If you want to play "hardcore" just play another game. I'm a pretty heavy MMO player but I still don't feel that the small number of people who play the most should be dictating everything. Plus:
How does stiffer death penalties make the game more fun? Why don't we take it a step further and make you lose half your money when you die like oldschool RPGs?

I don't really want to see any kind of different types of servers. it makes getting started unnecessarily confusing and complicated. What if some noobie doesn't really realize what "hardcore" means and makes a character on this server, which is home to all the game's worst elitists? he will be oppressed into oblivion, that's what.