Back in the days when World of Warcraft was shiny and new, players everywhere took part in a bloody sport called World PvP. This sport could happen almost anywhere in the world, although there were many preferred locations. There were no real rewards for this, except for the glory, the honor, and the thrill of gathering up some companions and going and ganking one of the other faction's cities or towns.
However, as the game has aged, World PvP has almost died out. Most World of Warcraft veterans will talk fondly of it and occasionally a group of die hard players will gather to assault a city, however, it seems the days of World PvP are numbered. What caused the demised of this once beloved activity?
Endless Guard Spawns
Back in the good old days when you killed town guards they stayed good and dead, at least for a long while. Not so in more recent years. Town guards nowadays reappear almost as soon as they are killed. This makes getting into towns and cities especially difficult. In fact unless you have a very organized raid group, it could be close to nearly impossible. This quick guard spawn effectively ended any spur of the moment assaults and thus aided in the downfall of World PvP.
Player Enjoyment
Believe it or not, not everyone in game was cool with being killed in World PvP in a PvP server. Blizzard saw this as a 'problem' and has made adjustments (such as faster guard spawn) to help balance this out, instead of encouraging the complainers to transfer to a PvE server. However, these adjustments, designed to make those who didn't want to participate in PvP in a PvP server have a better play experience, severely hindered World PvP.
Flying Mounts
World PvP often happened spontaneously as groups were traversing the landscape. Flying mounts have pretty much made it so that players can go from point A to point B without ever touching the ground. This leaves little room for players to meet up in out of the way outposts and decide to take over the town. Why stop in to favorite World PvP places like the Crossroads when you can fly right over to get to your destination?
Thank you for reading.