Blizzcon 2008 - The Guild Panel And Season II Preview
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The Panel consisted of the entire cast of The Guild: Felicia Day, (Codex) - Sandeep Parikh, (Zaboo) - Jeff Lewis, (Vork) - Robin Thorsen, (Clara) - Vince Caso, (Bladezz) - Amy Okuda, (Tinkerballa) and Producer, Kim Evey.
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Recap
Question: I just wanted to know who designed your logo?
Felicia: Oh that logo? I did that! So if you ask a lot of questions about The Guild -- it's a very sharp learning curve to make a web show. I mean, I'm an actress and I work in the industry so I know kind of how stuff works, but it was basically us doing it by ourselves. Like our website was me learning Word Press over a couple of months and then with that logo it was like 'I've got to illegally download Photoshop' -- no wait! *Hides head in shame*
Kim: She designed my business cards so if you guys need some graphic design, you should contact her.
Felicia: I'm freelance
Jeff: Also I'm available for children's parties.
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: Anyway, so I took like three free fonts and then I kind of very sloppily hand colored the yellow in there and then I put another font on top of that. So that's how stuff get's made. We actually have a re-designed logo that you'll see during the premier.
Question: Now that you've actually been to BlizzCon will you be able to mention the name World of WarCraft on your show or will you still keep it slightly ambiguous?
Felicia: What was that word? Mucibus?
Crowd: Ambiguous
Felicia: OH! Ambiguous! Alright, no when I initially wrote the show which was a half hour pilot iteration of The Guild -- I completely use World of WarCraft terminology. But YouTube has a pretty stringent copyright policy so I was worried that we couldn't use those kinds of terms. So it forced me to re-write it and make it completely RPG neutral. I've played RPG's all my life and D&D, Pen and Paper on the weekends.
- Crowd cheers
Felicia: I love my fans! Anyway, whenever a WoW term slips in I just make it a more neutral RPG term. Not because it wouldn't be great it's just a question of copyright issues and also appealing to as many people as possible because it makes us focus more on the characters and how they interact, verses just gaming. That prevents getting a lot of spam like 'that's an impossible crit'.
Question: Since your guild is very Alliance themed like the WoW I was wondering if you were ever going to consider a Horde themed counter-part guild?
Felicia: Suddenly it's turned into West Side Story!
- Cast starts snapping
Felicia: Like I said, there isn't going to be any WoW specific references but I can imagine that there might be some sort of rival characters showing up. I'm actually surprised because I'm doing a survey at the booth and there is just a lot of 'Hordies'.
- Crowd cheers
Felicia: We actually have a guild on Zangarmarsh that we play on called "The Knights of Good" named after the show and we're Alliance on that.
Sandeep: I'm not allowed to play Horde. Felicia said I can't -- it's contractually binding that I cannot play Horde.
Felicia: The "Knights of Good" is not a Horde guild name!!!
Question: My question is how you guys met each other and formed The Guild. Were you guys on the same realm? How did you guys come across each other?
Sandeep: You know it's fictional right?
- Crowd laughter
Kim: Well, Felicia and Sandeep and Jeff all did improv together so they had actually known each other before. Then we actually held a regular casting session to find the other characters. It was interesting because with Vince in particular he was just different then the character had been envisioned in Felicia's mind but then he came in and he was Vince and we were like ... he's perfect. The perfect tool!
- Crowd laughter
Question: I'm a High School Drama Teacher and what advice would you give to kids who want to make it to New York or L.A. Also what kind of training have you had?
Sandeep: YAY for High School Drama Teachers! What advice would we give to people? Who want to make it? Wait, what was your question? 
Felicia: You applaud her then ask her what her question was?
Sandeep: Yea I zoned out because I'm hung over. GO!
- Crowd laughter
Question: Well, I live in a small town and all the kids ever want to do is break out of our small town and get to the big city. So what advice would you give kids who don't have access to the community theaters but they do want to get into acting and the business?
Jeff: I'm sorry it can't happen......
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: I would say that the web video is kind of like the key. I think that the cool thing about making videos for the internet is that all you have to do is have a couple hundred dollar camera and do some research about how to film properly and write something that your passionate about; like I wrote about gaming, that's what I'm passionate about. If you write something, you can just put it on the internet, there's no permission anymore. So what I would do is not move L.A. like I did and then not work for a couple of years.
Sandeep: You don't have to be in L.A. to "make it" or get your stuff out there. I think Felicia is dead on about making sure you're making something that you're passionate about. I did The Legend of Neil, which is because I'm a huge Zelda fan. People can tell when your really into something and when you make something that you believe in. I think that they feed off of that and that's how you can fill a room full of awesome nerds.
Jeff: I've done shows at the corner of a coffee shop. You can get five people together and do a show anywhere you want. I mean a lot of my spaces have been 5 feet by 5 feet.
Felicia: That's like, your house.
- Crowd laughter
Kim: The number one subscribed to YouTube user right now is a 13 year old kid who lives in the middle of a small town and he has like 5 million subscribers and he gets endorsement deals. But he's just a kid, who did some videos in his house. So, there you go.
Sandeep: The people who seem to "make it" are the ones that kind of leap before they look. Just do it! Pick up a camera and go.
Vince: ....yea!
- Crowd laughter
Question: You guys have really done a fantastic job in terms of embracing the gaming community and starting this grassroots effort. Where do you envision this going on from there? Do you see it just on the internet or do you want to go further?
Jeff: Maybe a spin off?
Felicia: Ummm no, we're not doing a spin off called "Coming up Vork" alright?
Jeff: 'It's All Coming Up Vork', that's a great title. Just me!!!
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: You know when I first wrote it I wanted to do it as a T.V. show but having done it on the web where everyone is just a click away is so much more rewarding because every single person who clicks on our video or subscribes and links it to their guild -- that's the only way we get our show out there and it's so much more rewarding to have people supporting us and even if we got sponsorship -- which we're looking to do so we can shoot everything at once and roll it out faster; I would never want to lose that quality that everybody is participating. I mean we have volunteers here like Jared, Kenny and Matt who just basically emailed us and said 'Hey I have this skill, can I come help?'.
Kim: Yea ... don't do that!
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: K yea we have plenty of people at this point! I'm sorry! I love everyone of you! But we definitely are driven by fans and I don't want to ever lose that.
Sandeep: I think we could use 500 PA's for our next shoot!
Felicia: No that's a whole lot of tickets and hot wings we'd have to buy.
Question: I just wanted to know what got you guys started on gaming?
Sandeep: We'll I grew up gaming. I mean I got a Nintendo and that's what started me.
Felicia: Jeff, you became a WoW player because I made you right?
Jeff: Yes, she forced me. I knew if I got into it, then I would be into it -- and I'm now completely into it.
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: He IM'd me once and was like 'I'm at 335 Blacksmithing now'. I was like "WHAT?!?".
Sandeep: Jeff has become Vork....
Jeff: I literally buy frozen White Castle burgers. My keyboard has little pieces of food all over it. Anyone else have that happen?
Felicia: I was actually home schooled as a kid and the only way I ever interacted with other people was through online. I mean I think I had like a $300 phon bill because of Kings Quest when I was like 6. I would also move from town to town because my Dad was in the military so the one thing that was consistent was online gaming and online communities so that's how I got into it. I just like dressing up and being pretty and killing things!
- Crowd cheers
Question: It seems like you have a touch of truth about all your situations. My guild has had some of the same sort of situations that you've come up with. Did someone from your guild actually come to your house ...
Felicia: No thank God and don't do that.
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: Are you going to my house now???
Question: I was wondering what classes and races you actually play and if that helps you record the show.
Vince: Well a lot of us didn't actually play World of WarCraft or any of these games before we started shooting The Guild. One thing is that we didn't really understand these terms and didn't really know what was happening on the show but then we really started to get into it and now almost all of us are playing. Just Sandeep, Jeff, Felicia and I are.
Jeff: You didn't need to say that!
Vince: I think the peer pressure will get Amy and Robin in. But for the most part, most of us play what we do in the show. I play a Rogue on Zangarmarsh.
Jeff: I'm a Night Elf Warrior. Which I don't think is actually what Vork is on the show.
Felicia: He's a Human I think.
Jeff: Whatever!
- Crowd laughter
Jeff: Jeff Lewis does what he wants!
Felicia: I have a 68 1/2 Gnome Warlock.
Jeff: But she's not 70! Guess who is. That's right, me.
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: Shut up!
Jeff: Yes that's right. She's not 70!
- Crowd laughter
Felicia: Shut up don't rub it in! I'm sorry I have to work. I have to make the show!
Jeff: Yea whatever. When I look at you I throw up.
- Crowd laughter
Question: I'm currently working on my BFA in Acting and I'm looking to go into the industry and I'm interesting in seeing how it is to work in the industry and at the same time be working on web content. Are there any conflicts with your SAG card or with your Agencies? How do the two interact?
Sandeep: Felicia can .... field this one....
Felicia: Well for the first season we weren't unionized because there was no new media contract but this season we are SAG. But you have to be like $20,000 a minute to be completely under Union and clearly we're so far under that it's kind of funny. But we are SAG this year and there is no conflict. It's all going to start merging anyway so I would just make your stuff and don't wait around for the phone to ring.
Jeff: But we shoot on the weekends and I think that's important. I'm sorry we don't do anything. Was I not supposed to talk about that?
Felicia: I'm still mad about you being level 70.
Jeff: I'm level 70 and you're not. I can't overstate that.
- Guy in the crowd makes a sarcastic remark: He'll be 80 before you too!
Felicia: Someone get that guys name!
Preview of Season II
At this point it was decided to let us watch the rough cut of Season II, Episode I. The lights dimmed and my now favorite episode of The Guild (so far) was shown to thousands of fans. When it ended the crowd response was amazing. It was awesome to see the casts faces when that happened; you could see a real sense of pride and achievement -- can you blame them? I'm not going to give you any specific details about the episode but I can say that The Guild in Season two gives you more of what you loved in the first season, with better quality and an ever changing story. Expected to premier next month, I believe that The Guild is about to explode onto an entirely different stage; more so than it already has.
Make sure to check out the official website about season two as they are released.