I STILL fail to see how people think that either play-style has to be mutally exclusive within the game. There can be both meaningful pvp and safe-zone pve in one game. I don't even think it'd be that hard to balance, either. Hell, they can even go the Eve-online route and make some of the zones safe in general. Put crafting materials, animals, and dungeons (whatever) in that area, and then put other types of materials and animals and so on into other parts of the map that's designated as PvP.

People complain that it's "not realistic" but this game is about demons and gods and a magical apocalypse. I don't think the dev's care THAT much about realism.

All they have to do is make it balanced and make it fun. I honestly think most people don't care that much about lore in an MMO, unless the lore is emergent based on player actions.