As for hunter/prey.. this game has been out nearly 13 years. I don't think the concept of pvp and how to play templates is really something difficult. UO has given them more and more watered down ways to avoid having to fight for what they want, so people just get worse and quit trying (i.e mysticism and double hit spell bows). If trammel wasn't introduced, people would have had to learn to hold their own to get what they want.
I've been here since the beginning. And I can tell you firsthand that the player populace lived in fear of PKs, especially the newbies. You didn't leave town without running a risk, and you sure as hell didn't go into a dungeon without running a big risk of being ganked and killed.
As you said in the end of this paragraph, I learned to PvP, and got pretty decent at it, though not spectacular. Why? Because if you were going to play this game, you had to learn how to deal with PKs. You learned to recall out or switch to fight mode in at a split second notice.
While I will never deny PKs made this game a darn sight more challenging to survive, they also didn't make it particularly pleasant. The PKs revelled in the sway they held over other players. And back in those days, I hear these elusive legends of PKs who were sporting and were simply in it for the thrill of the tactics and looking for a challenge. I sure never met one of them out of the multitude of shards I played back then. Because 99.99999% the ones I ran into, and that everyone I knew ran into, were usually out to kill you quickly just because they could. To hold sway over another player. To just exhult in the giddy glee of being a pain in the ass to someone. "Hey, I smashed you." "I'm a big man." "You are inferior." These PKs never needed the paltry equipment your character had, but usually took it to further grief you. And as for "sporting," puh-leese. These guys went after mules and newbies most of the time, people who they knew didn't have a chance to fight back. Again, just to wield this arrogant power.
I remember some lady logged onto her son's account and basically stood at the Britian bank berating the players because her son got ganked by a PK and he lost everything. I told her, lady, if they guy who did it actually reads what you are saying, you made his night. Misery of other players is their fix.
So everyone went to Trammel. Why? Because while it's tremendous fun to be the wolf, it sure isn't much fun to be the sheep. Even the ones who know how to cope and fight back. Those who disagree with this, all I gotta say is, let's look at the population of each facet. That speaks volumes. And I daresay if you were honest with yourself, you wouldn't want a 7xGM dexxer monkey f**king with YOUR crafter or miner, ganking him, taking his stuff and telling you how much you suck.
But all this groaning over old scores is pretty irrelevant. The PK heyday has long, long since passed. And mostly because they lost their easy prey. But anyone who goes to Felucca CHOOSES to at this point, so fair game.
But another thing that PKs even even some pro-PvPs don't seem to favor is that... now hold on to your corn cob pipe!... some players DO NOT ENJOY PVP IN ULTIMA ONLINE. And they sure as hell don't like it forced on them. And it's not necessarily due to them sucking at it, even though they may.
And yes, I PvP. Fairly regularly, in fact, and I support Felucca. I am Pro-PvP but very, very much anti-PKs. PKs have done so much damage to this game's reputation that we'll never get a lot of the newbies who quit because of PKs back in the fold.
