[quote=@PyroDash888]

I have another idea for "death" that is not actually dying, but might as well be.
When you die, you start all over. Level 1, starter town, starting gear, no money.
The higher you become in the level, the less you want to actually die. That way the huge "half of the players die withing the first week" thing is solved, too xD...

To make that work, we would have to make levelling up a very rewarding process, so that you feel the loss of those rewards even more when you die. And you will die, eventually. We can't all be Kirito :D

Somebody who lost everything they had will also be driven into this despair and the more it is known around the playerbase what a shitty thing it is to start all over, maybe even with some more penalties to slow your initial progress, especially with the huge bulk of players not around the starting area to help you anymore, people will try to avoid dying as best as possible.
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That seems like a cop-out. You loose your shit, "oh well, time to get grinding again". Or you just go and ask your buddy to give you a whole lot of stuff and then just go wild on some low level monsters with your higher level buddies so you get the XP. There's absolutely not weight to death in this case beyond "oh just take a day to get back up where you were." I doubt this is going to discourage players doing decisions that could kill them beyond the infinite respawn system with not consequence. Your entire system can be undone and cheesed by people stockpiling lower end gear and going hunting even with a debuff to starting, what reward would there be?

On the contrary, with death being a permeant or actually threatening thing, you really feel the weight of possible death and panic like hell when you're on 1% HP or you're hit with a poison debuff that doesn't go away. However, that would also make leveling up more rewarding since then it is like you are finally just a bit stronger and able to get that much better against the world that wants to kill you.

And if you think loosing shit is going to make players "be driven into this despair", that is really fucking materialistic and also not at all how the human mind works. I am willing to bet on my life that no matter how awesome a sword you loose, the lose of a friend or your own life, knowing you/they can never come back, is always going to be much greater. Unless you're a self centered asshole.