A most intriguing message arrived at the Ultima Facebook fan page this morning from one Larry Longstreth:

Hey! Not sure who runs this page, but I made this animated series (with the Lord of the Rings producer!) based on my Ultima Online and WoW adventures. If you guys could repost it and help us spread the word, that would be amazing. Thanks!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fourtanks/four-tanks-and-a-healer-0

He’s not exaggerating about who is involved with the project: Mark Ordesky is indeed its producer.

As you can see from the link, the series has — surprise! — a Kickstarter page, and is looking to $45,000 within the next two months (or just shy thereof) to finance the series’ production. The Kickstarter page describes the series thusly:

“Four Tanks and a Healer” is a funny animated series about the lives true gamers live, as told from the inside of the very games they play. From single stay-at-home moms to college kids to lonely old men, the world of role playing games contains a wide variety of faces. And even more, all of these total strangers share their time together battling trolls, rescuing would-be kings, and debating over whether to wear the +1 to attack gloves or the +1 to defense ones. From Lord of the Rings Online to Everquest to World of Warcraft and more, the world of MMORPGs (Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games) is an awesome escape for people of all backgrounds and ages.

“Four Tanks” is a hilarious look at a group of first-time gamers (“noobs”) who are learning the hard way that even video games can have strict codes of conduct, social ladders, and pompous elites.

The action and adventure are high, the fun never ceases, and the line between fantasy and reality becomes slightly blurry as Four Tanks and a Healer takes a fun and unique look inside the world of online gaming.

They’ve also posted two episodes online. Here is the series pilot:

The second episode can be found here. And if you like what you see, you can support the project here, on their Kickstarter page.