The Guild

Videogame based humour has a pretty bad track record. Even the mostly entertaining Yahtzee, who many would consider a beacon of genuinely amusing videogame commentary, is starting to show signs that his recent success has clouded his judgement.

It's not surprising really, because as we all know, the kind of people who bother to play videogames in the first place are unfunny, anti-social freaks who have retreated to fantasy videogame worlds to escape the shame and humiliation of interacting in the real world and telling jokes that people don't laugh at. Aren't they?

The Guild, a sit-com based around six players of an unnamed online Role Playing Game, suggests that even though game-playing nerds may themselves struggle to be funny (and I include myself in that group), there's a large reserve of previously untapped comedy potential in the stereotype that surrounds them. The first series, which is freely available on Youtube, is astutely observed and ought to ring true for anyone who's ever found themself becoming obsessive about a videogame.

Honestly, it's better than this picture might suggest

That first series was so popular that now Microsoft have started throwing money at it, and as a result the second series is a lot more polished. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is debatable, as I'd say both the dialogue and the acting feel more self-concious than when the show relied solely on paypal donations for funding. But it's still blazing a trail by demonstrating how 'videogame culture' can hope to drag itself out of the gutter, and there remains some hope that the remaining episodes in the series will build to a satisfying climax that will justify some of the unfunnier moments in the opening episodes.