Regarding guild allegiance.

I've been a big fan of Wizards' recent initiative to make Magic a more immersive experience, primarily via the diversification of the Prerelease experience. I thought the Dark Ascension prerelease gimmick (monster wars) was a great beginning, and the opening of the Helvault at Avacyn Restored was fantastic.
That said, I'm slightly underwhelmed by the Return to Ravnica event.

It's not that I don't think Eastern European cityscape is an awesome plane to visit. (Eastern European cityscape is an awesome plane to visit.) It's not that I don't love gold cards. (Gold cards are sweet.) It's that I'm being encouraged to identify with "guilds" that are associated with color pairs, but in actuality represent either an extreme example of that color pair (Gruul = "let's break all the things" for example) or an isolated example of the traits of the color pair (Orzhov as the greedy theocrats). I found myself stuck in an awkward position: do I adopt a guild that aligns colorwise with my personal nature (insofar as the color pie can actually define a person--please see every discussion by nerds ever of "what alignment are you?") or try to find a guild that I feel like I fit in? (I eventually just chose Selesnya because I like beating face with hate-bears and large creatures, but that's beside the point.)

I don't think I'm wildly misdiagnosing myself when I describe myself as taking a primarily rational approach to life (blue) with a strong dash of independence (red) and a co-operative approach to human interaction (white). The problem, of course, is that while I may be blue, red and white, I do not particularly identify with mad scientists (Izzet), droning bureaucrats (Azorius), or mercenary police (Boros). I'm glad that Simic is apparently going in a different direction this time around--maybe we'll see more of that in Gatecrash and "Sinker."

I'd love to see a Magic world where I can actually identify with someone.