It's really hard to strike the balance between giving players ultimate freedom to make a permanent mark on the world and providing a fun experience for new players, especially if you are trying to avoid pushing new players way out into the wilderness where they will never see anybody.

Ultimately players want to interact with other friendly players, but that's impossible because some players will be assholes and will try their hardest to make life miserable for your new players. If your have wide open PvP you have roving gank squads.