Ultima online had it near-perfect; you could PK anyone you wanted, if you did it often enough, you'd go Red and can be attacked by anyone anywhere, and when you die if your short term count is higher then 5 - you loose something like 20% of your skill stats.
Were there PKs? Sure there were
Were those PKs annoying other people by killing them? Sure they did
Did those people kill PKs? all the time
Was it a problem for game play? not at all
When my character would get 4 murder counts, I would get very careful about what I do - going red was bad for my business. Going red and then normal 3 times - on the 4th time, you would become permemently red (very bad idea if you enjoy doing anything other then killing ppl)
Did i kill people just for a hell of it - no i didnt, i picked up a count or two when i needed to teach someone a lesson.
But then again, looting was allowed, so kill them, loot them naked and then throw out the stuff

mrshad wrote:There is a substantial difference in dealing with PVP in known PVP areas, and having a pathetic mek jockey see how many mobs he can train on you.
In the first case, I can fight back, and I elected to put myself in danger.
In the second, ther really isn't anything I can do.
If all of Atys were open PVP, things would be very different. Not neccisarily better, but different.