People act so "tough" because they are on the reds and yell in gen chat all day.
The majority of pvp'ers and IDOCers who "thieve" (aka vacuum up items/resell/fence items for so called others) or do fel spawns are not doing so to be a red character. They are doing so because they know they can win and it is lucrative for them... both in game and potentially elsewhere (which is why players complain.) The game is full of reds who use autocure pot, autoheal pot at 20%, tree stump hack, speed hack, and whatever else they can get their hands on, including multi-boxing at fel IDOCs and events both. Thieving has not truly been around in UO since item insurance became a thing, except in very rare fel stealing events. Thieving is not thieving any more.
Do you guys not think that some other people might want to play an "evil" character too, were the odds not skewed? Right after the launch of Samurai Empire... I too pvp'ed when I was in high school. I would fight around Britain guard zone like a noob... because I was only 13 and trying to compete against the vets. Back then, the number of people who cheated was very low, like maybe 1-5%. The people who did not have mostly all left because of various reasons, most notably, cheating.
Most of the "evil" players that are left have no interest in role playing or being evil. It is simply an excuse to say they cheat. Fencing items for IDOCers, showing up at the very end of spawns for WoD, auto-placing houses, and using bots do not make players any more "evil" in game than anyone else. The majority of "blue" players are labelled blue because they are actively combating the scripting and cheating it seems.
One notorious IDOCer laughed at me and tagged me "Nooooble Polaris" one time, referencing me as a blue. I find that hilarious...... I am blue because, if I went to fel to play, I would get my butt handed to me by someone who was using tons of scripts. They claim so in chat also when talking trash to each other... accusing each of using the cheats. I don't use Any cheats. That's why I don't go to fel. It's full of cheaters from what I have saw and heard. You can see countless videos of people destroying each other... and miraculously there are no trees around, just stumps... they are running twice the speed as others, ect... ect...
Being "evil" in game means nothing anymore in the sense of role playing. It does mean that they seem to be "richer" than other characters however. I see no reason why Soulstones, being account bound items, should not be stored in the bank when houses fall at least. But either way... as long as they fix IDOCs where we once again have a shot at something, I will be happy. I like Uber rares as well... I'm not stepping foot in fel, I can play the game better than almost anyone and can easily make 500m a week should I so choose. I can solo Shadowguard alone on my Sampire, and my wife could solo Blackthorn's all day before the new change. She could do 3 towers in a day by herself before getting bored. It's not that we cannot pvp, it is that we refuse to cheat. I will stay out of fel and be "blue" if that is what someone wants to label me for not cheating.