Why The Guild Season Three is like Buffy Season Six

I enjoyed Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season Six a lot.  It had the musical episode, the near-marriage of Xander and Anya, and even Xander saving the day. 

Season Six is also the darkest season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.  Buffy has a death wish for most of the season and only finds relief through brutal sex with someone she hates.  Willow battles with addiction to dark magic and ends up turning evil when her girlfriend is killed.  Anya becomes a demon again after Xander leaves her at the altar.  All of these were compelling storylines by themselves, but together they cast a pall over the season.

The Guild: Season Three shares a similar dark streak.  What makes Season Three especially dark is that Season Two left the Knights of Good on the edge of ruin.  Rather than pulling the Knights of Good back from the brink, Season Three chronicles their continuing disintegration. 

Not only do the Knights of Good have to deal with their own demons, but they also face an external threat in the form of the Axis of Anarchy.  I have to admit I like the addition of a rival guild to the series.  None of the characters in the Axis of Anarchy are especially deep, but they do serve as great dramatic foils for the Knights of Good. 

Frankly, the Knights of Good would have enough problems without the Axis of Anarchy breathing down their necks.

Vork is still reeling from the revelation that it was Clara who was continually killing his character last season.  This leads him on a self-proclaimed journey of enlightenment.  In the end, the only enlightenment he find is that he seems to elicit feelings of disgust and dislike in everyone he meets.

Codex is given leadership of the Knights of Good by Vork.  Unfortunately, she only manages to preside over the guilds disintegration.  The experience is crushing to Codex, although in all fairness the forces tearing the Knights of Good apart may have been too much for even the best guild leader to overcome.  Codex regains some of her pride back in the season finale, although high on her victory she rushes into a sexual encounter she seems sure to regret.

Last season I said I lost all sympathy for Clara.  Season Three does little to change my opinion.  Clara seems to have little understanding as to why her husband is upset at her kissing other men or how her gaming addiction hurts her family.  While she does make some half-hearted attempts to patch up her marriage this season, it all seems to be motivated by an attempt to avoid suffering any consequences for her actions rather than actual concern.  I have to admit I found the revelation that Clara was pregnant again at the end to be horrifying rather than funny.

Zaboo finds himself in a poisonous relationship with Riley.  Riley has a controlling personality, and she has no problem using sex, or paintball guns, to keep Zaboo under her thumb.  Interestingly, Zaboo is probably the character who grows the most this season, as he ultimately manages to break off his self-destructive relationship with Riley by himself.

Tinkerballa is still pissed that Bladezz deleted her character.  She actually joins the Axis of Anarchy, but it is obvious she is not happy there.  She is obviously used to being the “Queen Bitch” of the group, and is put off by being just one of a crowd of ill-tempered gamers.  It is also pretty obvious that she regrets setting the Axis of Anarchy on Bladezz when she sees how far they are willing to go.  I was glad to see Tinkerballa come to the realization that there are worse things than a deleted character.

Bladezz comes off more sympathetic in this season than in any of the previous ones.  As the Axis of Anarchy begins to torment him in real life, you really begin to feel for the poor kid.  After all, no man deserves a website like this dedicated to him!

So what did I think of Season Three as a whole?  This was probably the best season of The Guild yet.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find some people turned off by the darker storyline, but like the aforementioned Buffy:The Vampire Slayer Season Six it provides a deeper look into what makes the main characters tick.

5 out of 5 purple drops

A Hero Twice a Month becomes www.aherotwiceamonth.com

Just a quick note to my readers that I am transitioning A Hero Twice a Month from aherotwiceamonth.blogspot.com to www.aherotwiceamonth.com .  The old address should work for the foreseeable future, but I would still recommend updating your old bookmarks.

I should also take this opportunity to thank all of the readers of this blog, especially those of you who take the time to leave a comment.  It is the ability to communicate with other people who share my passion RPG’s, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comic Books, and other nerdy pursuits, which truly makes writing this blog a pleasure.

Thanks again.

Rob

a.k.a.

A Hero Twice A Month

Too Many MMORPGs, too little time (and money)

I enjoy playing the occasional Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG).  In the past I have been active in both City of Heroes and Age of Conan.  Well, my wife calls me a casual player, but she is a complete MMORPG addict.  So I take her opinion on the matter with a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, it is true that I have drifted away from playing MMORPGs.  I would love to start playing one again in my (nonexistent? fictional?) free time.  I do have one small problem.  Namely, that I enjoy playing with my friends and everyone I know seems to be playing different games.  Since I lack infinite time and resources, I must choose only one!

Here are my top contenders:

Age of Conan

Pros: I have heard of World of Warcraft Widows.  I may be an Age of Conan Widower.  So joining up with Age of Conan again would allow me to spend more quality (virtual) time with her.  Plus, I have a level 80 character on the game.  Although, sadly, more than half of those levels my wife earned for me.

Cons: Honestly, I am not a huge fan of gameplay in Age of Conan.  Plus, the relearning curve would be high.

City of Heroes/City of Villains

Pros: My friends Bob and Brian are playing this game.  I enjoy this game a lot, and probably would still be playing if my wife had not abandoned it for Age of Conan.  I have multiple high-level characters including two level 50 characters.

Cons:  My friends have characters that are much lower level than I am.  The game is aging and I have played it enough that I feel I have exhausted a lot of the content in the game.

Darkfall Online

Pros: My friend Chad plays this game.  He sees it as the second coming of Ultima Online and is evangelizes that the game contains unrestricted Player vs. Player (PvP).

Cons: This game is currently only available in Europe and you have to play off of the European servers.  Also, I am not sure how I feel about unrestricted PvP.

Dungeons & Dragons Online

Pros: My friend Ashby has expressed an interest in playing once it goes free.  Also, the mere fact that it can be played for free, even if in a somewhat limited fashion, is a big pro in and of itself.  Plus, it is Dungeons & Dragons!

Cons: It may be Dungeons & Dragons, but its Eberron.  I am a little concerned with whether or not the free accounts will be able to compete with the paid accounts, but I am not going to complain too much since at the very least it will be free to try.

World of Warcraft

Pros:  One of my co-workers, Jonathan, plays this game.  So does everyone else in the world, so at least it is not going anywhere.

Cons:  I know my wife will never play this game, as she has expressed distain for the “cartoony looking characters” in the past.

Hmm… I was hoping writing out the pros and cons of all of these MMORPGs would make one choice obvious.  Apparently not.  I suppose I will just have to content myself with obsessing over good old-fashioned pen and paper RPGs.

Or maybe I could go outside.

Dungeons & Dragons Online is free! Well, mostly free?

I haven’t thought about Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) for awhile. I had a brief interest in it when it was released in early 2006, but mixed reviews and the fact that I was already invested in City of Heroes made me decide to save myself $15 a month. So despite some interest, I was never really interested enough to check it out.

That will probably change with the Eberron Unlimited update coming out later this summer. A number of things are packaged in this update, including raising the level limit to 20 and the introduction of a new class. Really though, all anyone is going to talk about is that it will open up the option to play for free.

Yes, that’s right, you can play for free.

Are there caveats? Of course there are. While it is true there is no fee for playing the game, there is an incentive to get Turbine Points.  Turbine Points can be used at an online store to purchase items, premium adventure packs, extra character slots, hirelings, potions, and more.  Certain benefits, like a premium adventure pack, will apply to all of your characters, while others, like items, are bound to the character who purchased them.

So how do you get these Turbine Points?  Well one way is to play.  As you play, you will earn a certain number of Turbine Points.  The other way?  Hand over the plastic.  Yep, DDO will accept credit card or PayPal in exchange for Turbine Points at the online store.  There is also a third method.  You can choose to pay a $15 a month subscription gee to become a VIP member. VIP members get access to some exclusive content as well as a stipend of Turbine Points each month.

I know people will be split on the “pay for loot” aspect. My wife is a hardcore MMORPG player, and she would consider this cheating. She prefers to earn her perquisites through online play, and would be annoyed that a newbie could buy top equipment with real world cash.

On the other hand, my friend Brian has often wished that this feature existed on City Of Heroes in the past.  He is a casual MMORPG player and sees no reason he should be locked out of content just because his work and family obligations don’t allow him the luxury of gaming 20 hours a week.

I am choosing to look at it a third way. Dungeons & Dragons Online is letting me try their product for free for as long as I want. Sure, I might not get everything that the player who spends $15 a month or dumps $100 on the online store. That doesn’t matter because I can simply try it out and see if I like it with no obligation. If I really like it, I will sign up for the VIP membership. If I want to play it casually, maybe I will just buy an occasional item from the store. Best of all, if I hate it, at least it didn’t cost me anything to find that out.

Random Reviews: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD

I just found out that Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD became available in stores nationwide yesterday.  This is amazing because frankly Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is an idea that shouldn’t have worked. 

Travel back with me to the year 2008.  The Writer’s Guild Strike is going full force and all kinds of creative types suddenly have a lot of time on their hands.  Joss Whedon, along with Maurissa Tancharoen and his brothers Zach & Jed Whedon decide to spend some of that time writing a supervillian musical/video blog to be distributed for free on the Internet.  They gather together a cast and crew, including Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day, who are donating their time.  Joss Whedon does promise to pay the cast and crew with whatever profits they make.

What could possibly go wrong?

Amazingly, it went went stupendously right.  Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog quickly became an Internet sensation.  Although initially available only for a limited time, it eventually was made available on Hulu.  In fact, feel free to watch it now.  Just make sure to come back here when you are done.

Waiting… Waiting… Waiting…

Back? As awesome that was, the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog DVD is somehow much more awesome.  Probably because it is jam packed with extras!  It has the “Making of” documentaries, and Easter Eggs we have all come to expect, as well as much, much more.

First, there are the Evil League of Evil Applications.  Joss Whedon solicited the fans to to create applications to join the Evil League of Evil and post them on YouTube.  The top ten made it on to the DVD.  Some of these are very funny, they didn’t cost Joss a dime, and they made the fans feel they were part of the Dr. Horrible experience.

In addition, while commentaries are popular on DVD’s nowadays, how many of these commentaries can claim to be musicals as well?  Commentary! The Musical can!  Composed of entirely new songs which (mostly) ignore what is going on onscreen, Commentary! The Musical should be listened to at least once.  Even if listening to it all the way through does, in the words of the song, make you “a huge fucking nerd”.

So I guess what I am saying is, if you haven’t seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog yet, watch it online.  However, if you have seen it and are craving more, then buy the DVD!

Random Reviews: The Guild Season II

The first season of The Guild ended on a note of triumph.  Despite their differences, the Knights of Good banded together to "defeat" Zaboo's mother.  The Knights of Good had entered Cheezybeards as a guild turmoil, but left it united.

The second season undercuts this sense of triumph in the opening sequence.  Codex reveals that Zaboo's mother was a real estate agent who managed to get Codex evicted from her apartment.  Even worse, she still has Zaboo living with her, and is still fending off his unwanted advances.

As the season continues, the cohesiveness of the of the Knights of Good continues to erode.   Almost all of the knights fall into cycles of self-destructive behavior.  This is primarily driven by the selfishness of its members.

Clara is probably the worst offender off the group.  When she fails to get the Orb of Nurr, she begins hunting an killing Vork repeatedly in the game.  She takes advantage of her husbands good nature, lying to get out of attending her sisters wedding.  She takes advantage of Codex's meekness by planning a big party to relive her Sorority glory days.  She is even spends some time swapping spit with someone other than her husband.  I have to admit, by the end of season two I have lost all sympathy for Clara.

Tink and Bladezz are equally selfish.  Tink uses Bladezz to satisfy her materialistic desires by leading Bladezz to believe that she will satisfy his carnal desires.  They circle each other with self-destructive behavior and ultimately both suffer the consequences of their actions.

Codex is a bit more sympathetic but, as she eventually realizes, she should have simply been honest with Zaboo about her feelings from the beginning.  On the other hand, Zaboo seems trapped in a cycle of falling too hard for women he barely knows.  

By the end, Vork has declared that the "Knights of Good" have become nothing more than the "Knaves of Hooliganism".  The dream is over and the guild lies in ruins.

So, what did I think? I loved it!  If you haven't checked out The Guild, I definitely recommend giving it a shot.  After all, at less than 10 minutes an episode, it's not like it will take up a lot of time!