Wow!! I wasnt even expecting responses as many people look at alliances and say "phfft, forget it". Good to see some people are thinking about it.
To further explain: We formed this alliance because there was a group of 4 - 5 guilds that did not want to drop their guild even though it was small. Why should there HAVE to be mergers? I am a part of a 5 person guild consisting mainly of real life friends. Not only do we play the game (PvE and PvP) but we use the game to keep in touch. Therefore, if there are 4 of us on, we usually use the guild chat to talk. I know we could form a team or meet in an empty international district, but why? Now we can talk about whatever as we are all playing different parts of the game...
Also, there are so many breakup of guilds, fights within guilds because of leadership burnout, guild inactivity, etc. I find that its nice to get rid of the politics if you are comfortable with the members of your small guild in that you can just not to team up with someone that is maybe causing some angst for a short or indefinite period if your not in the same guild. YET we wanted people (friends) to be able to PvE with and PvP with even though we didnt want them in the guild. In all honesty, to that last point, the Arena Net friends list sucks. Its nice to have forum boards to discuss things like approaching a mission, getting groups together to do mission runs, virtual LAN party nights, working out PvP builds for TA, Tombs, and GvG.
You are right in saying that we cannot GvG under one banner, but instead we can GvG under whomevers banner that evening. None of us are hardcore, dye trying PvP so were not all that concerned about rank or that my guild is very "GvG serious, dont screw up our rank...no testing here". But, we have found that if a guild isnt concerned about their rank, easy smurf!

Really its an alliance of friends that gets rid of a lot of politics and allows for bigger numbers to help with PvE and PvP and just providing some forum for a bigger group of people to know each other and be able to play together when only 2 are on from your own guild.
Its gone really well for us and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! The guesting in for GvG allows for a lot of learning in PvP GvG and being able to play more often than if I waited for myguild to grow to 8. Plus its easy to discuss tombing builds and how to beat Thuderhead!
My main point: Why not when you can have more fun without losing your little guild of trusted friends, less politics, less angst if everyone is aware of the reserved right too just sink back into your own guild for awhile, and make more friends? Ive enjoyed it much and hope that a chat channel is added for alliances and perhaps a lesser fee for allied guilds to guest in (I know its a small amount and how to control abusing it?). Anyways, thanks for looking and if its something your interested in, give me a shout!
Lillyan Daylight
a.k.a Nieye Bailwick (PvP warrior, Lill is my primary PvE / PvP cross-bread!

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