Its faster and easier to get into raiding now, since they've implemented a Raid Finder tool (similar to Dungeon Finder), and also, with the newest patch that was released few days ago, you can get cross-realm raiding with your real-life friends (no more transfering required, assuming you have the email of your friend).
Ye, the deal is more suited for new players. 5 pounds for the 30 days is a great deal, considering before you had to buy the game AND TBC for a lot more. Now you get both at that lower price. The price of Cataclysm may be a bit more expensive even with this deal, I've seen it go for ~10 EUR in some online retailers' shops.

Regarding the servers, this http://wow.realmpop.com/ is a great site to see how the servers are doing. I guess I've been lucky when choosing my realm, when I actually play the game, I'm playing it on Eonar EU, as a human, so ~75% (when I last checked) of all are people that I can directly interact with.

Wait, you can PUG raids? I don't think this is the same game I played.

Yup, and now with the cross-realm raiding, it is a lot easier to get a good group for those hard 25man and 40man older raids.

I think there was some data posted on the official forums (maybe I saw it on Wowhead, can't remember now), something like <20% (might have been even lower, can't remember) of the people have done all bosses on all difficulties, so I guess that's why they added the Raid Finder and cross-realm raiding.

I want you to understand, Vael actually killed my first guild (they called him a guild killer for a reason). I hunted through DM for blue fire resist gear for tanking Rag. I made Flask of the Titans back when flasks expired on death. I hunted back through shitholes like Strat for green Nature Resist gear for Huhu (seriously, fuck you Blizzard for that one!). I got bitch slapped over and over and over again by the original Four Horsemen and lost the roll on the sword (only one that dropped). Our binding went to our rogue instead of one of the tanks. Our Ret Pally took Hand of Rag (which actually was kind of funny) and gquit.

I wiped the floor with Sunwell and all the rest in TBC and spent hours each week farming shitty consumables. Took a break during caverns so with new MTs they only wanted me for a Deep Wounds bitch, but good enough, I'm a Deep Wounds bitch (and at least I can pvp with that spec, sorta).

That, what you just said, is not the same game at all. I can't definitively say whether it's a good or a bad game (since I don't think they've changed the core skinnerbox mechanics I err on the side of bad) but that's not at all the same.

So if you don't need one to raid what's the point of a guild now? In game chat room?

In regards to all above, dunno whether I should laugh or cry. :D

Anyways, you get guild achievements, passive talents, discounts, more reputation with certain factions, noncombat pets, mounts, ... some stuff like that. I've been guildless for nearly two years, dunno what exactly are all the things you get.

The game has definitely gotten a lot easier in regards to social stuff, non-combat stuff, and even dungeoning and maybe some raids (on normal difficulty) but on heroic difficulty, the dungeons and raids are quite hard (next to impossible with random people).

Ah, so heroic gear probably looks "cooler" and therefor dickwaving is still a viable form of entertainment?

I think with the last patch you can customise your gear to look like any item that you've found (provided that you've acquired it).

I think it looks the same but has better stats. Might be wrong though.

What you pug is a severely dumbed down version of the instance. Basically raids are on a 3 difficulty setting now, hard, normal, and kindergarden (pug). So yeah, those who start playing now have a chance to raid before the end of the expansion, but it's not raiding as you know it.

Pvp on the other hand is probably in its worse state ever, at lower levels it's a oneshot carnage, and at higher levels it's a twoshot fest until you're very well geared.

dirt2, shatter, etc... meh

I barely find 3 out of 30 steam's daily deals interesting. =/

Anyways, I still have a 33% off Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine for trade, PM me.
EDIT: Done, traded.

It depends on the items in question, some have the same appearence, some are similar, and some are quite different. But with the new feature, transmogrification, players can change the appearence of their items, to look like any other item (of the same type / class / purpose) that they have in their bags.

Ah, so the epeen waving must happen via the Armory or /inspect instead, huh?

The old tier appearance gear is the fashion rage and new form of dick waving basically. It's just something else people grind for now, old raid gear for various classic set appearances or certain weapons, shields, etc.

I will say it is kind of cool to see people running around with all this stuff on. It's certainly added a new level of character customization for those willing to bother which doesn't include me but whatever floats their boats.

I have been playing very casually myself and haven't bothered with the pug raids but it is nice the feature exists for those wishing to see the content without being married to a raiding guild.

That's pretty cool. I did not know they added that feature. I really hated that when I got a new armor piece that was better, but it looked fugly. I won't be going back to WOW ever again, but it's nice to see they are adding some stuff I wanted way back then.

Ground controll 2 SE is £2.00 on GG