I believe this point has been raised a couple of times already, but it has mostly been a small point in a larger solution.  The fact that weapons do not wear out is a major problem.  With weapons that last indefinately the demand for weapons is constantly decreasing.  With less demand comes more competition between crafters and so lower prices for crafted weapons.  Since these weapons never wear out the crafters are having a hard time making money to support their craft, and so with less money they are forced to mine platinum so they can afford more steel to make more weapons.  solution: (and yes i know it would take time and coding changes, but i think it's still the best solution) Make all weapons degradable, and i don't mean allow them to be damaged, because that already happens, but i mean upon repairing a weapon its max quality should always decrease.  If every time a weapon was repaired its max quality lowered by 1 or even just a fraction, then new weapons would be needed and the crafters would be able to make some money without constantly mining platinum.  Also when fighting with a weapon at 90% or less of its max quality there should be a chance that the weapon breaks upon striking.

Just my opinion, feel free to criticize or add to my idea, i didn't spend much time organizing my thoughts, kinda a spur of the moment post

I don't use a MAC and i have the same problem, could it just be an older graphics card thing maybe?

Having to log out in a safe house or hiding spot is possibly a workable idea, but it should be noted that in order to be fair there would have to be a lot of them.  I know occasionaly somthing comes up and i'll have to log off quick, and i wouldn't have time to sprint through hydlaa to get to the safe house.  There'd need to be safe houses everywhere, but that could take some time to accomplish.  Perhaps another solution (and yes i know this is off on a tangent somewhere) would be to create two "super guilds" that are in a permanent state of war.  One for evil and one for "good" players and those other players willing to be at risk from the evil players for the sake of RP.  Rather than being like a normal guild however, the "super guilds" could be guilds that only guilds can join, and not individual players.  So say the guild "hypothetical muggers" wanted to be able to murder at will, their leader could have the "hypothetical muggers" join the evil super guild, and all members of the "hypothetical muggers" could then attack players from guilds who joined the other "super guild"  It would take a lot more planning i realize, but i'm sure many guilds would be willing to put themselves at risk of attack by evil players for the sake of role play.