...might have to say goodbye to Lurkers on Tich :(

[Bob the Beholder]

Ugh, yes.  I was a victim of my months of experience on the PvP beta server.  Outside Dire Maul was a huge conglomerate of Horde and Alliance players, and my foolish assumption was that the moment I started off some PvP, it would turn into a huge battle royale, as it would on a PvP server as players of both sides stare each other down until someone fires first (kinda like nuclear war in that).

Quite the opposite.  I flagged PvP, taunted a Horde hunter, and engaged him when he answered my challenge, much to my delight - only to be torn to shreds by 5 more Horde without anyone trying to help.

-Bolty
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The situation you describe is likely even worse on a PvE server than it is on a PvP server, both in the apathetic allies and the blood thirsty enemies. Sure, people gank on pvp servers. But it's a constant thing. You get used to it, you learn ways to avoid it, you keep an escape route open, etc. (success still not guaranteed, obviously).

But on a pve server, if you're flagged, this is likely something that is new and uncommon to the enemy players--it's a sudden, "Whoah! I can attack that guy!" feeling, and seeing as it's not something that happens constantly, he's more likely to go through with it. Just a chance for some pve-player to turn around and go, "I R LEET PVP MAN," when it's just nothing to bother about for pvp servers.

Myself, I mostly play on pvp servers (Gorefiend is my main server right now). I don't even notice when I'm flagged anymore. All that fight-run-or-die is just an every day part of the game for me. (Except for the barren, enemy-less, annoying places, like Thousand Needles, where the only alliance players hanging around are at least 45 and just trying to be dicks.)

And there is that sense of camraderie that Mongo talks about. Recently I've been playing a bit of Stormrage, and it's just been annoying how stupidly lone-wolf people have been playing. People just go, "I don't have to rely on you for anything. Feel free to trip on a pekingese and hit your head on a pointy rock." Because, at low leve, outside of instances, there's no reason not to. The prospect of being overwhelmed by an implacable enemy kinda gets people trying to stay on eachother's good sides, you know? (Which is not to say that there aren't any assholes on pvp servers--there are plenty. But a lot of them will recognize that having people who don't hate you around is still pretty useful.)

Then, of course, there are the stupid people. Yes, I play pvp. Yes, I enjoy it, a lot of times. But the people who have decided that the only reason to play on a pvp server is to find and kill other players (one reason, okay. Only one? Nuh-uh.) just make me want to beat them in the head. (Example: I have a level 15 character. Some dwarf comes up and takes the peacebloom I was going for! That bastard! I complain. Immediate response from several people, even though I mentioned the dwarf being thirty levels higher than me: "then kill um." ... uuhhh, thanks for the sage advice there.)

Gyah, that got kinda rambly.