Lack of support and seemingly lack of guidance from ANet
I’ll put this on top because this is the main reason you see so many bitter and spoiled childs in these forums.
Since even before the game was launched, ANet seemed to consider WvW as a “bridge” between PvE and (s/t)PvP: they never really acknowledged the game mode as something that people would be primarily interested in, even when the GvG scene was growing and WvW guilds and streamers had 10x the viewers than PvP (eSPOOOOOORTSSSSSSS).
Things went even worse after ANet removed the matchup forums and after a developer was recorded on a video interrupting a GvG and badmouthing players that were not playing the game mode “the way it was meant to”.
ANet failed to meet WvW players hopes and expectations times and times again. Remember this post from Devon Carver? It’s been over 2 years and WvW is pretty much in the same state it was back then. Actually, if possible, it is in a worse state.
Megaservers did a lot of good to the game, but at the same time ANet failed to provide alternative means for servers to call for reinforcements when needed and the lack of a “server hub” made it really hard for WvW guilds to recruit new players. All this has been merrily handed off to third party websites that are scarcely updated most of the time.
Combined with the introduction of the Edge of the Mists map that provides far better rewards and an endless stream of badges, karma and loot, this helped shrink the WvW population even faster.
The most recent shunning of WvW (excluding the Golem week) has been the changes to the network code to help (s/t)PvP lag that ANet admitted they knew it would give problems to WvW players, and still they went with it. Because ESPOOOOOOOOOORTSSSSSS. As a result, WvW map cap has been lowered.
Make WvW Eventful! – WvW, 4 years in
Yes, I have 5 lv 80 mesmers – Funny Puns