User:Hirachio11/Sandbox

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Guild
250px
GenreComedy
Created byFelicia Day
Directed byJane Selle Morgan
Greg Benson
Sean Becker
StarringFelicia Day
Vincent Caso
Jeff Lewis
Amy Okuda
Sandeep Parikh
Robin Thorsen
Michele Boyd
ComposerDon Schiff
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodesSeason 1: 10
Season 2: 12
Season 3: 11
Other special videos
Production
ProducersFelicia Day
Kim Evey
Jane Selle Morgan
Production locationsLos Angeles, California
Camera setupTahlee Booher
Carl Ratajski
John Schmidt
Running timeVaries (usually 3-8 minutes)
Original release
NetworkYouTube (Season 1)
MSN Video (Seasons 2-3)
Xbox Marketplace (Seasons 2-3) Zune Marketplace (Seasons 1-3)
ReleaseJuly 24, 2007 (2007-07-24) –
present

The Guild is an award-winning

Xbox Live Marketplace.[1]
The show follows the life of Codex, the healer of The Knights of Good, whose online gaming is beginning to have adverse effects on her real life.

The Guild is written by Felicia Day (who stars as Codex), directed by Jane Selle Morgan and Greg Benson (season 1) and Sean Becker (season 2), and produced by Jane Selle Morgan and Kim Evey. Production of 12 new episodes for season 3 began on June 13, 2009[2] and ended July 11, 2009.[3]

Joss Whedon credits The Guild as one of the inspirations for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which also starred Day.[4]

Synopsis

The show follows the life of Codex (Felicia Day), a member of the Knights of Good, a guild in a fictional, unnamed

MMORPG
. The theme of the show revolves around Codex attempting to lead a normal life, although she is aware that her online gaming is slowly taking over. After being "dumped" by her therapist, Codex's life changes when one of the guild members, the Warlock Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) suddenly arrives at her house. Zaboo has misunderstood some of the online interaction he's had with Codex, and assumes the two are dating. Codex's life becomes more complicated when the guild's rogue, Bladezz (Vincent Caso), gets banned from the game for behavior issues. In an attempt to solve both problems, Codex proposes the guild meet in person to discuss what to do about Bladezz. At a restaraunt, the guild members finally meet each other in person: the guild leader Vork (Jeff Lewis), the scatter-brained mother of three and guild mage Clara (Robin Thorsen), and the cynical and anti-social Tinkerballa (Amy Okuda). Bladezz crashes the meeting and reveals that he possesses the guild's bank, and goes further by posting an obscene video of the guild's avatars on the game's forums. Matters only get worse for Codex when Zaboo's overcontrolling mother arrives at her house, looking for Zaboo (who's been microchipped). After stopping Zaboo's suicide attempt, Codex and Zaboo discover a way to beat Bladezz. Zaboo discovers Bladezz's secret modeling career, and the guild threatens to expose him. Bladezz relents, surrenduring the guild bank and planning to quit. The guild then bands together to help Zaboo break from his mother, with Bladezz returning at the last minute to deliver the "killing blow." Bladezz is welcomed back to the guild, and Zaboo is free from his mother.

Codex must then deal with several changes. Zaboo's mother managed to get her evicted from her apartment, so she is forced to move, and Zaboo moves in with her. Codex manages to convince Zaboo that he must "man up" before they could ever date. Zaboo moves in with Vork to carry out his efforts. Codex is introduced to her attractive neighbor, Wade Wei (Fernando Chien), who is a stuntman. After some advice from the girls of the guild, Codex decides to persue Wade. At the same time, Tink has been leading Bladezz into believing that they have a chance together if he does various tasks for her, including homework and in-game item farming, as well as buying and mailing her various items in real life. Also at the same time, Clara has made another character and is relentlessly hunting Vork in revenge for an item she missed out on due to his policies. Server maintainance takes the game offline for a night, so the guild members resort to girls and guys nights. Girls night turns into a party at Codex's, including Wade and his roommate, Riley (Michele Boyd), who Codex originally thought was his girlfriend. With encouragement from Clara and Tink, Codex makes a move, but fails miserably. Man night is far more unsuccessful, eventually leading to Bladezz encrypting Vork's senile neighbor's wifi (which he'd been stealing), forcing them to play a game offline. Zaboo gets a message that Clara and Tink are hanging out with Codex, attempting to get her laid. Zaboo panics, and forces Bladezz and Vork to crash girls night with him. Zaboo discovers Wade comforting Codex, and a fight ensues. Zaboo loses miserably, but Wade is impressed by his effort. Wade backs down, telling Zaboo he can have Codex. However, Codex drives Zaboo off, telling him they never have a chance. Meanwhile, Tink has done the same to Bladezz, and for revenge, Bladezz deletes her character. Vork discovers that Clara was the player who was killing him, and becomes disheartened at his failure as a guild leader. As the season ends, the guild is falling apart.

Codex hopes the release of the game's expansion back will bring the guild back together, but the arrival of the top guild on the server, the Axis of Anarchy, threatens to drive them further apart. After a failed attempt to regain their front line postition at the game store from the Anarchists, Vork resigns as guild leader, and Codex is nominated. Tink quits the guild, and joins the Axis of Anarchy, using her new friends to take revenge on Bladezz. Vork decides to go soul searching, stealing wifi wherever he can. Zaboo is now dating Riley, though her overcontrolling and dominating habits cause Codex to worry about Zaboo. Clara's husband, George, aka Mr. Wiggly, joins the guild to replace Tink, though his lack of gaming experience only makes matters worse. All the while, the Axis of Anarchy is doing what they can to make the guild's lives, especially Bladezz's, as miserable as possible.

Characters and cast

Knights of Good

Actress Felicia Day plays the role of Codex.
Lewis (Vork), Okuda (Tinkerballa), and Thorsen (Clara).
  • Clara - Real name is Clara Beane. She is the guild's
    Mage. Clara is a stay-at-home mother of three and ex-cheerleader. Her three children are all young, with the youngest still breastfeeding. Clara is a little scatterbrained and an irresponsible mother, doing things like leaving her children in the car while at the guild meeting. She does not appear to be particularly intelligent, as shown by her belief that trigonometry is a kind of poetry. Played by Robin Thorsen
    .
  • Mr. Wiggly - Real name is George Beane and he is a
    hunter. He is Clara's husband and was chosen by Clara to replace Tink. In an act of desperation, Codex accepted him into the guild. He is clearly inexperienced in gaming, mentioning that the last game he played was Pong and showing amusement about the game being in color. He's been handling most of the consequences caused by Clara's gaming addiction, though he recently hit his wit's end. Clara hopes his presence in the guild will help bring them together. Mr. Wiggly is played by Brett Sheridan
    .

Former members

The cast of The Guild at the 2009 Streamy Awards.

Axis of Anarchy

Other characters

Episodes

The Guild series
Series or season Start date End date Number of Episodes
Season 1 July 27, 2007 May 15, 2008 10
Season 2 November 25, 2008 February 17, 2009 12
Season 3 August 25, 2009 Ongoing 11

History

The Guild was inspired and written by Day, an avid gamer, who plays World of Warcraft in between acting roles in several US television shows and movies.[6] After two years of

sitcom pilot. The series was purposely kept generic to avoid copyright problems and to appeal to a wider audience of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) fans. Day also hoped to show that the stereotypical man living in his parents' basement is not the only kind of gamer. Believing the niche setting wouldn't appeal to television marketing wonks,[1] she decided to produce the series online with Jane Selle Morgan and Kim Evey. Day already knew Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis from Empty Stage, a Los Angeles-based comedy theatre, and their roles were written for them. The rest of the cast was filled through auditions.[7][8] After filming the first three episodes in two and a half days, they ran out of money. After putting a donation link to PayPal, the fourth and fifth episodes were almost solely financed by donations.[9][10]
The official website contains 22 episodes, several gag reels, two Christmas specials, and a halloween special

Reception

The Guild has been viewed by many people on YouTube, beating out most other online shows that are featured on the website in terms of viewership and popular and critical acclaim. The series has won several awards since its launch, and in February 2009, Rolling Stone named it one of "The Net's Best Serial Shows".[11]

Awards

Production notes

Season 1

First aired on July 27, 2007, The Guild ran until summer of 2008. The season consisted of 10 episodes and two specials (including a Christmas special). The show was originally the pilot episode for a TV series, although changed in format and script to fit a web-series; the final episodes were not part of the original pilot for the TV series. The DVD is now available for purchase on the show's official web site.

Season 2

On Monday November 24, 2008,

Sprint advertisements and product placements.[16][17]
Notable is the fact that creator Felicia Day retains the IP rights to the series, with Microsoft paying an "unspecified" license fee upfront.[18] Sometime in late February 2009, when all episodes of season two have been released, Felicia and her team were free to sign a new nonexclusive distribution deal should they choose to do so.[19]

Season 3

Officially revealed in the

Xbox Live silver members on September 1.[20]
In this season, the main concept is a rival guild trying to destroy "The Knights of Good".

References

  1. ^ a b Felicia Day Talks New Season of The Guild, Xbox Deal, Wired Magazine
  2. ^ Twitter / Felicia Day: First day of Guild season..., Felicia Day's Twitter
  3. ^ Twitter / Felicia Day: Last day of Guild shoot :( ..., Felicia Day's Twitter
  4. ^ Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: An Oral History, Entertainment Weekly
  5. ^ Staff (N.D.). "Jeff Lewis (IX)". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Staff (N.D.). "Felicia Day". IMDb. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Holisky, Adam (August 20, 2007). "Interview with Felicia Day from "The Guild"". WOW Insider. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  8. ^ Girls Don’t Game » Blog Archive » Interview with Felicia Day of The Guild
  9. ^ Wagner, James Au (October 31, 2007). "NewTeeVee Pick: The Guild". NewTeeVee. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  10. ^ All smiles as web shows come of age, The Observer
  11. ^ The Net's Best Serial Shows, Rolling Stone Magazine
  12. ^ "2007 YouTube Video Awards: Winners". YouTube. March 21, 2008.
  13. ^ "The Guild And "Knock Off" Take Top Honors At The Greenlight Awards". ON Networks. March 11, 2008.
  14. ^ Kent (March 21, 2008). "The Yahoo! Video Awards: The Results!". Y! Video Blog. Yahoo!.
  15. Tubefilter News
    .
  16. ^ Lindsey, Brendon (2008-11-24). "Microsoft Signs Exclusivity Deal to Distribute "The Guild"". News. GameCyte. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  17. ^ Wallenstein, Andrew (2008-11-24). "Triple "Guild" play for Microsoft". Article. Reuters. p. 2. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  18. ^ Brophy-Warren, Jamin (August 25, 2009). "How the Web Series 'The Guild' Stays Successful". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  19. Tubefilter News
    . Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  20. ^ Day, Felicia (2009-08-25). "The Guild Season 3 Premiere on Xbox! The Guild Season 3 Premiere on Xbox!".
Further Reading

External links