What's Life Like in a Guild!?

I'm just wondering what life is like in a guild, because I have never been in one on Guild Wars, let alone any other MMORPG's, because I usually don't like the politics in other games, and I know it's nothing like my FPS clan. I just want to know how organized, dedicated, etc guilds are. Is it something formal, like the Tribes community clans, where sites/servers/forums are only the tip of the ice berg or is it more relaxed like, you get on, see who in your clan is on and work together?

That totally depends on what Guild you join.
One Guild will be obsessive about PvP and demand you join them at least X times per week (much like hardcore FPS clans) and use Teamspeak and the like.
Others will mainly use Guilds as a method to stay in touch and have some friends to quest with.
And there are plenty of other kinds of Guilds as well.

e.g.: My Guild is quite relaxed right now - we'd gather occassionaly to do missions but we'll generally allow members to do as they please. But once we start getting some decent level-20 builds, we'll be going more hardcore into the PvP area of the game utilizing voice-chat and tactics much like FPS clans would.
(err, leadership of my Guild are FPS clanleading-veterans actually, so we took a less abstract form of leadership than most RPG Guilds tend to do - we use a system that's effective, not flashy or attractive)

Pretty similar with my guild. We have a few people over level 15, a bunch between 10 and 15, and some under 10. So, when I'm online, I usually help level 10-15 people cross the Shiverpeaks, finish a mission, stuff like that. I notice that my Guild Chat is always what covers the screen, even in towns with heavy trading, or during missions with other players. Other than that, everyone's pretty much on their own to do whatever they want.

I don't know that I'd like the game nearly as much if I wasn't in a guild. There is always someone to team up with, teamspeak makes the encounters alot more fun and we all share our runes/items/dyes.

I would guess that well over 50% of the negative posts I read here would be non-existant if those people found a guild with like minded people...

I have to agree jdwoody, I have ran into many people that joined a guild and found out they were just not in the right place. Our guild has a casual division and a hardcore PvP area, those that want to play hardcore have to show they want it. Then we have my area, that is more layed back lets do some PvE and kill critters and do some PvP here and there... We also push that when we get a noobie we help all we can, to get them on the right track. I can't count how many times I had to go to Adien If you find the right Guild, you will LOVE it!!! Good LUCK!!

This a very true statement. The guild i am in is for fun a few friends and when we meet upwe may do quests together but not always. So yes it depends greatly on how hard core the leader is.