Doctor Horrible Leads into the Guild - My Intro to Webseries

One of the first things I did when I went to V-Con 36 this year was agree to be interviewed for a documentary on web video series and their audience. Web video series used to be niche products, watched by very few people, but they're becoming more and more popular as a way to get around the usual bureaucracy of dealing with television networks. Even big name stars are doing them sometimes. The added attraction for the viewer is that each episode is generally 5-10 minutes long, so there's not a lot of time invested. Yet the story quality can be quite good.

I spent some time talking to the couple behind the "Mind My Brains, Darling" webseries, Mary and Paul Higgins, and Mary interviewed me for the documentary. She asked me if I was familiar with webseries and whether I watched them. I had to answer that while I knew they existed, I never watched them. One of the prominent webseries people, whose name pops up whenever webseries are discussed, is Felicia Day, and Mary asked me if I had ever seen "The Guild."

I was familiar with Day from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, but I hadn't heard of The Guild.

Now, it's three weeks later, and I thought back to that meeting, that interview, and that comment. I went looking for The Guild, not realizing that it was a webseries (I'm not sure why that took so long to sink in, considering the setting of where I found out about it). When I discovered that it was on Youtube, I decided to watch the first season and see whether I'd like it or not.

All I can say is, wow. My inner nerd is on fire.

The Guild is about a woman named Cyd (Codex), who is immersed in an online gaming world. So immersed, in fact, that her therapist "fires" her because she won't work on breaking her addiction to the game. She's a member of a guild of six characters who go adventuring in the game world together, and who all know each other through the game but have never met in person. Until Zaboo shows up at Cyd's door, that is. And he's in love.

The series is completely written by Day, and she's gathered a great set of actors to play the other characters in the guild. They have wonderful comic timing, and it's simply a hilarious series. Day is a big-time gamer, and the love for gaming really shows through.

Here's the first episode of the first season, introducing the whole thing.



The first season is great, and there are three more on Youtube, with a fifth that hasn't made it to Youtube yet but is available on Zune and Xbox, as well as The Guild's home page. It's well worth checking out.

In fact, Day is quite prominent in the webseries world, as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Web Television.

She's also makes a hot elf.

Day is starring in a webseries that's based on the Dragon Age 2 game, called "Dragon Age: Redemption," as the Elf assassin Tallis. The first two episodes are out and I've watched them too. Really good stuff.

I will be catching up with the Guild over the next little while, and I know I'll enjoy every minute of it. If you're a gamer, you will love this series, and possibly recognize people that you know.

If you're not a gamer, you will probably still get a laugh. Check out the first couple of episodes.

Hell, it's only seven minutes out of your day to do that. And even if you decide to watch the full season, that's only an hour.

That's one of the great things about webseries.

Consider me a new devotee.