A simplified version of - Pistol-owned from
counterstrike. newbs run around with
machine guns while veterans with real accuracy use pistols and 'Pistol-own' people, or pwn. May even date back to Splatterball (on AOL), where Pistol-owning was also used.
another possible beginning- pwn = Pawn, from Everquest, where the weakest
creatures were pawns. orc pawn.... to get beat by a pawn sucked, you were pwn'd...