Non-combat utility would be anything not directly or indirectly related to fighting; So buffs would definitely be combat utility. Lockpicking, persuasion/intimidation, trade skills, movement type abilities, and detect/disarm traps would all be non-combat utility.
Oh that's very easy but it requires a lot of explanation. What you're asking is a game-design document.
Problem with current games is they made every gamer and designer suffer from tunnel-vision. The whole table needs to be wiped so we start from scratch. Heck, take out the table too. The problem with MMORPG game design is that they don't start from nothing, they borrow a lot from previous games. Previous games which really are not compatible with the "journey" idea... it just doesn't work.
Apparently Final Fantasy XIV was developed in a bit of a vacuum, and turned into a steaming pile by all accounts. So throwing everything out doesn't always net you a fresh start.
However, I agree that the focus of new MMO's needs to be drastically different. There needs to be a real sense of purpose beyond looting, killing, attacking, destroying... those are all just avenues to reach a goal and not suitable goals themselves. Players should feel like they are building something in the process, a town, a kingdom, an empire, a company, a mercenary squad, a group of assassins, a trading house... something that all of their efforts funnel into, and this something should essentially wither and die if they were to cease those efforts. It needs to be vulnerable to decay if not outright attack.
The game should take advantage of people, it should use them without them realizing it at first. You might just be in it for yourself, but before you know it, you are part of a group of people that made similar choices and you are all relying on one another to get things done... This grouping of the player base needs to happen at the earliest stages of the game, and any connections that might be formed in this way should be almost effortless to preserve thanks to in game systems. Relying entirely on the players to take the initiative to want to come together and make lasting connections is a weak way to build community. It wasn't always like that, but now it is.
Anyways, those are two of my fundamental changes I would like to see. Cumulative tasks and goals; and natural almost subliminal community building tools based around those goals.
