Three years ago, nobody knew who Felicia Day was, except, perhaps, as that other redhead in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But what a difference a couple of YouTube videos can make.

Day is now the writer, producer, and star of   The Guild  , a comedic web series chronicling the misadventures -- online and off -- of players of a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game. In the three years since its debut, The Guild has scored over 46 million YouTube views, as well as juicy distribution deals with Microsoft and Netflix, and spawned two iTunes-topping music videos -- and even a comic book from Dark Horse. But best of all, says Day, is that "we're still making the show that I want to make."

A smart, charismatic woman with impeccable comic timing, Day has become a bit of a rock star within the geek community, a role model and sex symbol wrapped into one purple flannel. But what's it like balancing public and private lives in the online world? I caught up with Day at Gen Con 2010 to find out.

 

Felicia Day: The queen of geeks (and we mean that in a good way!).

Lara Crigger: The Guild started as a web-only show, but now you've branched out to Xbox, Zune Marketplace, Netflix and elsewhere. How has the show and its audience changed as you've branched out?

Felicia Day: I think it's been surprising. Take Microsoft -- since the show is based on MMOs, and the Xbox doesn't really have any MMOs, I was a little nervous. But [when we launched the show] on Xbox Live, we saw millions of new viewers. It was huge, more than even I had estimated. Xbox Live is kind of a walled garden, but they have the power to curate in a way for scripted content that nobody else can.

And when we did the deal to put The Guild on Netflix Streaming, again, I didn't think anything of it. But a huge number of people found the show through Netflix, and continue to find the show there. They don't ever experience it as a web series, either. They think "The Guild" is a movie. All these outlets are definitely breaking the traditional model for content. And we're getting as many views as a cable show, for sure.

Lara Crigger: And that's only counting the webisodes. You've now got the music videos, and The Guild comic, too.

Felicia Day: The comic definitely changed the way I told the story. It's definitely less comedic, more character-oriented. We also get to see the game, which we don't see in the show. We couldn't create our own game, of course -- it's too expensive -- and we didn't want to use a specific game unless we had a single sponsor every single season. We wouldn't want to be locked into one game, and then say "Hey, we gotta change the game now."

Lara Crigger: Or have the game go out of business.

Felicia Day: Sure. Those are all things we thought of early on with our production, but nobody had the money to give us something that would cover our costs.

The Guild comic book, written by Felicia Day and Jim Rugg.

Lara Crigger: Now that you do have sponsors and more monetary flexibility, will we see episodes grow longer?

Felicia Day: I've found that six or seven minutes are better for the layered story that I want to tell. Also, our audience is used to that; I don't know if you could launch a show now with episodes that long.

But it also depends on how people experience the show, whether it's on their Zune or iPod, versus on their web browser, versus on their Xbox, where it's literally like you're watching a TV show. I think people tend to tolerate longer lengths, the bigger the picture.

Lara Crigger: You're known for your active web presence. Between your blog, your Twitter account, your Facebook page, and so on, how much of your day-to-day work goes into community-building?

Felicia Day: It's like a full-time job, but it's an investment in an area I feel passionate about. Because I really do feel like what we're doing is a better way of consuming entertainment, rather than being force-fed the same kinds of stories. People don't want to just passively absorb content; they want to create a community around it. And if you are passionate about something specific, the Web gives you a place to make those communities.

I think that's why The Guild has become a success. We're giving a voice to that audience. It's homegrown, and people feel like they're part of the show. And they are. We don't ever pay for advertising; word of mouth is all we've ever had. And that's why I think our viewership just keeps growing and growing -- people keep finding the show as much today as they did three years ago.

Lara Crigger: But as the show becomes more popular and moves to less interactive platforms, is it getting harder to maintain that two-way conversation with your audience?

Felicia Day: The people watching Netflix, or on Xbox, they're tech savvy. Really, whenever you're dealing with new-tech ways of consuming media, you're dealing with tech-savvy people. So, socially, they're always going to be connected. That's part of the culture, and I think it's where we're going to, more and more.