"Don’t make me grind:

Totally agreed here, on both of these. In fact, I’m tempted to combine them and call this the Blizzard Rule."

"Ditch Levels and Classes:

...and World of Warcraft is pretty grind-free..."

Sorry dude, Doing thousands of quests to level up is still grinding. And frankly I hate how other games are following the example. Playing Tabula Rasa, after level 12 I never did another quest. I just leveled defending Capture Points from large hordes of enemies. Questing is over-rated, and grinding is under-appreciated.

However, I can see why someone would like quests, and would certainly enjoy questing over grinding. By no means do I condemn anyone for questing. Its an excellent way to level, get money and get gear upgrades. However, I think designers should offer intensives to do either. Because as it stands right now, virtually every MMO on the market has you leveling with quests.

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"Also, I have seen metrics prove conclusively, time and time and time and time again, that in a game that *does* have monsters with decent AI and that use strategies that require some thought to defeat, that players will avoid them in droves and seek out the ones with the most brain damaged AI possible."

I would like to see the game your talking about. Every MMO that has come out that I've tracked, all use the standard Hate System; With the exception of early Star Wars Galaxies. They later implemented the Hate System with the "Combat Upgrade".

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"Encourage grouping

Yeah, let’s not go there."

What is that supposed to mean? I can't agree nor argue with you when you fail to explain.

Everquest encouraged grouping with an EXP Bonus. It was flawed at first, because there was no range on earning exp with a group. They later changed that. Everquest offers no more and no less incentive to group than any other game.

Everquest does encourage you to know your class and find a good guild and make friends. Because unlike World of Warcraft, GOOD raiding guilds don't come a dime-a-dozen, and they aren't crappy 10-man raids either.

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"Listen to, and engage with, players

The players are often WRONG."

Agreed. While there are a few honest players, most of them will lie to get ahead.