I leveled a gnome warlock to 80 and was ganked mercilessly the entire time. Whether or not you're going to have a smooth ride to 80, in my opinion, depends on the sort of people that inhabit your server.

In my case, world PVP is alive and well.

That could just be a gnome thing, when I'm playing my Horde I'll ignore most people but gnomes are worth a gank, equally when playing alliance I'll target Blood Elfs just for fun. This could just be me though.

I've leveled about 15 toons on PvP servers (Dunemaul and AM), and I have to disagree. World PvP is definitely not dead. Unfortunately, World PvP between players of similar level probably is. If you're out questing on a non-80 and come across another non-80 they will probably leave you alone, in my experience, unless you are in the way. On the other hand, the 80's who have nothing to do before their raid but camp lowbie zones will not. They will kill you and camp you. And if you manage to pull a higher level character into it, then they will cry like a baby to their friends and you wind up with 10 of them camping you instead of the one. My advice, again YMMV, if you're being ganked (which is pretty much the only World PvP running these days), just wait them out or go do something else. No amount of skill or luck will help you win and fighting back just makes it more enjoyable for them.

Even the devs dislike gnomes; isn't "vehicular gnomicide" pretty much the only achievement geared towards killing one specific class?

Actually artifex, you're very wrong. The achievement is "Vehicular Gnomeslaughter" and you get it for killing 100 players with a vehicle or cannon. It's one of those achievements you don't really have to try to get; it just happens.

Wowhead link: http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1723

There is an achievement for killing one player of each class called "That Takes Class."

link for that one: http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=245

Each side just has a race that they gun for the most. It also differs from player to player. Most Hordies you talk to will tell you they gun for gnomes more than any other. Before TBC most Allies were equal opportunity gankers, but with TBC came the hatred of the Belf.

A big group of my friends and I rerolled Alliance half way through TBC and would often quest together in full groups. We'd run across Hordies and usually let them live after screwing with them a bit, but we'd chase a blood elf halfway across a zone to get that kill. We even had a few times we came across a group of Horde players with only one blood elf. We'd charge in, wtfpwn the belf and let the rest of them live. Fun times.

"world pvp on a pvp server is probably more of an oddity than the norm imho"

Um, no. Maybe on your server, but not on others. A guy from our guild just transferred off our server because he was sick of all the world PvP getting in his way of actually playing the game.

My main is level 78 now, and I still get ganked nearly every single time I logon to WoW. It has been that way since the first time I set foot outside the starting areas. After finishing Teldrassil and Darkshore at around level 20, I stepped into Ashenvale (my first time in "contested" territory) and within 90 seconds I was ganked by a level 34 mage.

If world PvP is dead on your server, and you want world PvP, reroll or transfer to another server. It's out there if you want it.