I'd love to see the option to take various missions or even side-quests that involved instanced areas where it's just you and the other player who took a similar mission from the opposing side (or pre-set/random teams).

Imagine signing up for "Alerts" and getting a signal that security has been breached at Compound 42. You click the button and a satellite teleport network shoots you (or your team) into the building. You then have to gather up materials before the villains. You win by defeating all the other side or by getting more of the required items when the timer runs out. For the villains maybe it's stealing genetic samples or some tech for the heroes you gather it up to protect it.

Maybe allow PvP currency specific rewards like hiring minions for PvP work or calling in favors with a heroic agency to send a few guys to help in these missions.

That is a friggin' awesome idea. Now that is a way I would actually participate in PvP. Not just bashing each others brains out, but having a mission to accomplish, some sort of task that must be achieved in the process. That makes my opponent not just a button masher, but someone else who is also on a mission to defeat not just me, but my purpose. I love it!
That is saying something coming from a primarily PvE player. We're talking 99% PvE. That is something that my wife and I, and our friends would pit against each other with. I really dig this concept. I hope something like this makes it in.
Good job!

the villains are raiding a lab and you have to go and defend the lab and defeat/arrest all the villains that are assaulting the lab.

I would like to add to this older post:

I love being able to queue for PvP areas in The Secret World. In particular I really like the Shamballa map.

The reasons are:
Small Map
Limited Time
Map shrinks
Scattered power up items
Hazards that shake up the game play and can even blow a player off the map
Decent rewards with in game currency, win or lose, and extras if your side wins
Puts everyone on equal footing. If you are geared specifically for PvP you will have an easier time but it is not necessary.

Talk about a PvP newbie friendly way to go about things.

This reminds me of something similar to the City of Villains bank robbery missions, perhaps that could be of inspiration ;D

Powerhelm wrote:
This scenario is already part of our features list. As a matter of fact, most of the functionality you've expressed here is already in the game's tech. It'll be awhile before you see it available in game as you've explained it here, because it'll take a while for us to be able to afford the server infrastructure to test and implement our instancing tech. We may even take a stab at it using some of the current primitive tech; in this case it basically would allow people to enter into PvP areas that are not instanced. The biggest concern with that is people accidentally wandering into PvP areas and missing the "You've entered into a Player vs Player area" notification.

We'll be talking in detail about the PvP aspects of the game real soon!