I know earlier I said I agree'ed with the OP on the 5% XP loss. But now upon really thinking about it...Yeah, FF:XI did have that sense of danger and it was fun. But when I did Dynamis and died about...Ohhhhh 5 times a run. I got pissed real quick. Now, you might be saying "BUT YOU WERE ALREADY LVL 75 YOU NOOB, THIS WON'T AFFECT YOU BECAUSE IT DOESN'T RESULT IN LEVEL LOSS!". Got it. But now you have to release you're cutting people out of doing low level dungeon content. which may not seem like a huge loss right now, but to the potential thousands of monthly subscribers that SE will attract when the PS3 version comes out, thats a big deal. Right now, honestly the biggest block that we should ALL be focusing on, is lack of content, and instanced dungeons with boss monsters at certain intervals within those dungeons. Yes, you're right that's been done in WoW. This is a MMO RPG not an MMO Action game in an RPG setting. Got it again. But think about it, you do those dungeons you die, you lose 5% and that sets you back. The casual player is pretty unforgiving about a thing like that especially since there are so many other MMO's out there to play. FF:XI didn't have the rivalry of WoW until 2 years into it's NA release...not a luxury they can afford now especially with cataclysm's release. So...the punishment for dying? Automatic transport back to your last known aetheyrite location. Not the location of your choice. You want to run from Ul'dah to Gridania, but don't want to stop and check in at an aetheyr along the way? Too bad...start back at Ul'dah.

I know the next thing I'm going to get argued against is "Item's should be degraded for dying"...I disagree, in fact I believe that item degradation shouldn't exist at all. Instead make those "rare" items that make a "super" build incredibly difficult to obtain. What was the drop rate on leaping lizzy boots? exactly. right there is your gil sink, and your competition to obtain it. Make open world NM drops way more sought after than instanced world NM drops.