A. Has been population. Once you got your class design fairly well balanced etc, the key fun about outdoor pvp has always been who else is about.

Faction balance, zone population ARE vital to get spot on, to make this really exciting. Won't you agree.

1. Too few people around - like places levelling or travelling and you're the only one for ages at the time you can play is awful and boring pvp wise, esp if you're not interested in squishing monsters

2. Too many people - this is equally frustrating, every few paces there are other people and then you have to engage in fights and end up killing or being killed by players all the time gets tired very very fast

this is why they have select zone areas for pvp, but truth be told controlling the population is key

3. Faction balance - it's no fun if there are like 5 of you and 1 of them and you all rush to kill the gu, it's even less fun if you're the only one and 5 others keep rushing you all the time - it's awful



World pvp is one of those things that will be really really nice with just the right number of people around while you're moving through, I would say the optimal number is no more than 1-3 people per faction in each section of a zone. If cross realm tech can have it such that they ensure that is what's around in your area all the time, it can be pretty good.

B: Killing or engagement cooldowns.
What do you think of this dying from pvp should lock you out for a bit longer than run back from the graveyard, at least lock you out against the person you've just fought, to discourage repeat ganks and pointless knee-jerk revenge griefing of other players.

It's really all about managing the engagement/population in a way that's fun for them. I know world pvp can take a group pvp experience to a new standard like games such as Wildstar and ESO do and previous ones like Warhammer online tried to do, but it's about managing well the playerbase, there is a sweet spot.