Excellent post Dubs. I think you hit the nail exactly on the head with why the "PVP" games out there are so boring and 1-dimensional. The PVP side just doesn't exist well without a well developed economic system and vice versa.

Yeah the current combat system is fairly undeveloped, especially when compared to other games out there. Strategy is going to be fairly rudimentary until they add in ranged combat and some type of magic/tactics system. But I still think we will see folks beating each other up up close and personal - especially as we fill up the prelude world and resources do truly become scarce.