That was what made WOW so good at the start, even after hitting 50 you could still go out into the world and free roam, ganking otherplayers, Stranglethorn, Arathi Highlands and many more such areas were just there waiting to be put to use.
In fact Blizzard went out of their way to ensure that the opposing factions clashed, this inturn produced some Epic open world PVP.
All this is lacking in SWTOR, the little PVP that exists is too sterile.
I have played both Imperium and Republic on a PVP Server and in levelling 4 Characters to 50 I have had less clashes than I have fingers.