Felicia Day and her fellow Guild members (left to right: Sandeep Parikh, Amy Okuda, Vincent Caso, Robin Thorsen, Jeff Lewis) have come a long way since their webseries premiered. Now, they will have their own maquettes, trading cards and even flavors of Jones Soda. They packed the Hilton Bayfront Indigo Room this past Saturday just after Joss Whedon met with his fans. The first episode will be available on XBox Live on July 26th, and on MSN two days later. Afterwards, episodes will be shown Tuesdays on XBox and Thursdays on MSN.

The panel started with director Sean Becker and producer Kim Evey telling the crowd how complicated filming was" 15 days of shooting at four cities, 70 actors, more than 200 extras.
Their conclusion: "Felicia Day is trying to kill us."
Actually, everyone was proud of what they pulled off. Day even mentioned some of the people who will appear: Erin Grey (from Buck Rogers fame), Doug Jones (from Buffy and Pan’s Labyrinth, for starters), Maurissa Tanchareon, and someone called Master Chief. She also said she’s always wanted to get the KoG in a convention, and it was the right time.
Amy and Vince were asked what it was like to have their own issues of the Guild comic series in Dark Horse. She said that the story in her issue is a precursor of what will happen on the show. Vince’s response was interesting: "I really enjoyed how much of an idiot you guys made me. On the show, I’m really dumb, but wow, Bladezz is a moron." He still thought it was "too cool" that he’s been immortalized in a comic book. Jeff admitted he asked a friend to come with him to a comic book store, just to show him his issue. Can’t blame him.

Becker was asked what was the toughest part of the shoot. He answered that question, but very silently, because it happened in the season finale.
What fans may also be talking about is how Codex and Zaboo may be getting a bit closer. How close the fans won’t know for a while.
The panel ended with a quick four-season recap for newbies or anyone else who wanted to recall the best moments, followed by…the first episode of season five. We’ll just say it includes scenes familiar to anyone who’s taken a road trip, while someone makes a decision another person does not like. You’ll find out the rest this week.
The gang also talked about how they came up with their avatar names, like how some guys used a "z" in their names, while Jeff suggested a spinoff called "Coming Up Vork". Felicia even talked about how she quickly wrote the script after a trip to Hawaii. Jeff mentioned she came back with a "grey alabaster tan". Actually, she looks great.

You can learn more at watchtheguild.com, which now includes a trailer to season five, plus links for the DVD, comic books and other things Guild-y.