pvp is something different then stupidly ganking and griefing. When guilds are set/alliances are made, things get interesting for me and the group i am in, we are not interessted in stupid griefing of random lonely people or camping lawless towns because we can. PVP is so much more then the people bitching in this forum about. For the most of you pvp = being able to grief all over the server. I call that just being a lame person, nothing to do with real PvP
Griefing is killing pets in town; it's 0 gain killing to impose loss on another. The mobs in this game are boring, static resources, the challenge comes from other players wanting the same resources. There are many ways to avoid getting killed, being aware, learning to fight, having name recognition. Those are sandbox decisions. Pvp is what drives the world.
Like I said, I didn't come into this game to join a guild w/ a bunch of tryhards (Sorry buds!) screaming on discord and pvp over 'controlling my territory.' I am just a dude who wants to be able to handle my own shit. There are others like me, trust. You should always learn to handle your own shit because every system they implement can and will be 'gamed' by people after awhile and it will be used against you, then you will have to fight the person AND the system.
That's why I was for a local grey flag for open pvp where you could kill and be killed with no consequences, cuz some people are really playing the game. I think if you made people choose whether they could NEVER pvp and be permablue or be grey and always have to deal with pvp, most would choose the grey. And then you have to ask yourself, if you wanna pvp sometimes, why not all the time? Is it because sometimes you are ready? Always be ready. Sometimes you have an advantage? You won't always have an advantage, regardless. Because it's an inconvenience? Well, it's supposed to be, and that's why the economy continues to churn even when dudes had stuff like 2 week head starts.
Edit: just because something causes you grief doesn't make it griefing. I said before, think about other games... you go thru something, put in an hour or so of 'work' (about what you should be losing if you get PK'd), and you make one wrong move and die and have to start over. That's griefy! But you played the game, made a mistake and lost, or you just got really unlucky. All those things happen in MO, too.