MMORPG Regurgitation and my 'Vision'

In reading MMORPGdot this AM, I came across a very interesting article in regards to Single Player RPGs, MMORPGs, and the future written by a game designer.

He had an outstanding point regarding MMORPG design and development.

"The core of it is that there are five things that most current MMORPG's hold as law to presumably be successful; the player must be able to group, kill, loot, craft, and level. These items are held in the forefront of the core game design, with story and player centralism as secondary (or even tertiary) requirements - or so it seems. " - Damien Foletto

While his article went a different direction into what he wants, it made me consider what it is I want in an MMORPG.

My biggest problem with MMORPGs is they are big, static worlds without change and with the same treadmill and limitations.

I think the industry needs a paradigm shift.

My dream MMORPG would be to completely remove all five of the 'laws' that are now governing Online Worlds.
Here's what I would do:

1. Remove Levels and base treadmills of experience. These promote a caste system within the game and are not good for developing community.

2. Make death MEANINGFUL. Presently all MMOs subscribe to a theory of players killing nonstop. We kill, kill, kill until we die, then we respawn. My desire is for no respawns, period. If a player die, that character is dead and the player starts over. Likewise if a boss dies, he's a dead and a new boss moves in eventually. I want the word 'respawn' completely removed.

3. Crafting needs to follow the same 'dynamic' laws and respawn rules that death follows. Limits and levels in crafting is the same as limits and levels in other area's of MMOs, and should be removed.

4. A world with real change and a 'vision'. Dynamic Worlds are the key. Have a plan and have the players be part of this plan. Have storylines and let the actions of the player characters have real effects.

5. Finally, real factions and real repercussions for actions. Alignment should influence how people interact and how characters should act. The world should evolve based on how the people playing in it behave.

Unfortunately I don't see this happening in the near future, since companies copycat success and fear uncertainty.

World of Warcraft, Dragon Empires, Everquest 2 are all based on what has worked so far. What I call the treadmill model, but in actuality what is a single player world that allows for thousands of people, but has nothing dynamic or evolving.

I think it'll take a small shop with the courage to break free of copycat mode and to try something revolutionary. Hopefully it won't take them too long...