chatting between heroes and villains, which AFAICT is not possible elsewhere

No, there is Pocket D - a dance club that the DJ/Host has enforced neutrality in (and provided PvP arena terminals :P) Also there are two zones where heroes and villains co-operate (time-travel to one, fend of trans-dimensional invaders in another) There are also various other ways to chat cross faction (but not face to face).

He did exploit mechanics. He was "droning" people - taking advantage of safeguards to prevent spawn-killing to kill people instantly. If he had actually fought people, he wouldn't of gotten half the insults and what-not. What he did was morally wrong. Now, if he had actually fought people and not droned them, and those people complained, then the complainers would of been ridiculed.

Especially when he was attacking people who didn't want to PVP by abusing a mechanism intended to protect people who didn't want to PVP?

The drones were not to protect people from PvP - they were there to prevent kill-spawning. That, and that only. If they didn't want to PvP, they could stay out of the PvP zones. The mechanism to prevent people from PvP who don't want to PvP is - the contact that explains how the zone works is outside the zone, and when you zone in, there is a 30sec countdown until you are PvP enabled, giving you plenty of time to get out. That, and except for the zones and arenas, you cannot PvP - confuse powers from hostile npcs aside.

Basically, he played the game (actually fighting villains) and was hated for it. Not because he was being vile or crude (indeed, completely contrary to what you suggest) but by violating game defeating "customs."

It wasn't for PvPing he was disliked/ridiculed. It was for using a cheap tactic - teleporting foes into the Zone Drones. Drones have an auto-hit, auto-kill attack and are placed by the developers to defend the zone-in and hospital areas so people can get into the PvP zones without dying before they can act. As I recall you don't even get kill credit for it (rep or recipe drops) - and if petitioned in the right way he might of be able to be nailed by CS for griefing - for a while you could teleport people into watchtowers that if you couldn't teleport you were stuck in and people did get banned for that. It was something the game let you do but it wasn't okay.

Also, just because it's possible to PvP with anyone there doesn't mean that people have consented to PvP with you.

Actually, if you ask the the CS staff, if you play the game and read the beginner's info - yeah, they have. Entering a PvP Zone means you consent to be engaged by anyone anywhere at any when inside the zone. If you want to only PvP against specific people, that's what "City of" has arenas for.

It's more like you play them in the Holodeck.

NCSoft's forum policy is to lock, with exceptions for : Vulgarity/Profanity Some real over the top personal assualts Posting other player's private information (exceptions for things like "If you want in the SG, talk to @Player, or an artist's website). Combined with the nature of their boards, they really don't like to delete posts (as it is, 75+% of their post deletions delete the post's content, not the post itself, leaving ample evidence of how often they do such.), especially since that always results in "Wow, this thread got shorter", etc.

added a number of changes nobody asked for

From what I noticed, the changes were on areas where changes WERE asked for. It was simply a case of "Be careful of what you wish for".

destroying the market economy in their attempts to make the invention system more "fair"

Destroy? Changed, certainly, but I think "destroy" is a little far. And it's settling down, and they have already done some adjustments to the merit values.

showing that they have no clue how to balance anymore when they buffed some already powerful sets while nerfing a set that really needed some buffs and making it nigh-unplayable

And which ones would those be?

Only in a general sense. Front/Middle/Back range of the map. But to be fair, the MA is based of the MISSION designers themselves wanting a better mission tool. We pretty much have access to everything the mission designers do, that doesn't require resources from Art, Code, Powers, etc. As for the maps - they generally either choose just a type of map, or select a already-generated layout, like (again) we will be able to do. Pretty much every map will be available to us, although it has been stated that some resources will require an unlock - which isn't unusual in this game.

I seriously wonder at your playstyle. 1 attack until the mid-20's? Totally player choice. Accuracy does feels real streaky at times, but I felt that in WoW too. And in City of, you can just use an Insight inspiration. You do use those, right? They drop frequently, for free, and you can even combine three of the same type & tier to change them to one of another type. 3 minute downtime for endurance recovery? Unless you have Vahz's desease (granted, and removed, by a story arc) end only takes 1 minute to recover completely (of non-use. don't be afraid to turn off your toggles). Also, do turn off Sprint in combat, helps a bunch. Yes, the power curve is different from WoW. Of course, City of Heroes, although it has an enhancement system, doesn't do gear like WoW does. You complain about level capping the trial - WoW does too. And the levels in the demo have always gone by fast, to me. At least I can move in City of Heroes, in WoW you move so slowly. If you team, and choose both primary and secondary powers, you don't grind much. But every MMO has grind. And they are not trying to compete with WoW - frankly they can't, because WoW and it's numbers are a freak of nature. And if you give City of Heroes a try, don't be afraid to say Hi in the forums - you can get a ton of help there with questions/issues that may arise. The only times I have played versus Kadabera Kill, it was in a 20+ mission from a 20+ contact. And hover, while not granting full immunity, does mitigate KB substantially, and is available at level 6. There are also one or two IO sets that have KB protection as a set bonus, and those are much less expensive then the single-IOs. Also, if they play and accumulate merits, the KB IOs are some of the easiest to afford with merits if you want to purchase them specifically and not do the random rolls. Also, two of the three IOs that grand KB protection are npc drops, so it is not impossible for a character to get the recipe for free. Also, none of the KB Kadabera Kill or his pet is auto-hit - and so +Defense (either from your powers or Inspirations) protect against it on the "You can't hit me" principal. Also, the break free line of inspirations also provides KB protection.

Dungeon Runners and Exteel. Both kinda fun.