If someone plays WOW primarily to raid, then staying in a guild that does not share their priorities is foolish.

Sometimes RP, PVP, Dungeons, Socializing or other non-raiding activities are simply not enough for people. If someone wants to raid and feels that their current guild isn't progressing in the direction they need, they should feel free to leave.

You're right Gendou, and that's fine for people who only care about progress/epics, but I've met far too many people who quit a guild for raiding and were just plain miserable after that. There's more involved in raiding than just how many bosses are downed or how quickly you can get geared. Don't just leave because you want to raid, leave because there's something bigger you're missing out on.

I can kind of relate to that. I had made a couple good friends to the point of even talking to them in real life. They both went on to raid, leaving my littler social guild behind. Neither of them really even play WoW now. When Cata brought out the looking for guild feature, I made sure to correctly label and advertise my guild as a social guild, looking for fun and social people. I am totally at peace where the way my guild is and happy with the core of my guild members. If any of them want to leave, the door is open to return. However if they just /gquit one day and don't have the decency to talk to me about it then they might not be so well received. Some people aren't good with saying farewell and that is unfortunate.

I have to say I totally disagree with "be discreet about it." I am not saying you need to make a big announcement about it. If you were a vocal/participating member of a social/leveling guild, people are going to ask questions. That's not really fair to the officers or the GM in my opinion. You should treat people and friends like people and friends, not like people who occupy space or are blips on a screen.

I agree, most people I know who leave a guild to raid are very disillusioned about the whole thing. The #1 factor usually comes to to loots. They usually move on from guild to guild for a while or end up quitting.

A lot of people who really want to raid and know what it all entails prioritise this more than spending time with the people they're leaving who, whether fairly or not, they probably see as the reason they cannot raid. I would not suggest staying in a guild you might ultimately resent for not being able to deliver what you want to do in game.

If you want to raid and you can't find it in your guild, don't want to go through the nightmare of pugs, and want the communal sense of accomplishment you get when you kill stuff with people you kill stuff with regularly, then do leave to find a raiding guild that will meet your needs (and so some research before you do).

Well this is kinda awkward, since Den is my GM. We are both in a social guild. Our guild's raiding started out as just being about doing an activity as a guild, with friends, and when that shifted to a more demanding, stressful and drama-filled progression focus, I left the raid group but remained in the guild. The fallout from that has me reading this article with sympathy, as raid-related things can color all the other reasons you might stay in the guild and can affect non-raid interactions in a negative way.

prior to Cataclysm I would have fully agreed to Den. I raided with an alliance that consisted of mainly two guilds but had members from many more. We had our own TS server, an exquisit forum, in-game chat channels and even a raid bank, basically we kept guild matters and raid matters strictly separate and everyone could play in the guild they liked most (some players even moved from one of your guilds to another without causing any drama).
With the advent of Cataclysm, guild levels and achievements however this is not an option anymore, you'll want all regular raiders to be in the same guild.

So as much as I like the new guild options, I miss the times when you had the option to choose your raid and your guild independently from each other.

I think the problem is, at least what I'm seeing here, is that the guild that you have and you're used to is mainly a social guild, with raiding as a side activity, or something extra. That's all fine when someone wants to be in the guild but not in the raid group. My old main is in such a guild, but not in the raid group anymore (due to stress from blood tanking wearing me out).

However, there are guilds out there that are specifically for raiding. My new main joined a sister guild for the sole purpose of raiding. If, all of a sudden, they decided to now be an RP and PvP guild, but I still wanted to raid, I would be screwed.

I don't want to RP and I don't want to PvP. If I wanted to continue raiding, I would need to either find a small group of similar minded folks in the same guild, or find some other way to raid. Usually that entails leaving for a raiding-specific guild. Saying that you shouldn't find a guild just for raiding because that's not the player you are is just like saying, well you shouldn't find a guild just to be social with others. You shouldn't tell others to have fun, that's no fun at all.

Just my two cents.