This is a series that eventually catches you by surprise.

On the surface it appears to be a sexy bit of sci-fi meant to give nerds something extra to oogle an hour each week. Then it slowly trickles out enough character development, ethical conundrums, hidden agendas, plots twists and double-to-triple entendres to keep it interesting.

All that and you always feel like you missed an episode or two, too. Of course, that’s part of the point…

Just in case you missed its excellent debut season in 2007, The Guild is an online sitcom focused on a group of MMORPG players and the problems that their guild faces both in the (unspecified) game and in the real world. The show won both YouTube’s and Yahoo’s Best Web Series awards for 2007.

After turning down sponsorship offers for more than a year due to incompatible ideas, show creator and star Felicia Day (known for her roles as Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Penny on Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) today (November 24, 2008) announced via her personal blog that the show has been picked up by Microsoft.

Xbox Live’s Scott Nocas approached Felicia with what she describes as…