The show is about a group of people who play an unnamed online video game together as a guild. In the first season, only ten episodes long, Cyd Sherman (played by Felicia Day), known to her guild as 'Codex', gets a surprise when fellow guild-member, known to the guild by his screen name 'Zaboo' (Sandeep Parikh) shows up on her doorstep. She convinces the guild to meet together in real life, in an attempt to help her get rid of the somewhat stalker-ish Zaboo.
After filming the first three episodes and releasing them on Youtube, Felicia Day and her team ran out of money; fortunately, they'd gained enough of an internet following that they were able to film the next two episodes solely on donations. After that, Microsoft and Sprint agreed to officially sponsor Felicia's project, paying enough to finish the first season and go on to create more, including the upcoming season 5. Each episode now is hosted on Microsoft's video-sharing site, MSN Video, for about six months, then is re-released on Youtube, DVD, and Netflix.The Guild is definitely one of my favorite shows, and it's not even on television. Obviously it appeals to the part of me that likes video games, but you don't have to be a big gamer to get the jokes (I don't even play MMOs, like the one they play in The Guild). What The Guild is really about is people in a not-totally-socially-acceptable subculture, trying to live their lives in as normal a fashion as possible - with humorous consequences.
Like most modern comedies, however, The Guild can be, occasionally, a bit crude. If you plan on watching The Guild, I would suggest the episodes hosted on MSN video, as Microsoft censors all profanity on their videos. Personally, I think bleeped cursing can be kinda funny, while actually cursing usually just makes me cringe a bit. This is especially important during the third season, when we meet a rival guild, the Axis of Anarchy, whose members curse a lot.
In addition to their awesome online episodes, the team behind The Guild also wrote and filmed two music videos. The first one came out just before their third season, and is called "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?" It's pretty great, playing off of gamer stereotypes, and all the cast members got to dress up as their characters' MMO character. The second, released last year at the start of the fourth season, is a Bollywood-themed farce titled "Game On!" If you watched the Game On music video three times, you'd still notice new things in the background.
Of all the seasons released so far, season 4 has been my favorite. Felicia Day really improved as a writer, and the story really came together well. I'm so excited for season 5, which will continue from last year's amazing season finale (during which, no spoilers, everyone again got to dress up as their in-game characters, as some of the last scenes were filmed 'in the game world').
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OK, I have to agree (now that I've seen them all),; season 4 is the best. (Cassey didn't seem impressed.) I'm wary of how season 5 has started, but I totally expected Codex to change her mind about Zaboo about midway through season 4.
Anyhow, I sat down and played Munchkin (which Nathan sort of left with us; we bought an expansion while in Virginia) with Ephraim today, before watching Season 5. I figured that the math was simple enough that, with a little help, he could understand what was going on, and it might help him stretch a little to be able to do more of it himself. It seemed to work pretty well, though, he always discards monsters on principle, which would have made the difference between winning and losing for him.
Anyhow, when Zaboo pulls out all of his boxes of Munchkin and declares "Midnight Munchkin Madness!", it was just awesome. I think Nathan might appreciate that, a little. (Of course, he left the game with us, expecting that he wouldn't be playing it much, so he probably won't appreciate it a lot.)
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