Well, I assume timers like that would be in-game timers not real clocks, so logging wouldn't make a difference. But I can see how the community dynamic might get skewed.
Having to respawn and travel back to the place where you died definitely sucks, probably enough to be its own penalty at lower levels. Like in CoX where lower levels weren't penalized but also didn't have travel powers. Or Ultima 7, man. That was hell, if you died and had to walk back from Paws to your magic carpet.
This would be kind of funny: What if the background NPCs made fun of you for a while after you died, like until you successfully completed a mission?
Another idea: I think someone mentioned some kind of point-based penalty system. I think one of the recent videos showed trainers for leveling up. That suggests a lore where there are experienced signature NPCs that train upcoming heroes. What if, when you accrued too many death points, you had to do something to "prove" yourself to the trainer before leveling? I don't know what that would be, though. Maybe something like a mini-game vs. the trainer? And to make it less of a drag, maybe you could earn accomplishments or something, I don't know.
I guess both those ideas speak to the concept of reputation. I like the idea of dying --too much-- harming one's reputation. I feel like in a universe full of superheroes someone who dies a lot would be a bit of a joke.
