We are very sensitive to the player-killer issue. As in The Realm, you will be given the option to control whether or not you want to involve yourself with player-killers. Yes, there will be both item and skill loss on death. Stealing will be an option. I'm quite partial to the way anti-social behavior is handled in The Realm.
Every player is given the option to ignore other players.
We also will continue to provide active in-game moderation of public chat channels. Beyond that, we are toying with the idea of providing some kind of system that gives players who help newbies out some kind of recognition. Social interaction is a very important aspect of this game. While you don't HAVE to do any quests, you'll want to. The role of the quests will be quite involved and there will be a plethora of them.