The Guild

[bunsen_h]

I've been watching The Guild, after having been nudged about it a few times from several directions.  Joss Whedon cited it as a significant inspiration for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and there are some clear similarities.  Each segment starts with the main character doing an entry in a video blog before shifting to a more normal story depiction, for example.  And of course The Guild is written by and stars Felicia Day, who played Penny in Dr. Horrible.

Another similarity is a lack of genuinely likeable characters.  Codex, Day's character, means well but is hapless, unemployed (and not seeking work), and addicted to the game.  Her fellow "guild" members are even more socially deficient.  I know that the show is intended to be humorous, but a lot of the humour is just about the awkward interactions of these poorly-socialized people.  To me, much of it is simply painful.

I'd probably appreciate the show somewhat more if I had any experience with their kind of game, a multi-player on-line thing which I gather is supposed to be similar to World of Warcraft.  I'm looking at it more from the point of view of someone who got together with friends for a weekly D&D session for a number of years — sure, some of us lacked some social skills, but we did much better than the people in the Guild.  Those folks would be impossible to hang around with.

I'm curious about the story, so I probably will keep watching the episodes.  I may take a break for a little while; the awkwardness may not be so strong if I'm not watching many episodes together.  And Wil Wheaton has been brought in to the current series as an antagonist — apparently working hard to blow away whatever nice-guy reputation may be lingering from his Star Trek years.

Comments

[shonokin.livejournal.com]

Lack of sympathetic characters is one of the reasons I was never into watching Seinfeld, and it made my marvel that such a TV show consistently managed to get such high ratings.

I'd hoped when they went off the air, that particular style would die out, but it appears the internet is carrying the torch.

[buttongirl.livejournal.com]

My feelings exactly! I thought Sienfeld was dreadful!

[popelaksmi.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit bummed out but not overly suprised that you aren't finding the show as funny as say I or reyl do.

I enjoy it because I recognize past or present personality traits of myself in many of the characters. I also enjoy watching a show that's loaded with gaming lingo making it almost an inside joke to listen to. I recall, in my past, making up lists either alone or with my guild that started off, "You know you play EQ (or WoW or whatever) too much when ..." and we would laugh our asses off at the things we came up that would only makes sense to us, the players of the game. And yet it was fun because we could all relate to it. Kinda like, "You know you've been in the SCA too long when ..."

I also really enjoy it because I think a very high percentage of online gamers have gne through, at SOME point in their online gaming life a phase of crushing on someone in the game, not fully knowing who they are. Letting our imaginations fill in the blanks with happy, good (unrealistic) things rather than the more realistic things like: being under age, a snob, an alcoholic, and a sociopath etc. In a way it reminds us that real people play the games and to laugh at the stupid things we may have done in the past.

Now I say all this and I haven't really played an MMO in ages (I don't count WebKinz or SL as MMOs). It's just my personal experience and thoughts on the topic. We can stick to B5 as one of our points of commonality. ;)

P.S. I'm not really a fan of Seinfeld either though I have been known to watch an occasional episode.