Purpose becomes destiny

I'm still trying to figure out why most guilds in World of Warcraft feel so different from what guilds used to be in previous games. Being a scientist I try to do that by looking at data, in this case the guild recruitment ads that are spammed quite frequently on the new server I'm playing on. The ads are spammed in the LookingForGroup channel, because many people still have that one turned on out of necessity, while the LookingForGuild channel is unused, as it can't be heard by the large number of players already in a guild.

The new server is now 20 days old, and while there are already a handful of level 60 characters, the median level of the people online yesterday was about 16. (That is half of the players online were over level 16, half under) But in spite of this low level population, 9 out of 10 guild ads I saw mentioned endgame raiding, half mentioned helping each other, 2 were based on a non-english language, and none mentioned playing together before level 60.

In other words, the generally considered purpose of a guild in WoW is raiding. Reaching level 60 is considered to be easy, with no organization necessary to support it, except for occasional help with some quest or giving somebody an item you don't need. People generally solo, they sometimes group with guild mates because finding a good group in guild chat is easier than finding a good pickup group, but playing together is considered optional. When the leveling game ends, the only content left is raiding, and that requires an organization. Guilds are a necessity to raid, thus raiding becomes a guild's purpose. And if you organize something to a specific purpose, you often arrive there, and raiding becomes the destiny of the guild.

The difference to the other guilds I've been in in older games is that I had never made it into a "raiding" guild, while in WoW nearly every guild is one. The purpose of my previous guilds was playing together with people you knew, the online equivalent of friends. People took care not to drift too far apart in levels, because that would have made playing with friends difficult. Raiding didn't enter into the equation, because most of us didn't think we would ever make it there, although we were aware it existed. I'm not saying that this old style of guild was better, we certainly had our fair share of guild drama, but somehow it felt less mercenary. And the turnover, people hopping from guild to guild, was much lower.

So I wonder if the quality of guild live in WoW could be improved if guilds could be given another purpose than just raiding. For example in A Tale in the Desert the purpose of the guild evolves with the "level" of technology, doing easy projects together in the early game, and cooperating on larger projects like building pyramids in the later game. I also liked the idea of guild bases in City of Villains, where everybody during his adventures can pick up items that serve to equip and enhance the base, which is then something fought about and defended in guild vs. guild PvP. I do think that if World of Warcraft had guild housing, ways could be found in which everybody in the guild, regardless of level, could contribute to building up the guild house. And by giving a guild a cooperative project which goes beyond farming epics in raids, a greater coherence of the guild could be reached.