first time. Zaboo is a weird and obsessive "Hinjew" who tracks down Codex after her accidental use of too many ;) emoticons leads him to believe that his romantic feelings for Codex, whom he had never met, are mutual (this just goes to prove that the internet just can't convey emotion properly ;)). Vork is the fearless leader of the Knights of Good fearlessly while in the World, but is a timid, middle-aged, unemployed, penny-pinching man in the world. Clara (both the real name and avatar name) is an inattentive mother who spends more time online than with her kids (some of the best visual humor in The Guild comes from seeing how her kids deal with the neglect). Tinkerballa (avatar name and real name... as far as we know) is the group's hot Asian who is cynical and in constant need of virtual stimulation (she rarely is seen without her DS). And Bladezz is the guild's "retarded cousin" (in the words of Clara) who embarrasses the group by yelling profanity on the server's message board, but is retained due to his great skills as a rogue.
Though there are a fair number of scenes showing the Knights of Good engaging in raids and quests, we never actually see any in-game footage. This series is about the real lives of these characters, which are full of video game references. They apply World of Warcraft ideas and slang to everyday situations; this is most evident in the "boss fight" finale, but there are other examples, such as when Zaboo gives Codex a bouquet of blue flowers that he made because he bought her character blue flowers in the game, or Bladezz referring to everyone as n00bs. When Codex tries to arrange the guild's first real-world meeting, Tinkerballa refuses to go until Codex bribes her... with game gold. And Codex, who begins each episode with a monologue into her video blog (these segments further prove that Day has great comic timing), at one point mentions that life is so much easier to measure in experience points than in real life lessons.
I have never touched World of Warcraft myself, or any other MMORPG (though if the Firefly one is ever released, I may have to give that one a whirl; however, I am a fan of games, like Zelda, Chrono Trigger and a few of the Final Fantasy games), and I failed Internet Slang 101, so a few of the jokes are lost on me. Still, this is an incredibly funny series that will be enjoyable to anyone who has even a basic knowledge of the internet and video games. In fact, it has been so successful that Day has been commissioned to write a new Warcraft-based series that will serve, in her words, as the reverse of The Guild. This one will take place completely in-game, and will have fantasy characters dealing with mundane situations. I can already see Kreggenmoor the Destroyer worrying about his upcoming date ($100 in internet money to anyone who knows what that's a reference to... and another $10 in internet money to the person who knows what internet money is a reference to).
If you've never seen the show, here is the first episode to get you started:
Also, here is an interesting interview with Day and Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo) talking about the show:
Up next: Legen - wait for it - dary...
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