[u][b]Free[/b][/u] is kind of alright, as far as I'm concerned. If you've absolutely no idea what to do or where to do it, it's always a good place to get your bearings on stuff even if it may initially set a bad precedent. It's also what I consider the most 'harmless' of any of the subforums, with its userbase being mostly self-contained and generally open and friendly from what I've seen. I say it's the best section you'd never see me caught dead in.

[b][u]Casual[/u][/b] is a pretty hot mess, and that's alright. It's the 'general' of RPguild as others have mentioned. While, yes, there's a fair bit of Superhero and Fandom RPs (Myself being no exception to this), there's also more standard fantasy stories and general RPing going on. It's got one hell of a fractured community though, and if drama happens it's 9/10 either here or in Arena(lol). You get a good feel for what everyone is like after your 15th or so RP, and even then you might run into somebody new still. It's house to a lot of bad GMs and flaky players though. I'd argue it's got the highest dead RP ratio compared to any other subforum (except arena, lol). I don't see why people take issue with its range of skill- it's honestly something I'd personally encourage. You can more often than not gauge how competent someone is by the mere title of something, and even if you couldn't, a quick glance at their first post tells you all you need.

It's also not like RPs are a constant flood over there. You get maybe four in a day at best, which is a reasonable enough amount to keep up. RPGuild isn't so flooded with activity that interesting concepts get buried instantly- and if something's interesting in casual, you'd better believe it's got an active thread that constantly makes headlines. Casual's just a good section, and honestly, I feel the term 'casual' fits the best as I don't see too many people there take it overtly seriously and they rather just have a good time instead.

[b][u]Advanced[/u][/b] is just a casual re-skin. I'm honestly not even joking. Anything you can find in casual, you can find in Advanced and vice versa. Sometimes the advanced subforums are even used to advertise a casual RP. I'd say the only difference is a small sub-section of elitist that don't know they're elitist making their nest in there, but honestly, this is in every subforum. I don't get the argument advanced somehow has more idea diversity- For christ sake, it had a persona RP going the same time one was running in casual, and an RP concept I saw not too long ago was very reminiscent of a casual RP I played in eons ago.

The only reason people perceive advanced as different is because it, generally, houses the more competent of casual RPers, but again, I've yet to see anything that couldn't happen in the casual section. It's all about audience, and there's a huge overlap. Some who find themselves to be Advanced residents even write like they'd fit in just fine with one of the more competently written Casual RPs- and I've seen this. This may all be anecdotal evidence, sure, but I'm not going to just put in a single example from a single RP for each of these and call it evidence either. Advanced is just less saturated, but in the end, not much different from Casual.

Oh, and sometimes it's also a dick-measuring contest.

[b][u]Arena[/u][/b] is lol. This is the true elitist section. RPs here, if they're not dead, aren't driven by the want to RP, they're driven by a want to win which defeats the entire purpose. It's a section made to flap about your giant ego and talk your way to victory. I honestly have no idea why a subforum this toxic would exist, but I'm glad it's a congregate for the people I'd rather not see in my own RPs.

[b][u]Nation[/u][/b] is weeeeiiird. To me, it seems like an overcomplication of a simple idea. From all I've seen and heard, Nation tends to devolve into excel-spreadsheet madness keeping track of every little thing as if we were playing crusader kings II: Electric boogaloo. Even then, I don't see the appeal of playing an entire country. Characters are already physical embodiments of certain ideas, kind of like how Greek and Roman gods used to be. You could easily convey the idea of a whole country in the manifestation of one, two or three at best characters with their own motivations and goals, thus streamlining the process. Then again, I don't know why anyone would submit themselves to the torture that is trying to play Crusader Kings II, so what do I know? Definitely not a section for me.

[b][u]Tabletop[/u][/b] is... eeeeeh... I don't feel it's terribly creative. Often it devolves into using already existing boardgames for their RPs, which I find you're better off doing in roll20. The few times I do see an original idea with an original system crop up, it's usually short lived. The section's harmless, so by all means it can exist, I'm just kind of 'eh' about the whole thing.

[b][u]1x1[/u][/b] is something I have no experience with on this site, but I used to do this style in the past. It's been with a different community, but it was definitely easy to find a good partner and just have a fun time, and you could do any range of things. Nowadays I'm more a fan of group RPs because they allow for more creative visions and ranges of skill, but I liked my time when I still did it and encourage people who enjoy this with all my heart.

And finally, I'm going to include [b][u]Expanding Horizons[/u][/b] because it's also a subsection where people write in. EH is kind of a meme, but a meme that was doomed from the start. You can't really have a persistent world unless your site's dedicated to the concept. Guild is not. Guild also had much too small of a userbase to garner enough traction to kick it off. E.H. was better suited to just having an entire [i]forum[/i] created for it and have its own userbase, rather than trying to insert it on the guild. Definitely an interesting experiment though, and one of the better things to happen to this site in a while as it has tried to innovate without taking anything away.