AFK: The Webseries

I really liked the episodes a lot. I think some of the acting is pretty good. I LOVE the plot. I really like the direction. I do wish that some of the characters had a bit more depth. I didnt like some of the language, especially Calum Gittins.

I came across AFK on Amazon Prime over the weekend due to watching Journey Quest and having it pop up in the recommendations.

AFK takes the same basic Idea of telling a story that came from role playing games and although it is funny in places it is much darker without going full CW.

AFK Opens with Q (Mia Pistorius) An elf if the ears are any indication coming to groggy awareness on the ground with a couple other folks nearby. One of which immediately kills the other and turning there sites on Q Only to be killed in turn and suddenly everyone is running away.

Apparently gamers at their computers are suddenly in real life, inhabiting flesh and blood versions of their in game avatars in some version of World of Warcraft. And just as quickly these people with nothing to stop them start acting like people, being as shitty to each other as possible for the most part..

Q who is a pretty high ranked player immediately sizes up the situation and runs to the forest to avoid all the murderous other players. She gathers around her a band of supporting players including a Wizard (IRL a 15 YO gamer) Hot young Warrior woman in improbable bikini chain mail (IRL some bro who is a low level newb who became a woman for kicks), A self absorbed Rogue and a Gnome (Cosplaying 24 YO woman). They manage to survive the night in the forest and spend the rest of the series trying to figure out how to return to the real world.

I am trying to avoid spoilers here so I won't go too much more into story. Suffice it to say we have a clever antagonist who is building up his own army and the world itself appears to be in the process of the game rebooting as other aspects of online role playing fantasy games come back on line. magic, Non Player Characters and Quests for example.

What I found most compelling was the high production values, the quality of all the performances, and the writing.

My only negative is that these are produced as Web series and as such paced to run 10 minutes or so per episode. Which works to gain attention but I would think that something of this quality would garner enough attention to get the kind of funding from Amazon to create 30 minute episodes.

EDIT: Fixed some grammatical and spelling errors

If you've ever played an mmo game you will really love this. It seems like it's mostly based off of Warcraft, but not. It follows a bunch of mismatched people who are suddenly their character in the game world.

The acting is good as is the story. It's not the best quality or special effects or anything like that, but it has everything else that matters. It's definitely got a lot of heart.

AFK is great for those who like "The Guild," ".// hack," or even the lamestream anime, "Sword Art Online."

The acting is kind of hokey and the cinematography looks more like the series was shot on a handheld DVR than an actual quality camera. However, the set pieces are actually quite good and evoke a sort of low-budget Game of Thrones charm, and the editing itself isn't horrible. Most of the characters are likable with some notable exceptions, like Brendon the Wizard who always sounds like a quivering, shivering nagging banshee. The plots are also interesting, with each episode revolving itself around the various slanguage MMO gamers use (ie. mob, phat lewtz, inc, ganker, etc.); I was pleasantly surprised at how decent the actual writing was, despite the spattering of cliche dialogue throughout. The show itself has heart and I think could have honestly been a series contender if only it had a bigger production/distribution company behind it. AFK on a Netflix-type budget would kick some serious booty (think Legend of the Seeker).

The show itself is pretty short, spanning 16 episodes in totality with each episode running at a mere 20ish minutes. Short and sweet would probably be the best way to describe AFK.

Anyway, like I said, if you enjoyed the webseries "The Guild," it's almost a given certainty that you'll enjoy "AFK" too.

"AFK" doesn't make much sense, but it is entertaining nonetheless, elevated by the characters' arcs and relationships, which give the show its heart.

The story is simple as follows: real people wake up in an online game, their minds in the bodies of their characters. We don't get much in way of explanation, characters' motives, world building or anything. Basically we are thrown with the characters into the world, and the first episodes suffer a little bit from this, because the viewer won't really understand much of what is going on (not that much is going on, but it makes no sense whatsoever).

Funnily enough, with the episodes going by, even if the story is flimsy as they come (non-existent), we get to know the characters and enjoy their company. And that is what makes "AFK" worth checking: the characters. The acting won't get them any awards soon, but the actors embody their roles in an engaging and caring manner.

That helps overcome all the shortcomings: plot, direction, action moments that barely cut the mustard... Put in some nice homages to role-playing games (NPC, the music that comes out of nowhere when you enter a tavern...) and you have a really fun show.