I don't think will ever face the trauma looking into the face of death EQ gave people ever again. I don't like to die in any MMO just out of inconvenience or how it may play a role in the failure of a raid pull...things like that but I was legitimately scared to die in EQ. I didn't want to walk around naked, lose experience, or invest the time the recover. However, it did force us to rely on each other. Rogues/Monk pulling corpses, friendly clerics razzing, etc. It certainly had its up side but I couldn't imagine a game like that now with the people I see like in LoL and other games that have toxic communities. It would be a horrible lol
The one part of EQ's death system that was really terrifying was the "seven days - you lose it all" risk. Your corpse decays, you lost all. This was even worse for planar raids - if you fell below the threshold, then you were truly fucked.
A modern game with severe death penalties would probably include a multi-stage death system.
Stage 1: You're dead, at your corpse. You can be rezed easily (maybe even in GW2 fashion - by anyone still alive at the end of the fight) with a tiny loss of XP.
Stage 2: You need to release to GY. You lose some XP. You're naked, except for Soulbound items, but can run back to your corpse (or have it dragged away) to recover some XP and gear. If you manage it, you've lost a bit more XP than stage 1, but you're golden.
Stage 3: After 24h, you can choose to run back to your corpse to recover XP/gear, or pay the graveyard caretaker to "dig up the corpse", which puts it there. You recover your gear, but lost significant XP.
Stage 4: After X days, your tomb is gone, and the only thing left is to pay for corpse recovery.
(as for soulbound items, there would be two different kinds: Personal items, which are the usual "bound" non tradeable items which you can only bank/sell/recycle, and soulbound items which you can't unequip, sell, disenchant or anything else, you can only destroy from their slot if you want another. But, in exchange for not being able to remove them, they don't get removed when you die. Your choice. I'm a big believer in having significant choices in a RPG)