I hope so 
Haha, that would be fantastic if that worked out.
Have watched season 2 yesterday and it was miles better than the 1st one.
Wow. Count me among those totally unfamiliar with The Guild before the podcast. The production values of the series are just phenomenal.
Just a great project. This led me also to the Legend of Neil which is equally fantastic in a more NSFW way.
Yeah, I hope more people discover Legend of Neil too as a result of this. Iām all caught up on them (there arenāt that many to catch up on at this point), and Iām lovinā 'em.
Legend of Neil rocks!
As to the Guild, I wanted to say that one of the things I love about the writing of the show is how sheās able to get into the reason behind why each character plays the game without outright explaining it. Itās awesome.
Zaboo and Codex both play to avoid real life.
Clara plays to escape real life.
Bladezz and Tink play because the game gives them a sense of accomplishment. Plus, they are total badasses in game.
And, of course, Vork plays because it IS his life.
I have to say, though, that Vork is my favorite character, simply because the actor is able to deliver such absurd lines with such seriousness. He often reminds me of Leslie Neilson in the Naked Gun movies.
EDIT: Another thing I wanted to addā¦ if youāre looking for an MMO that has amazing verity in customizing your toon, check out City of Heroes, or even Champions Online. Those games both have some amazing things you can do. Hereās some examples of my characters.
My namesake toon, Masked-Revenger.
A wizard character I made up called Edwin Moonfire.
And Buffalo Wing. 
Sean, do you, by chance, play CoH?
-Chris
Buffalo Wing. is a hoot.
i loved the guild, and my real life friend who is MMO addict is just like Codex. Except she had her character deleted by her ex-boyfriend for revengeā¦ so i guess these kind of things happens a lotā¦
Champions lives online?! Never played, but thatās nice to know.
And BUFFALO WING! Pure genius. Welcome aboard!
Stop stealing Felicia Day, she was supposed to be on Gamers With Jobs.
Also, there was that awkward Blizzcon QA thing.
You know, I tried it out once and didnāt really get into it cuz no one I knew would play so I popped a few levels and dropped it. Looked like some badass stuff though. Love Buffalo Wing!!
Maybe I should give it another shake.
Sean, how do you have time to play all of these MMOs? I can only play one at a time. And, the one I do play sucks the time out of my life.
Well, thatās prolly cuz you play it well. I have no such requirement. 
I play for social interaction and to put the game through a couple laps around the block ā then, largely I advance to hang with whomever I am playing with.
A Jack of all MMO trades master of none sort of thing. I like playing them all and hanging with the people I find there.
Also, I LOVE to make characters!!
You would defenatly love CoH then. With the latest update (called Issues, this one is Issue 16), which goes live soon, weāll have the ability to customize our power colors. Iāve never played a game where the toons are so customizable.
Also, there is the ability to add player created content into the game. Makes for a lot of fun.
-Chris
Hells yeah. Like I said, played it before and I did think it was cool. Just never got into it because of lack of interest with the gaggle of geeks I normally play with.
Perhaps I should pony up and buy a month and give it the olā college try
Ah hah. Yeah, Iām Gung Ho when I do a game. I canāt be half-assed.
A couple of things to add.
First, I stopped by the library last night & they had The Guild DVD available! So I watched it last night with all the commentary & extraās!
You guys were right, the girl playing Bladezz sister is his sister in real life. The character was originally supposed to be older but his sister was so funny they rewrote it a little. The art work at Cheesey Beards was done by Sandeepās (Zaboo) girlfriend who is also the greeter at the restaurant. Many of the extraās are donors as well as members of Feliciaās guild.
If you get the chance watch the DVD & check out the gag reels, HILARIOUS stuff!
We now have 3 different names for these types of games. There is MMORPG which stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. These are usually games where you embody the character. Games like Everquest (the granddaddy of them all), Dark Age of Camelot, Baldurās Gate, Anarchy Online, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcrafdt, Lord of the Rings, City of Heroes/Villains, World of Warcraft. (Iāve at least tried most of them) They also now refer to MMOGās removing the RP out of them. THese are for games designed without the RP being involved. Many console games are converting to this type of thing.
I have to tell you, I have never understood the appeal of Second Life. In many ways it just seems like real life where Iām contantly trying to find ways to earn money for what I want. I havenāt found anything to actually DO in it, just walk around. shrug
As for character creation & itās randomness, it has itās uses. I started playing WoW during open beta testing, this is the last phase of testing before they officially launch the game. Itās essentially to test the server loads to make sure the game remains stable & find as many bugs they have missed as possible. Basicly a last polish. My guild moving over to play from Everquest decided to play the Horde faction. These are the āuglyā races. I really enjoyed the culture they had developed for the tauren. It was based very heavily on Native American tribes in the plains. Tauren are anthropomorphic cows & are HUGE. I ended up playing that character for 6 years. During that time I had created many alts (alternate characters) to try different things & on other servers to talk to friends from time to time. After a certain amount of alts, you really stop caring so much what you look like. Plus, I was a giant antorpomorphic cow. Does it really matter after that? Anyway, I had created a Blood Elf on another server to occassionally play with some friends who had moved. I randomed it & just hit play. AFter about a half hour talking to Cast, I laughingly told her that I didnāt even remember what my character looked like! Soon after I finished levelling the character & switched servers. The random generator serves itās purpose really.
P.S. Tauren are the master race.
Okay I have a question about MMOs that just occured to me. And I guess Iām referring to MMO Role playing games which I guess is the same thing (?). And mind you I know nothing about MMOs and never played one.
Iāve certainly played --and game mastered ā a lot of table top RPG in my time, and one of the fun aspects (for me) about face to face RPGs is acting out your character (if youāre a player character) or acting outing all the Non-player characters (if youāre the gamemaster/dungeonmaster). When I say act out Iām referring to speaking the part. For example, a long long running D&D character I had named Matthew/Duke of Wesselton (13th level Cavalier) I would always act out in a Monty Python Graham Chapman voice.
So my question is: Is that same aspect of RPGs done in MMOs?
I notice that in The Guild they use speakers and microphones. Do people talk and interact with each other in character when playing MMOs? And I assume thereās no āgamemasterā in the traditional sense in MMOs, so are NPCs basically automated computer controlled entities? Or can they be played such that thereās dungeon master controlling all the creatures/characters the player characters meet?
Just curious questions from a MMO virgin.
Yes and no.
There are people that like to RP their characters. They get really into it, speaking in character to other characters, avoiding internet short hand, and generally acting as if the virtual world were the real world. Iāve played like this myself from time to time, and it can be a load of fun, especially if youāre playing out a storyline for your character. For example, my super-hero character Masked-Revenger is on a quest to eradicate drugs from the streets of Paragon City. I RP him on that quest a lot, getting into his personality and such. Itās fun.
But, itās mostly done via chat channels, far as I can tell. I donāt know of many RP groups or players that use microphones to do their RPing. For the most part, however, the gamers in the game are just interested in playing the game, and RPing is a secondary thing, if that. As Sean said during the podcasts, there are whole servers dedicated to RPing, and in those places, breaking character is considered a socially bad idea.
Also, to answer your question about NPCās and GMās, in general, youāre correct, the NPSās are computer controlled, and limited in their conversational abilities. However, there have been time when special events were going on when a developer controlled character (usually a signature character) would appear and the developer would be able to directly role play with the participatents. Iāve never done this myself, but I know people that have, and they tell me itās a total blast.
I hope that made sense.
-Chris
I discovered GWC this week and #181 is my first experience. I like what I hear so far. I had to dig up THE GUILD at work today and burned thru the first season between calls. Funny stuff. I never played MMOs like this, but it is even applicable to table top gaming.
I may have to go back and grab a few past podcasts!
Welcome RoyRay42!
Telling by your avatar, you must be a Star Wars fan. The GWC Crue covered a Star Wars arc in podcasts 106-112. You should check those out first.
Welcome aboard. Iām always fascinated to see what prompts people to join the forums, and I have to say that The Guild is a top-rate reason. (And youāre quite right, it maps pretty well to RPGs.)