I would like to congratulate BW on how well they have looked at WOW, taken it's good parts and fixed some of the bad. I know Community and Guilds are a big part of your focus, can I recommend you forget about wow at that point, and go and take a look at several of the other MMO's out there. EQ2 springs to mind with a great example of customisable guild halls and houses, hugely controllable guild interface, well designed voice chat and a workable mentor system that allows you to drop your level to help friends and guild mates do group quests. I am sure there are other games out there with great ideas too - most of the design focus seems to have come from WOW (not surprising considering it's the marked leader, by a long way) and luckily earlier wow before it was simplified, but to get the best game out there, you need to look at the best ideas from all the games. (Oh and please, please, please - appearance slots, my Jedi reminds me of Liberace right now) I know SWTOR is just out and has a way to go, but moving away from the wow feel and creating your own (in design, not playing feel - which is very Star Wars) can only help create the best game there is.
