mmo/rts/rpg/tbs/simulation/adventure/survival game Recommendations/Challenge

I write this rant not just for me, but for every other mmo/rts/rpg/tbs/simulation/adventure/survival player who just wants to skip through the list of games and find a really GOOD game (in our opinion). That is why I say that anyone who plans on responding to this should please read and endure through this entire rant before recommending or correcting. Things seperated by (),{}, or [] are comments that do not need to be read. The goal of this is to find a game that meets as much of my criteria as possible. I am not saying all of the below criteria must be met, but there should be a good balance.

It is noteworthy that although I want a GOOD game, me and maybe all frustrated players reading this understand that these games are also businesses, and do need to make money, but we are all just looking for something that does this not too greedily and without too big of an effect on players. We all just want to find out once and for all if what we want exists, or is fictitious and may never exist and why. For the sake of time, I'm not asking for a recommendations of MOBAs, or arcade styles.

-PC games only

- We want to avoid pay to play, but if it is a must, and this game stands up strongly against other competition with long term survivability, then we have no choice.

-Price and community size of the game have no weight here.

-Sandboxy is good. I hate being carried through gameplay, and having no idea what's happening with my quests or what I'm doing and why.

-There should be survival elements (severe consequences upon death, and planning involved to avoid it) For example, Runescape and Albion Online's full loot system where all items drop upon death.

-The game should be open world (this is very flexible because some definitions are very strict) [I like what Minecraft does by leaving the player on their own and letting them discover/build rather than go through endless quests, tutorials, or level progressions to learn how the world works.]

-This game should have a deep, advanced crafting and gathering system that isn't just for gear.

- I don't want an entirely combat based game. I mean an mmo where all that can be done is fight things and fight things and fight things and fight things, so that you can earn items, level, and gear to fight more things. This is part of what makes the requirement above important.

[ I had a lot of fun with Runescape years ago, and I'm trying out Archeage for the first time today. What made me interested was the role of economy and crafting, and team/guild play for better rewards; but I think I might just uninstall this game before I play more than 3 hours of it because it fails the requirement below]

-No pay to win games. I don't think I need to explain why, and the parasitism of businesses that arise from that abomination. By pay to win, this game gives a serious, and measurable advantage through any means to paying players as opposed to non-paying in ways that CAN affect the other group negatively. Pets, skins, xp boosts for level but not money, are not pay to win.

-There is no problem with 'grindy' so long as all players grind equally

-There can be no in-built bot

-This game must have been made after the year 2000

-PVE and PVP should have equal roles in this game. (This is not a must at all, but it's a huge bonus)

[-I want this game to have a UI that doesn't take up half of my screen with quest logs, minimaps,action bars etc that distract from what's happening in this game without harming gameplay. This is not as important as the other requirements; but would be very nice.]

-To simply put it: I want this game to be difficult. I don't want to be able to run through a dungeon in 20 minutes for xp, with almost no difficulty with getting good/decent gear.

-I want this game to have plenty of strategy elements. I'm a fan of RTS and TBS, and any MMO/MMORPG that can bring that into a third person and/or large team oriented experience is a dream come true (I have no real expectations about this because it is probably not possible)

-I'm not too interested in any genre, and I'm always open to new things

[A game that I applaud for meeting many of these requirements, and that I recommend for anyone interested, is Albion Online. It's still in closed beta with a release maybe in the fourth quarter of 2014. It's a sandbox-y  mmo with lots of pvp/pve, a player based economy, crafting, skilling, housing, and full loot. A good question is, why is every MMO not like this?]

-Needless to add, this game should be 3D. An art style less cartoony than WoW would be nice too.

To clarify, these criteria ultimately eliminate these games

-World of Warcraft

-AION: Ascension

-Neverwinter

-Path of Exile

-Allods online

-There are games I'm looking forward to that will soon be released that I have high hopes for, but I don't want to wait months for a release, and then many more months for problems in the game to be fixed  (or arise and leave me feeling like I've wasted time); although suggestions of future releases are welcome