'A' is for Avatar, 'X' is for Xbox and 'N' is for Neil: Monday's Legendary Guild!

WUT?!?

Okay, maybe 'Z' is for titles so enigmatic Google won't know what to do with it. Nevermind. If I wanted this blog to be in top 100 I would...do the opposite of what I do (apparently). What I mean is tomorrow is going to be a great day if you have an internet connection and an Xbox.

Let's start with the 'A'. And the 'X'.

Tomorrow the 'Do You Want To Date My Avatar' video is released on Xbox live. You won't need a code anymore, just go to the marketplace and click...easy! And if you don't know what 'Do You Want To Date My Avatar' is then:

1) Where have you been?!?

2) It's the stunning new music video by The Guild starring all the cast: Felicia Day (Codex), Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), Amy Okuda (Tink), Jeff Lewis (Vork), Robin Thorsen (Clara) and Vincent Caso (Bladezz). And they are all in FULL AVATAR COSTUME!

I reviewed the video last week and I can tell you - you will absolutely love it! And if you haven't got access to Xbox live you only have to wait until a week tomorrow to see it. If you can't wait to get your Sandeep and Felicia hit then this will please you mightily:

Season 2 of Legend of Neil has started!

Episode 7 (which is S2, Ep 1) was released on 27th of July (warning: NSFW!):

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

sucked into the world of video game, Zelda (yeah, you don't want to know how...that won't stop you from finding out, though). People lucky enough to be at the LoN panel at SD Comic Con were treated to the first 3 episodes. And the word is - OMG it's awesome! (Yes, that's 3 words. Sue me). To read a first-hand account you would do well to visit Dani Figueiredo's Comic Con reports on the Guildies Posterous blog. There are reports from other Guildies, there, too. They capture all the excitement, wonder and sheer joy of CC. She talks about the LoN panel in Part 5, but I recommend reading all of them. They are long but well worth it.

Episode 8 of LoN is released tomorrow and then every 2 weeks. I can't wait to see what going to happen!

Who is Sean Becker? Is The Guild Panel Safe...

...or is it going to be the scene of a terrible battle?

Recently we've witnessed the stunning sight of a man being sacked right in front of our Twittering eyes - or did we? Was Sean Becker really sacked or was it an elaborate scam wrought by some sort of evil genius? Or blundering idiot? The Guild Panel at CC is on this morning (Friday) at 10:30 in room 5AB so before that, let's examine the evidence.

Firstly - who IS Sean Becker?

As I've mentioned before, it is not entirely clear who Sean Becker is. Is he the 2008 Civil War Series sprint car champion?

Is he one of these people?

(borrowed from @maxsummers' Flickr account)

If so, what is he up to and can he be trusted with The Guild?

Friends - we have all suffered the ravages of Guild Deficiency Syndrome, all lost loved ones with our constant use of Vorkisms and insistence in raising squab, all suffered the crushing realisation that there are still some people in the world who have not even heard of Felicia Day. You would therefore assume that if you were actually a part of creating that special magic that is The Guild and then you were sacked, you'd be pretty upset about it. Perhaps you would lock yourself in your room and play Seasons 1 and 2 back-to-back while creating SIMS versions of the characters (oh - someone has already done that! Haven't you, Edgar?). You probably wouldn't happily go down to the shops and treat yourself to a new copy of 'Barbie Horse Adventures' - unlike this guy:

Note the maniacal laughter, the look on the assistants face and the clever use of The Guild tee-shirt. Is this the face of a man crushed?

What's going on?

To have any hope of understanding this we need to look into his past for clues. Using the vast array of information about Mr Becker on the Internet (I did a search on YouTube) I have pieced together his life in the last couple of years.

March 2007

Sean is sent off to war and makes a heart-warming video to his yet unborn child. How sensitive he is!

June 2007

It appears he returned from Iraq early and, perhaps not surprisingly, finds himself in need of friends. Here we see his impassioned attempt to connect with someone in real life. It's sad, really....

But luckily for him he seems to have hooked up with an old friend of his, Payman Benz, that you may remember from such awesome webseries as 'Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show' where he starred as Unicow (all hail Unicow!). They go on to set up 'Awkward Pictures' and create the hilarious and well-received webseries 'Comedy Gumbo' and many other funny videos.

Groomed by The Guild

Following these successes, news of Sean reaches Felicia Day who sets about luring him into directing and editing Season 2 of The Guild. With promises of unlimited jelly beans Sean signed up readily, unaware that his contract stipulated that he was now effectively Felicia's slave. We've all seen the video of Felicia laughing about tying him to the chair until he's finished editing. He never did get his Thanksgiving dinner...This is hardly the point, though, because The Guild Season 2 was a masterpiece of editing so good, you couldn't even tell it was there.

Escape in 2009?

But it seems that Sean, perhaps on a day when he was less hyped-up on jelly beans than usual, was planning his escape. Here we see him heavily made-up trying to get into college:

Perhaps the strain of working on The Guild had made him forget that he has already been to college. That's where he met Payman Benz (all hail Unicow!) .

What to think?

So was Sean Becker fired? If he was does he now harbour a deep resentment along with an unhealthy obsession with jelly beans? Or was it all a ploy by him to allow him freedom to join forces with Jared Hoy and set up ConQuest guide to report from Comic-Con?

Or perhaps to get more time off so he could finish shooting Comedy Gumbo Season 2?

Only Sean can tell!

The Guild Panel at CC happens in a few short hours. The Guildies are all up and chomping at the bit, anxious to see their idols answer some simple questions. If someone asks whether he was sacked or not, what will happen? We can only hope that it isn't going to become a battleground between the lovely Felicia Day and this pretender Becker. And the good news is that there's no shortage of people wanting the job such as Shelley:

Good luck at the Panel today, everyone, and please, Sean, for the love of the Guildies, don't hijack it for your own nefarious purposes.

Now all we need to worry about is Delicia Fay....

SD Comic Con - The Guild, Dr Horrible and Shenanigans!

San Diego Comic Con is on this week!

And once again I will be attending via the Internet. Sure, some people might say that stalking all the people I know who are going is a poor substitute for actually being there, but at least this way I don't have many scheduling nightmares and the kids get to eat this month! Last year I blogged on Whedonage about all the people I would queue up to see if I were there Part 1 and Part 2. The list hasn't changed that much, with a few additions, perhaps.

For all us unfortunates not able to be there here are some resources that might help:

Websites:

Tubefilter: a guide to all the webseries at SDCC including The Guild and Dr Horrible

Whedonage: all the Whedon-related happenings this year

The Guild: their guide to everything Guild-related

Guildies: Comic-Con'd!: Set up by Dani (@maxsummers), a collection of Guildies will be posting their reports from SDCC (I'm really excited about this!)

Twitterers:

@Crixlee Cricket Lee: co-presenter of A Fangirl's Guide podcast, girl gamer and Guild extra will be at CC, collecting interviews and giving away stickers

@egspoony Edgar Garcia: The Guild and Felicia's webmaster extraordinaire

@maxsummers Dani will be posting on the Guildies' site (can't wait for her to meet with Felicia!) and tweeting (I hope!)

@seanbecker some dude

@jaredhoy Chief Lighting Technician on The Guild and co-presenter of A Fangirl's Guide podcast will be interviewing and video blogging

@nathantamayo Guildie who will also be blogging on the Guildies' site

@FannishInc: Interviewer extraordinaire will be there

@danregal: expect more pics than you can wave a stick at!

@RobinInSeoul: a Whedonite of distinction!

@CapricaSeven: Jane Espenson, who will be there for the BSG panel

EDIT: @theguild: They will have a very special announcement for Guildies at CC on Thursday AM, so be sure you're following them (yes, even those of us not there want to know what's going on!)

@jul_weiss: Julianna Weiss, Editor of Pink Raygun is at CC and will be getting scoop on lots of geektastical wonders!

Video reporting

The lovely Jared Hoy has started a video blog about SDCC. Despite some misgivings about his co-host (and you'll understand why when you see who that is) I have high hopes for this:

If you know of anyone else or other sites that have SDCC information on them please let me know and I'll add them.

EDIT:

Jessica Stover (@JSto) will be representing Artemis Eternal at SDCC but in a different form to last year. All the details are on the Artemis Eternal website.

Shenanigans!

So what's all that about, then? Well, I have discovered some shocking news. News so shocking that it could set the Internet alight like hasn't been seen since the news of Guild Deficiency Syndrome broke or that loser Sean Becker was apparently sacked by the wonderful Felicia Day. It's so potentially devastating that I can barely bring myself to blog about it. But I know my duty. Stay tuned - the truth is out there!!!

Sean Becker speaks out! MORE SHOCKING REVELATIONS

When will the madness end?

After yesterday's frankly shocking revelations about Felicia Day and her high-handed sacking of her faithful minion Sean Becker, he has posted the following video response:

Is this the real Sean Becker?

My sources are split on whether this is the real Sean Becker or not -  clearly this individual believes himself to be so (the YouTube name he posted this under is "iamseanbecker", which is pretty compelling proof). And the Twitterverse is alight with speculation about whether the fickle Ms Day has now withdrawn her previous hardline regarding Mr Becker and, by association, Urkel.

Will we yet see the apparently-famous (to people in the US) Urkel dance?

There is a groundswell of support for Sean and Urkel amongst the fans of The Guild. The pressure must be building on Ms Day to both reinstate the booted Becker and sanction the filming of the cast indulging in the harmless activity of dancing. One can only speculate that Ms Day, perhaps remembering her own shameful dancing past, fears she is not skilled enough to master the complex moves involved. Video evidence suggests this might be the case:

What will Sean do next?

Support by fans of The Guild will only get him so far. Perhaps he could take some time out and contemplate how other people have coping with being dismissed. Perhaps people such as Jason Danovan, the hero of my new novel "Turning Left at Albuquerque" which is currently being serialised as an audiobook at turningleft.podbean.com. Jason is a 37 year old geek and recovering computer games addict made redundant from his job on a cube-farm who applies to University online while drunk. Sean could probably learn a lot from him....

More Shocking Revelations! News just in - Sean Becker ISN'T fired? 

The Twitterverse moves fast and a quick check on @feliciaday's twitter stream reveals this EVEN MORE SHOCKING tweet:

Who are these people spreading rumours? Why are they doing it? Is Sean really fired? Does anyone other than me and Dani care? 

What will happen next?

Who knows what further sensational happenings will occur? @deliciafay is calling for action, and even @egspoony, so often the voice of reason and calm (er...) has been caught up in the maelstrom of tweet and counter-tweet. To paraphrase Bender/Coilette (from Futurama):

 "Hail, hail Felicia, the scandal that some people made up!"

One day after her birthday, Felicia Day FIRES one of The Guild crew!

Shocking Tweet rocks Guild community....

About two hours ago this milestone Tweet issued forth from the computer of Felicia Day. This only hours after she completed another grueling 14 hours on the set of Season 3. Perhaps she had one slice too many of the gorgeous birthday cake her boyfriend brought to the set that featured real doubloons harvested by some of Ms Day's many servants from a sunken Spanish galleon so she could play 'The Story of the World' with real pieces:

A video tribute from the fans

And even though a special video tribute from her fans, expertly edited by @maxsummers was featured on Felicia's blog yesterday in honour of her *cough*th birthday it didn't calm her down. When Felicia returned home from filming she saw what her fans had done and had this to say:

"OMG you guys! I...go...shoot...you..." (edited for space)

Has Season 3 tipped Red over the edge?

After the rip-roaring success of The Guild Season 1 and 2 - perhaps the most successful webseries about a dysfunctional set of online gamers ever made - the pressure to scale new heights for Season 3 has left Ms Day prone to sleepiness, paranoia and hypochondria. A quick look at her Twitter stream reveals a woman on the edge...

Known for her savage temper

Most people are too scared to speak up about the cruel treatment they have received at Ms Day's hands but a few brave souls have. @DeliciaFay, the long-term supporter of Ms Day, has hinted on her website of past violence. And Kim Evey, the beautiful and multi-talented producer of The Guild shared this with me in an interview last year:

EWoH: Is Felicia as mean as people say she is?  
KE: No, she is much meaner. You people have no idea. One time she ate a baby.

EWoH: Has she ever assaulted you personally? 
KE: She threw a thimble full of booze in my face.

And the recent #feliciadayrumors on Twitter were full of stories of her rampant ego and swift anger - who knows how many real incidents were masked behind the hashtag?

Who is Sean Becker?

Good question! Twitter, Facebook and The Guild Chat have frequently debated this very point. He is apparently the director and editor of Season 2 and now Season 3 of The Guild and the IMDb for him is impressive. But who is he, really? #iamseanbecker is a frequent meme on Twitter and now some joker has registered http://www.facebook.com/iamseanbecker on Facebook. Perhaps we will never know the truth about the person behind the name of the person behind the shock firing of a person by Felica Day today. Or something. But it could be this person:

Hopes for Season 3

With Season 3 of The Guild so near to completion we can only pray that whatever prompted Felicia to fire Sean can be repaired, and quick. Reports of new waves of Guild Deficiency Syndrome are sweeping the nation and we MUST have our next fix. Must have....more Guild...more Guild...more...

SENSATIONAL SAGA CONTINUES!

After the traumatic Tweet the sock-waves continue - read the next installment and SEE Sean Becker's stunning video response!

News abounds: Felicia and Kim update

The NewTeeVee awards were on today

San Francisco was host to the great and good in the web video world. Perhaps not surprisingly Felicia Day was this week named by NewTeeVee as one of their 'breakout stars of 2008'. Felicia and Kim Evey were there today mixing with the other online stars. Felicia had a great interview and confirmed the news that there is, indeed, a sponsor for The Guild Season 2. Details will be announced next week. And she also said how great the fans of the show were, including Dani, who has done so much work on the translations and subtitles.

Kim Evey was not feeling well, apparently

On the trip to SF yesterday, she tweeted:

On my way to SF! Check @feliciaday to see what I'm doing cuz she always remembers to Tweet. I have a tummy ache. Best. Tweet. Ever.

But the great news for us is that Kim still took the time to send me her interview back last night, all done and dusted and fabulous. There will be a new post on Whedonage very soon with that interview in full - well worth the read.

And even better news is that Kim appears to have recovered enough to go out for some Sengalese food tonight, so all is well with the world!