Regarding Rift Shard Unification & Endgame Raiding

KiwiHype

I love Rift, thanks for coming back to keep steering our game. We have just seen Shard Unification take place and I keep reading Daglars statements over and over but the wording implicates more than states so my main questions is:.

Is this the beginning of the possibility EU & NA shards becoming one region?

I am also a fansite for Dimensions and thoroughly appreciate all concepts. Thanks so much! My other inquiry is with Raiding. This current tier of content is so awesome but because of how long it took to get here we have lost many endgame guilds. I fear we will have no hardcore raiders left soon because this content will also be conquered shortly. My inquiries are:

Will there be any changes in the pace of 20 man content being released? Is there any hope for current raiders to keep playing into 2014?

Thanks for taking the time Scott and Aloha Grakulen, Chief & everyone at Insomniac Gaming especially Kel