MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Krsiti Studts writes this look at the way that World of Warcraft guilds are starting to evolve beyond just the raiding guilds that have become dominant over the last few years.

Over the last few weeks I've noticed something I haven't seen in a couple of years in World of Warcraft. In the Trade channel, there's been a lot of advertising for new guilds. Not that advertising for guilds is new. What was unique to these Trade blasts was the type of guilds looking for new members.

A wave of social guilds surging on many of the normal and RP servers is a surprising turn.

Guild relations are an intriguing dynamic. Looking for members, you are never quite certain what to focus on. Is a website that important in the grand scheme of things? Should all guilds be required to have vent? Maybe the focus needs to be on what makes up the guild - the players.

Read Evolving Guild Dynamics.

Kudos to everyone out there doing these "alternative" social guilds. I am glad to see that not all players are either hardcore raiders or tiny "cliques" with no interest in the rest of the community. I welcome any effort to bring a real community back into the mmo genre.

The truth is, the "hardcore" guilds tend not to last that long.  Everything is great as long as the entire guild is focused and determined.  Once a few folks start to burn out on the game, or have personality conflicts, or otherwise don't want to participate, the guild falls apart.

After years of playing, the only guilds I see that endure are the social ones.  The guilds that have diverse interests, who PVP as much as they do raids or heroics or even soloing, who do fun things other than just mindlessly grinding out the hottest new raid instance, and who actually bother to level up new recruits and help them get to end-game, these are the folks that last for years.  While most guilds don't seem to last forever, I've watch the guilds with more diversity last years longer than those who just get together to do one thing, be it raiding, PVP, or whatever.

But more than that, the players in such guilds tend to stick with WOW longer without burning out, and tend to jump right back to the same guild or a similar one when they do take a break.  Seems like as much of an endorsement of a more relaxed attitude when playing the game than anything else I could think of.

Which is why I keep playing: I don't focus-lock onto content.  I run in raids when possible, do heroics, dailies, BGs/WG, trying to fulfill achievements.  Having something new to do/see is good for one's appreciation of the game.

I have noticed through the past months that there has many of the hard core raiding guilds falling apart or splitting into two sometimes three different guilds.  There has been of the more casual guilds that do relatively nothing but guest and dailies and sometimes maybe a small raid or two that have fallen as well.

It is hard to run a guild and I agree an important factor is having the rules and goals out there in front. That way anyone joining or thinking about joining can see what the guild is all about right up front. Then they know if it is what they want or not.  There are so many different types of guilds: raiding, casual raiding, hard-core raiding, social, casual, the list goes on. The problem lies in what someone interprets as any of these meanings and the meanings are not as set as one would think.

For example I am in a casual raiding guild. We raid three times a week and we progress doing so. But for some they might think casual raiding means less than that. So you can see what I am getting at. That being said it is important to have it clear and written up front just what your guild means by whatever it is recruiting for. I tend to stay away from a guild that just runs around throwing invites to any player they see without a guild tag. If you can't talk to me about your guild then I am going to decline.

I have noticed though that a casual raiding guild will outlast a hard-core one if it is raiding and progressing and is run by peeps that know what they are doing and don't scream and yell at the members. If they do what is said they will do for everyone and not have a set of rules for one and a different for others.

As for the cliques; there are cliques in every guild. There are in the one I am in now but not to the point to of being totaly unfair. It is just that they have been playing together for years and know each other outside the game as well or many do. They do small raids for achiements together and such but I am hoping once they have finished theirs they will take the time to include others. That being said I have been in guilds where the officers don't mix with the other  membes and stay in a different chat on vent except during raids. That is a poor run guild at best.

Originally posted by coldandnumb

Kudos to everyone out there doing these "alternative" social guilds. I am glad to see that not all players are either hardcore raiders or tiny "cliques" with no interest in the rest of the community. I welcome any effort to bring a real community back into the mmo genre.

I agree completely.