1) Probably WoW, although in a lot of ways they're the exception to the genre (such mass appeal, different audience, high success.) I guess SOE games, and maybe some that are highly hyped now like AoC.

2) A lot of companies have those conventions once a year for games, that tends to give the players a larger sense of community. Also, trivial as it may seem, Forums definitely help I think. Some other good practices are how blizzard has those contests all the time to win video cards or whatever for things like best screenshot or best pumkin at halloween.

3) Alienating parts of the playerbase by polarizing PVE and PvP, then having to make the choice between balancing one or the other.

Lack of communication on forums and that sort of thing, especially on heated issues. It may be out of fear of alienating the community with their response, but not answering questions at all gives players a sense that the dev team is ignoring them or just apathetic, and that's probably worse.

4) *shrugs*

np

BoS Archon
[Linked Image from miniprofile.xfire.com][Linked Image from sigimages.bf2tracker.com]