Dedicated Servers?

[Alhanelem]

those not liking the idea are basically those who are happy with the direction mmo's are taking.

no, it doesn't mean that. But it doesn't mean your ideas are the way MMOs should go.

Most of what you're proprosing is just relics of the past. You don't need severe death penalties and shitty drop rates to enjoy an MMO. I don't know anyone who wants harsher death penalites or harder to get drops. I know a few people who want slower EXP, but that's just because those people love mindless killing more than doing events. That's fine, but you can always start over / make an alt if you love grinding so much. You don't need special servers for that.

Permadeath only works well in games where staying alive isn't overly difficult. You can't have permadeath and have a game with enemies that kill people constantly left and right, no matter how skilled you are (a lot of FFXI's newer content is like that, for isntance) It also only works well when leveling up doesn't take overly long, such that it doesn't take you forever to get back to the challenging content again after dying.