One of the novelties of the game was the reported ability of players to run their own store, and act as merchants. Of course, you only find out later that it takes about 100,000 gold to buy even the smallest of buildings, but you can always act as a merchant in the town square. Combat is accomplished by selecting a person or creature to attack and then moving close to it. Your character automatically continues to attack until moved away, killed, the enemy flees, or is killed. Combat can also be ended by switching from War mode to Peace mode.
All combat is done in real-time, obviously.
It usually is. The Beta game went through a lot of growing pains and a lot of modifications. Not surprisingly, wanton murder and mayhem ran rampant throughout its entire time span. Trinsic, the City of Paladins, was considered the PKiller headquarters. In an attempt to bring the violence in check, Origin instituted the system of Notoriety.