An open discsusion on the consequences of death

[PandaTaru]

I don't really understand why there's such a huge debate over death penalties, many of the other MMORPGs out there are plenty successful without putting much thought into death. In fact, the most successful MMO out there (WoW) barely has a death penalty at all. Now, I'm not one to try and push WoW topics as the "right thing to do" but I think the FFXIV development team have bigger things to worry about right now?

As for my opinion, I think the current system is fine. When I die, I lose time, and my time is very valuable to me (maybe not as valuable to others). Yoshi-P's suggestions are fine though, too. I worry for a game that lacks content/progression, storytelling, quests, and class uniqueness when the community (and devs) prioritize something as silly as death penalty.

To me sometimes it sounds like some people want the game to fail miserably by adding more unneeded restrictions into it. Most of the posts I read about SP/EXP penalty don't have a real argument in them.
If they wanted more challenge, just ask for more challenging mobs. Death penalty doesn't add anything to the challenge, it just add annoyance during a challenging fight.