Click: “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” by The Guild

Title: Do You Wanna Date My Avatar
Artist: The Guild
Label: unsigned but sponsored by Microsoft
Release: Mp3 available for download on Amazon, and iTunes are faffing aboution the international release

The Guild is a low budget TV series that never made it to the TV. The fact that each episode is only 5 minutes means that it was never intended to go to television. It did however make it to YouTube and the XBox network. Essentially The Guild is a sit-com about a group of heroes in an online fantasy world, sort of like World of Warcraft, but isn’t named. Except it isn’t. Its about the players who play the characters in this world. And the messy real world actions they take. The series was created by and all the episodes (so far) are written by Felicia Day who is indeed a bigger net head than most of the Culch.ie writers, which says something. And now she is a guest at the conventions she used to attend.

For a mix of legal reasons and low budget, they couldn’t afford to make their own graphics or use established in-game ones so you never see the in game action. The closest you get is the barely animated opening credits where you get to see the hand drawn avatars and their usernames (which the characters call each other). Thats where the costumes and the final pose below come from.

It is also a niche popularity. The ratings were high enough for Microsoft to become their main sponsor (the only real visible sign was that the logo at the back of Tinkerballa’s Apple like monitor became a Microsoft one). Its also possible that Felicia Day is the reason a Twitter client for the XBox is due out soon (yes folks, you can tweet and kill the giant ants of the wastelands (Ms. Day is playing Fallout 3 at the moment) at the same time).

So why is this a music review? Well the third series is about to begin, and they have done a music video as its promo…
Enjoy.

The song is full of in jokes to online gaming, but oddly nothing really specific to the series. Its almost worrying just how much like Ms. Spears it sounds, its pop light with a little electro, but more likely its actually a low budget mid range midi sequencer (with a few samples from the Windows sound pack blended in, but that could just be me). The thing is, it is almost plausible as in-game music… which just might show up during the season. Hey, it is low budget. I like it, but then again I’m a fan. Its also intended as a comedy advert rather than for sale, but sales seem to be going well. Given that, it performs the job well enough (no comments of the vocoded length and not very good rap, but then again Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh could be in character as Vork and Zaboo.

Lets face it. Its a novelty single for the fans of the show, a bit of fun, and it does that well.

And I like it.

And if you want to watch the entire series. As well as being a series of free downloads on XBox live, it is also on YouTube (Series One Episode One, Series Two Episode One) or go to the official site to watch it there (the Wikipedia page has spoilers for season 3).
Click, but be prepared to loose a few hours.