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Season 3 of the guild to start production in June
Season 3 of The Guild has been given the green light via sponsorship from Microsoft and Sprint. According to the Hollywood Reporter, production is anticipated to begin in June, with a sneak peak of season three happening at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, and according to Felicia Day via the Hollywood Reporter, "the repercussions of [the cliffhanger] will be felt by the guild. Expect a lot of real-life distractions for the characters and some hurt feelings from the last season."Hopefully we'll see more of the guild at BlizzCon this August as well (why, what a perfect time to release the first episode of season three!). Last year they gave a great, and packed, presentation.I for one can't wait to see what happens this season. Go Guild!
The Guild: Season 2 on DVD May 19 exclusively from Amazon
Season two of the internet sitcom sensation, The Guild, is hitting DVD on May 19, exclusively from Amazon. Guildies can pre-order the disc for $12.99. Amazon is also offering pre-orders for season one of the MMO clan comedy, which is being re-issued on the same day as season two. However, it's unclear if the re-release includes the same features found on the original DVD. According to The Guild's official website, season two will include episode commentary, behind the scenes video and audition footage. If extras aren't your thing, you can still watch the series online or via Xbox Live for free. When you're done watching the series, all we ask is for you to come back and give us a celebratory (and super manly) chest bump. [Via WoW Insider]
Guild Season 2 DVD preorder available now, out 5/19
The Guild's second season is now available for preorder on DVD, and apparently it's an Amazon Exclusive -- yes, the ever-more-corporate folks at The Guild are going with the big online retailer to distribute their second DVD collection. But we can't blame them too much -- surely it's a chance at a wider distribution, and probably less work for them in general. You can preorder the DVD set right now for just $12.99, and according to The Guild's site, the set will have commentary tracks, subtitles in English, and Behind the Scenes and Audition footage. If you're as much of a fan of the series as we are, it sounds well worth the purchase.Amazon has a release date of May 19th, and it also looks like they're doing a re-release of season one on the same day (though we're not sure if that new season one cover demotes new material or if it's the same version of the season one DVD they were selling before). And of course if you're not interested in picking up any extras, you can still just watch the episodes online at their site, or by downloading them in HD from Xbox Live for free.
The Guild in Second Life on The Copper Robot
Our friends at The Guild made an ingame appearance the other day, but not in our game -- they showed up as avatars in Second Life as part of a talk show called the Copper Robot. Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), and Jeff Lewis (Vork) all stopped by to talk to journalist Mitch Wagner (whom I met on the TUAW Talkcast last night), and you can watch video of the proceedings over on their blog, or just listen in to the audio if you'd like. And there's news about season 3 in the interview -- it should be happening, though Felicia says they haven't gotten "an official pickup" yet, and she hasn't started writing yet. The season 2 DVD is also coming soon.What's perhaps most interesting about this interview is that the Guildies all used custom-made avatars to appear in the game. Second Life, if you've never played it, is more of a sandbox MMO than the strict rules and design of World of Warcraft, and players have mostly complete freedom to make themselves look like whatever they want. And so a few fans from a site called World2Worlds actually made some avatars for the Guild folks, and they based them off of the (also fan-made) art of the characters. We've never seen footage of "the game," as the characters in The Guild call it, so this is the first time we've seen these avatars represented in any game. Very interesting. The show has a Flickr group, so if you want to check out more shots of what they looked like in-game (including some nutty Vork antics), check that out as well.
Felicia Day, Lewis and Parikh to appear in Second Life tomorrow
Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh, three multi-talented stars of hit Web sitcom, The Guild are to appear in Second Life tomorrow evening as guests on Mitch Wagner's popular podcast, Copper Robot. The hit series, The Guild, has charmed a huge audience with its witty sitcom tale of misfits who all represent a guild in a mythical online game. Rissa Maidstone, COO of Words2Worlds Inc, has prepared avatars for the guests that combine their MMO personas with their atomic appearance. Above you'll see Codex Alchemi, Codex's alter ego. All three will appear in Second Life for the recording of Copper Robot at 6PM US Pacific Time, tomorrow (Sunday 5 April) at the Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
The Guild wins at the Streamys
A big congrats to our friends over at The Guild, who picked up a trio of awards at Saturday night's Streamys Awards, honoring the best in web video over the past year. The show picked up Best Comedy Web Series, and Best Ensemble Cast, and Felicia Day was a big winner herself -- not only did she win Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series (beating out Lisa Kudrow, Megan Mullally and one of my favorites, Kristen Schaal), but that other little web series she was in, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, picked up a slew of awards on its own. And in other WoW Streamys news, as we said on the podcast post today, Alex Albrecht picked up an award for Best Web Series Host for his WoW video podcast, Project Lore.StoryGas has a list of all the winners (a list that's strangely missing from the official Streamys site) and LG15today has pictures from the ceremony, including a few cast members of The Guild all dressed up in their finest. 12seconds.tv has video of most of the award winners as well, including Felicia. Sounds like it was a blast. Congrats to all the winners -- this was definitely an excellent season of the show, and we can't wait to see the next one!
The Guild season 2 finale
Yes, The Guild season 2 finale is out now on MSN Video and Xbox Live, and it's a good one. There's revelations, revenges, an epic battle, and even some spiritual reflection on Vork's part. And it's probably fair to say that after this episode, The Guild will never be the same.That's it for this season, but The Guild isn't going anywhere -- they're planning a live Ustream chat this evening with the cast and crew to talk about the season and the future of the show. This season's episodes should also be "unlocked" from Microsoft soon, so they should be showing up on YouTube as well. We'll be watching, as usual, and we'll bring you news of the third season when we hear it. It's safe to say this season and the big Microsoft experiment turned out to be a big success (despite a few complaints about the exclusivity), so hopefully we'll hear more on what's next soon.Thanks, Savant!
The Guild gets down in episode 11 of season 2
It's throw down time around The Guild this week, in the second to last episode of the second season. Codex gets it on in a back room at the party, and Bladezz gets screwed (though not quite in the way that he'd hoped). Zaboo finally gets a chance to show how much of a man he's become, with a little support from the rest of the guys. And things are set right up for the season finale next week. The show's available on MSN and Xbox Live right now, so go check it out.In other guild news, there's now an official podcast for the show, run by two of the folks behind the scenes on the video shoots. And the official site has also posted a list of all the Guildies on Twitter, so you can stalk follow anyone you like. Oh, and as long as you're on Twitter, don't forget to follow stalk us, too.Season finale next week -- should be good.EDIT: Podcast link working now.
WoW Intervention
WoW Intervention is a new YouTube video that is turning out to be quite popular, made by the BarelyDigital.com folks. It's professionally done and has a very "The Guild" feel to it. It's also hella funny.The plot is that a group of guild mates get together and work to get their friend back in the game. They're having a real life WoW Intervention. They go through some comedic moves and the protagonist is eventually presented with the choice between a romantic rendezvous with his girlfriend and WoW, well... he decided to go with something. /facepalm.You'll have to watch it for yourself. It's moderately safe for work, although don't watch it in a meeting.If lovin' chipwichs is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.
JoWooD to 'increasingly focus' on Nintendo platforms
Austria's JoWood Productions has a growing affection for Nintendo. The Gothic publisher announced today that it plans to "increasingly focus" on both the DS and Wii, with ports of its PC medieval RTS The Guild and 2D puzzler Neighbors From Hell (PC version pictured) already in the works for Nintendo's popular console duo.The effort is all part of an effort by the company to broaden its game portfolio. In particular, JoWood expects Neighbors From Hell to "benefit hugely" from the unique control styles afforded by both the DS and Wii when it reaches for store shelves in the second quarter. Just don't pull a muscle, JoWood, especially after bringing Yoga Wii to market around the same time.
The Guild: Episode 10 of Season 2
In this week's Guild, now up on MSN and Xbox Live (and Zune, if you're into that sort of thing), we get better acquainted with the stunt guy's *cough* buddy, who turns out to be named Riley, and is actually a gamer. Though not in the way you might expect. And Vork (last seen here -- you didn't forget about that sight, did you?) turns out to have a new skill, to Bladezz' disappointment.Lots of fun. Do you think there really is a division among gamers like Riley and Codex? I'm a big fan of both genres, so I'd never have seen it, but do players of one type not get along with players of the other? We're all just gamers, right?And we'll remind you, too, that there are only two episodes left this season. Only two more weeks of new episodes with Microsoft, and then in March, they'll start appearing back on YouTube again (pending another agreement, or whatever Felicia and those folks decide to do).
Vork shows up in the Super Bowl
Is that... Vork? Quite a few tipsters have spotted this Super Bowl ad for CareerBuilder.com, and about halfway through, what appears to be The Guild's Jeff Lewis in his skivvies jumps on screen (we've preserved the image in a quick screenshot above -- you can thank us later, ladies). We actually checked in with The Guild, and they confirmed that yes, that is everyone's favorite GM. Feel free to cheer/ swoon/ shudder appropriately.Lewis met up with us (and the rest of The Guild's cast members) back at BlizzCon, and it's good to see his star is.. rising? (we kid!) Keep an eye on the rest of the ads for the big game this Sunday night as well -- it looks like Coke has an online gaming reference coming with their "Avatar" ad, and considering how gigantic World of Warcraft is on TV lately, we may see some other sly winks towards our favorite game.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
The Guild, episode 9 now on MSN Video and Xbox Live
It's Tuesday, and you know what that means. Not only is it time to wipe down the Ampitheater of Anguish (that thing gets messy over the weekend), but it's time once again for a new episode of The Guild. And for those of you unhappy to see this here every Tuesday (perhaps because you're stricken with some horribly rare disease that keeps your eyes from moving on to our other posts instead?), we're sorry to say that there's only a few weeks left in the season. So let's make the most of it while we can.And the guildies definitely try their best -- they decide to take the night offline and split up the sexes, to... err... mixed results. Clara gets a little nuts with girls night out, and the guys also struggle to find something to do that doesn't involve signing into the game. Good times as always.And just in case you missed it last week, The Guild shared some pretty important company on MSN Video on Inauguration Day. Say what you want about the Microsoft deal, but even when there's big news going down in real life, MS is keeping up their end of the promotion deal.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Felicia Day teaches Jimmy Fallon about World of Warcraft
I'm back and forth on Jimmy Fallon -- when NBC first announced that he was taking over the great Conan O'Brien's late night spot, I wasn't real impressed. But since then, you can't say he hasn't worked for it -- the show, which isn't even on the air yet, has been blogging and running all over the country to drum up some interest (including a little gig with the guys at sister site Engadget), and their latest stop takes then to the abode of our good friend Felicia Day to play World of Warcraft.As you can see above, Fallon isn't much for Azeroth -- while Felicia is rocking a pretty hardcore Warlock, Jimmy still has a tough time getting past the character creation screen. But he did drum at least one laugh out of me (which is one more than he ever got from me on SNL), so well done. I very much agree with the commenters on the blog -- if he can keep the show technology and geek-focused like this (and maybe get at least one character up to level 30 -- all Felicia had to do was say "roll on a PvE server," right?), he might have a chance at filling Conan's shoes.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
The Guild posts episode 8 of season 2
Yes, the new episode of The Guild is now live for your watching enjoyment, and the gang deals with the servers going down the only way they know how: by driving each other crazy. Strangely, rather than running for the hills while they don't have to be in the game together, they decide to party up in real life as well, and that should be a sight to see next week. Plus, Codex gets her own game shut down by an unexpected player.Good times as always. The latest episode should also be up in HD soon on Xbox Live and in the Zune marketplace as well. Just the thing to keep you entertained during today's extended maintenance.
The Guild episode 7 of season 2, and new t-shirt
Episode 7 of The Guild's second season is out now, and it should be out on Xbox Live and the Zune Marketplace soon, and it's revelations for everyone: Codex tackles some issues, and Zaboo and Vork end up learning a little something about themselves. And at the end of the episode, there's a new twist, which will probably end up being pretty timely to those of you who've been suffering on your own lately. Great show as always.And in other Guild news this week, the gang is showing off their new t-shirt over at J!nx. The t-shirt marks you as a "Knights of Good" guildie -- that's the in-world name of The Guild itself. Kind of cool -- subtle enough to get away with wearing it without advertising that you're a huge nerd, although the emoticon might still give you away. If you're interested, it's on sale over at J!nx right now.
The Guild episode 6 of season 2
It's Tuesday, which means The Guild is back yet again with more wacky hijinx. Episode six is out on MSN Video now (and on Xbox Live and Zune soon), and there's some blowback from the "eruption" at the end of the last episode. Clara continues her campaign of corruption, and Zaboo does something you should never, ever do to another player.This episode seems long for some reason, but at the same time, it's kind of a breather for what we're sure will be an interesting episode next week. Felicia twittered the other week that they're working on editing down just the last two episodes, so the hard work for them is almost over, even though we're only halfway through the season so far.And finally, The Guild got a tribute song last week, a video and tune put together by a fan. They're pretty excited about it, but we'll let you judge whether you like it or not. We will say that it is a nice effort, and it's good to see that there are fans of The Guild out there willing to put in the time and energy to do something like that. Rock on!
The Guild: Season 2, episode five
Just in case, like me, you missed last week's Guild episode, you get not one but two episodes of The Guild today. In last week's episode, we found out more about the eye-dentity of Mr. Eyepatch, and now episode five is out today, ready to watch.This week, Zaboo continues trying to become a man, with the usual creepy results, and Tink shows a new side of herself -- Felicia promised us a while ago that we'd see new relationships sprouting up between the characters, and that's exactly what we're getting. Plus, the stuntman, who seemed like he might fit right in with the gang, might not actually be on exactly the same page.And this episode also shows off the show's bigger budget in a pretty exciting way (not to mention that the cinematography is looking really good lately). We almost can't keep up with all of The Guild coming out this year. Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
Episode 4 of The Guild's second season released
The latest episode of The Guild is up, and as has been the case with previous episodes of this season, if you're not seeing it on XBox Live or Zune yet, it'll surely be there soon. It's a great episode, with plenty of the laughs we've come to expect from The Guild. I'm curious to see what impact this new character will have on the crew!In other Guild news, a gag reel for episodes 1-3 is also available. It's short and sweet, but their bloopers are just as funny as some of the real scenes. It's not super surprising that even their flubs would be hilarious given the cast they have, I suppose. I'm almost as much of a fanboy of Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis as I am of Felicia Day. Almost.
The Guardian on The Guild
British newspaper The Guardian has a look at our favorite web series, The Guild, and how it has taken the MMO community by storm and vaulted its way up into one of the most popular television series that's not actually on television. There's no question that The Guild's popularity online was fueled by the fact that it follows a group of people who spend most of their time online, and with a built-in audience the size of World of Warcraft's, you might think that all they had to do was get the references right.But as The Guardian notes, success for The Guild isn't just a matter of hitting a niche audience. Felicia Day and Kim Evey say they spent eight hours a day emailing the show around when it first came out. And while the show is of course sponsored by Microsoft now, the whole first season was powered by hard work and donations. The Guardian attributes The Guild's success to "direct marketing of content to a niche peer group" -- find an audience, and then make sure they know what you're doing.And of course, as a Guardian commenter notes, it doesn't hurt that the show is funny, and as Felicia told us herself, they've gone out of their way to explain and convey the WoW-related stuff to an audience that might not always play MMOs. The series is attracting a lot of attention these days, not just as an MMO story, but also a how-to guide of how to get a television series off the ground without actually being on broadcast television.
