As for me - I had more "player interaction" in W3 somehow.
Actually more of a friendly interaction, wich lasts longer. We got almost no wafare there and lots of neighbour-trading stuff.
And settling in 5 - 10 minutes boating distance was considered as neighbours! It was cool not to have border-sparkings back there...
This W5 is more hostile in both pvp and pve matters. as for pve - i'm okay with that, but pvp... again, "what happened to just talking to others?"
As for neighbours in W5 - we had four - three villages and one personal-claimed fort. we were the first to settle in that area, all 4 arrived later. 3 of 4 were building too close to us, and 3 of 4 were super-alt-claiming-all-the-fucking-land-around to become 'cooler'. meanwhile 2 of 4 were initially hostile towards us...
by now 2 places are destroyed and 2 are abandoned. we are stuck in those stupid gaint alt-claims. No one to interact with, no space for anyone to settle, anyone we see will eather run or hearth. And those who stay - they arent likely to talk. So much interaction, yeah!
And you know what? All that happened as a result of measures, initially intended to do the opposite! what an irony...
They were the world 'shrink'(not-expanding) making people settle closer and bot-imba elimination by curio system, wich resulted in excessive alt-claiming and alt-warriors(more raids, more fear, more abandoning said super-claims). I do like the curio sys really, but J&L need to do something with those alts!(or at least claims!)
Nevertheless, there were some pros to W5. More adrenaline rush of pvp(the one you get only with permadeath). The holy rage and eager of revenge. The feeling of justice being done mixed with the fear of losing, and the smell of victory at the end of honest 1vs1 or 2vs2 fight. what a feeling! ^^