By C’loni Bailey, Assistant Manager at Bookmans Mesa
Summer of 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary of the The Guild web series. It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since I was first introduced to the adorable awkwardness of Codex and her wonderful gang of unruly weirdos. For the uninitiated, The Guild is a comedy web series created by geek goddess Felicia Day. The series follows a group of MMO gamers in an online guild called “The Knights of Good” as they try to awkwardly navigate real life with little understanding about how to manage relationships outside of the virtual world of The Game. The series stars Felicia Day as “Codex”, aka Cyd Sherman, an unemployed violinist who spends 8-9 hours a day playing The Game with her guildmates, whom she has never actually met in real life. The other members of the guild include Zaboo the love interest of Codex (sort of), Vork the neurotic guild leader, Clara the alarmingly neglectful mother of three, Tinkerballa the ascerbic ranger, and Bladezz the vulgar teenager. The Guild aired for six seasons and featured a slew of geeky guest stars like Wil Wheaton, Nathan Fillion, Erin Gray, Zachary Levi, Doug Jones, Neil Gaiman and even features a cameo by Stan Lee.


When The Guild first aired in 2007, I was just two years into my twelve-year career at Bookmans Mesa and going through a very difficult time in my personal life. To cope, I spent much of that time playing MMO games like Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft and generally trying not to think about real life. It was during this time that I was introduced to The Guild. In many ways it felt like I was watching my life on screen. I immediately identified with Codex, a former child prodigy who was now older and much less impressive in her unemployment. She spent her days playing video games and connecting with people she never actually saw in person instead of living a “real” life.
Everything changes for Codex when a miscommunication occurs with her online flirtation and leads her guild mate Zaboo to show up at her door in the hopes of turning their online “romance” into a real life one. Codex can no longer hide behind a keyboard and is forced to meet her “guildies” in person to try and solve the problem of Zaboo’s unwanted attentions, and that’s just the start of their troubles. Throughout their six-season journey, The Knights of Good deal with broken friendships, hostile rival guilds (featuring Wil Wheaton in one of his best roles), the insanity of convention life, and the craziness of working in the video game industry. Season 5 features the guild attending MegaGameORama-Con, a gaming convention, and is still the most accurate depiction of the insanity that goes on at conventions that I have ever seen on TV or the internet, and I’ve been to a LOT of conventions.
The Guild was also the first series I remember that featured a female geek in a lead role and made me realize that I wasn’t alone in my awkward, anti-social geekiness. If there is any lesson to be learned from this show, it’s that despite how weird you are, there is always someone weirder. You can still find your tribe whether it be in game, in the real world, or more often than not, both. Be sure to stop by your local Bookmans location and ask an associate for help finding all six seasons of The Guild on DVD or Blu-Ray. Watch it and laugh!
*Bookmans is your store to explore. We can’t guarantee stock, so if you are interested in one of the DVDs or BluRays mentioned, please give us a call and we’ll check our orange shelves for you.