As someone who tries to distract themselves from the drudgery of daily life by escaping into RP, and also as someone who has some severe issues with socializing with others due to crippling social anxiety, I feel like the only way to really get into some RP is to join a guild. But then I want that guild to be something special/meaningful, and get to know at least one or two folks in it ICly before I join up. Which is tough when you don’t approach others, and just, say… Sit off to the side near a tree, or sit at a table in the Wyvern’s Tail, not talking to ANYONE…
Feels like, back during the original Mists release, there were plenty of good guilds to join. Lots of great options that didn’t seem like they’d lock out any one person because of the character they chose to play. I didn’t feel intimidated by any but the REALLY big ones, and was happy with the few I’d gotten into. (Jadepaw Dynasty, Steelpaw Shaodin, Stormwind University).
Coming back after those ten long years, it’s like a whole different world. Other folks intimidate me on an odd level that I’m not sure of. I legit get anxious when someone walks by or gets close to me. Even folks I know, at this point! Which makes it difficult to join guilds on characters I’d love to RP as in a guild setting.
…I probably just incoherently rambled on, so I’ll just say this to keep as on-topic as I can: Guilds can still be good. They could still be better. They just need to find the right ways to recruit. Slamming random guild join requests to newbies isn’t the right way, and while whispering helps, some of us want that guild join to be VERY special. Joining on an IC basis, and not an OOC basis where you shoehorn your character into the guild’s social circles. The guild faires on both WRA and MG are a great step towards that.
And maybe part of my own problem with joining is just that I tend to make civilian characters. (And the only one who isn’t a civilian I have, I have no idea what direction to take her, story-wise!)
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I haven’t been in a guild on retail for any real length of time since original MoP. Mostly because I just never stick around very long. Case in point, this is the first time I’m playing retail since month one of BFA.
In Classic and SoD it was basically a requirement for me to be able to enjoy the game at all. PUGing raids is a miserable experience and I never cared enough to do the whole GDKP thing.
The few times I have been in a guild have been pretty miserable experiences, though. Putting aside actual leadership issues or things like the logistics of having to deal with raid rosters before flex raids were a thing, etc, it’s probably just a me problem.
My experiences with joining a guild always boils down to something like this: after the initial invite is accepted, maybe you do a few more dungeon runs or whatever. Then the next day everyone is back into their little cliques doing their own thing with their friends and I’m just standing there in the corner like that one party meme. Not once have I ever been in a guild where an officer/leader has been like “Oh hey, you’re new? Let’s go do some stuff new best buddy!”
More often it’s just a few feeble attempts on my part of “Hey anyone want to do some dungeons or level an alt or something?” which is usually met with “can’t right now” or “sorry I’m locked already” or no response at all. After awhile of standing in the proverbial corner I just get worn out from trying to socially insert myself (giggity) and leave.
Maybe it’s different for people who aren’t anti-social to the point where human interaction is physically draining.
With all that being said though, I think guilds definitely do serve a purpose. Especially if you suck at the game. WoW is pretty notorious for being filled with mean players who would rather vote kick you/disband on a wipe than actually teach you what to do in random queued content. FF14 sprouts this game ain’t. So that’s where a group of guildies might come in handy to be patient enough to actually teach mechanics. I feel like communities or random Discord groups are too impersonal to completely replace guilds.
I think cross-faction cross-server guilds are a good idea and will greatly increase the chances of actually finding some cool people to do stuff with.
I love my guildies and moved to a whole asz different server for them 
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this is part of why i joined the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe-- i hadn’t set out to be a performer, but it was one of the few actively recruiting guilds that still had a civilian RP theme. As a fellow “citizen of Azeroth” RP’er, it feels harder to find those slice-of-life guilds these days. It feels like the big civilian RP stuff happens on MG Alliance these days, and I’m attached to my Hordies 