Microsoft's Scott Guthrie plays a prominent cyberrole in a new animated webmercial developed for Redmond by Universal McCann, and now playing throughout SYS-CON Media's website. The webmercial, titled "Red vs. Blue: Sweating the Details," features dialog directly relating to AJAX and how it can benefit even an animated figure. Mostly, it's a fun and cool little episode that should have viewers demanding new episodes.

Scott Guthrie playing Scott Guthrie in the new Microsoft webmercial

Guthrie, who co-founded Microsoft's ASP.NET team, appears in the commercial as an officer in uniform, nattily attired in the latest in cyberware while going on a mission with a real fightin' platoon.

The episode's genesis evolves from the emergent  machimina art form being pioneered by t(among other creative professionals) the wacky, creative folks at Austin-based Rooster Teeth, who created the Red vs. Blue series and this new Microsoft production. The webmercial is being handled by Universal McCann for selected media companies. The piece, like all of Rooster Teeth's RVB stuff, looks and feels a lot like the very popular Microsoft Xbox game "Halo," which was developed by Bungie Studios (now part of Microsoft Game Studios.)

Before his appearance, the "sarge in charge" (presumably based on the Master CPO from "Halo") makes some disparaging remarks about the concept of officers and their visits, but the affable Guthrie seems not to notice. Guthrie pays homage to Xbox team leader and legendary figure J Allard, for whom Guthrie worked when he first came to Redmond.

There are a few salty words thrown in the dialog in this piece, and initial enthusiasm for it was expressed by a random, multi-generational sampling of early viewers of this video. Guthrie, who has been interviewed in-depth by SYS-CON.TV, has a major speaking role in the video. When will the paparazzi start their stakeout?