Although I have to disagree with you about the whole competitive thing. From your point of view, if I did read right, you say it's mainly related to the player data base. Now, with that in mind let me ask you
@Mister Pink do you think a game like Super Smash Bros Melee is competitive? If you don't think so because the active pro or amateur player base is very limited (I think it might be even under Demise active pvp players) you would be wrong, because it's a high attended game when it comptes to E sport, competitions a cash prizes.
I don't think it's the player base that makes a game competitive, as long as there are two players playing and pvping on the same game it's a competitive game.
When you go to a friends house to play Super Smash Bros Melee, Do you have to painstackingly build a character from scratch to pvp with your friends or can you start pvping right away? Are the game mechanics, characters, and moves to perform specials the same at your friends house as anywhere else?
My comment was two part, One- The population is minimal (The demise pvp community is less that 200 people max, IMO, Obviously its my best guess, but I was conservative with my estimate. When you have so few people being the top dog isn't an achievement). Two- It's not an immediate process when setting up shop on a new server, you have to build your character, skills, and customize it to your liking. A console game that was popular in living rooms and dorm rooms throughout America/The world has the same characters, same skills, and no items to collect. Add that with the game mechanics of your example (Super Smash Bros Melee) staying practically the same from day one, and yeah I can understand it's popularity. UO on the other hand hasn't kept the same game mechanics from it's inception to present day. How many changes has UO gone through? UO has different Eras, items that influence RNG, skill training/skill cap, and because of all these changes its not as universal as a console game. Are the game mechanics on Demise the same as any other server or even current day OSI?
I guess you could argue any game is "competitive", but a game that has an average of 200 people in a month isn't going to be as competitive as a game that has hundreds of thousands of people playing against each other every day. Yes in your example that's not necessarily happening, but the universal aspect of the console game that I mentioned is the difference between a Super Smash Bros and UO pvp. Comparing Demise pvp to a console game competition that attracts alot of people, and cash prizes isn't a valid comparison. Post your pvp videos on youtube and you'll be lucky to crack 1,000 people viewing your videos. Compare that with a video of the competitions you mentioned and it gets more eyeballs. More eyeballs and cash make the stakes higher.
I have a blast playing here, and we all want to win, so I guess that makes it competitive in that regards, but I don't view Demise pvp as a being competitive, so I stick by my original statement. Demise pvp in it's current form isn't competitive.