Quite frankly, this is going to be one of the roughest transition periods to survive. Many guilds that started in the vanilla/BC days are finding that their members who were once college students are now professions in the world with difficulties maintaining raiding schedules. Recent changes with the easier normal modes and LFR are also making it difficult for casual raid guilds to survive.

I think over time what you are going to see are the usual hardcore guilds doing what they usually do, and then about a dozen or so social/softcore guilds that may or may not be raiding together as a guild (and, if so, just barely). LFR has done a lot towards making sure that raids are accessible, but they have, IMHO, killed the cohesion of most casual guilds. Burnout of players who have been playing WoW for many years is also not helping.

I admit, the only reason I still raid today is because of the people I raid with, and not necessarily the raid content. While that can still be fun sometimes, I think of it more like hanging out at a bar after hours, playing darts and being with friends. Fortunately a version of our guild has transitioned to SWTOR, so even if/when our WoW branch ends, I can still be with my friends.

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