1. As far as failing bad goes - it's hard to say. I've failed so many times, that it wasn't any suprise to me. I used to play Counter Strike a lot, so I've experienced plenty of both moment. Nothing in a multiplayer FPS game is more rewarding, and gives a greater 'in your face' feeling than the following situation:
All of my team mates are dead - the only one left standing is me. I'm against a few oponents (~ 3-4). I run for the bomb dropped by my fellow terrorists, kill one guy, and then run to the bombsite (it depends where was the bomb dropped, if it already on a bombsite, I plant it, if it wasn't I run to the BS.
After planting, some counter-terrorists finally show up, only to catch a bullet to the face. I win the round when everybody in my team was thinking that we'd lose.
That's just an example, if've had plenty of these situations, too bad they didn't happen more often (however, thanks to that factor, every such victory gave me a lot of satisfaction).
2. I have no idea. There is some stuff that I'd like to try that already is in place, but I propably won't try it due to it costing a lot of money (Steel Battalion for Xbox - the game costs a lot nowadays, and lets at to it the cost of the actual console, it seems pretty amazing though). But that isn't really an anwser to your.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQR49JGySTM - this also seems amazing, but building such a setup would cost a fortune, so it's out of the question. How cool would it be to be able to play any FPS in that manner.
3. Not really, I'm too young, and to inexperienced in any matter to be doing any research (apart from one needed to complete some assignment) .
4. New releases - Sword of the Stars: The Pit. After playing FTL I thought that maybe I could give a try to some other roguelikes, and this seems like a good one.
Old releases - Wizardry 8 and System Shock 2. Haven't played both but would like to try them - Wizardry to try a different approach to an RPG (haven't played anything similar so far), SS2 to see the game that was an inspiration to Bioshock, the conspect seems really interesting (and the atmosphere, which imo is one of the most important things regarding...well, pretty much everything).
An user HMDK has also put another game in my spotlight - The Last Express. I've never really seen anything like it before, it looks very innovative (even though the game is from 1997 ;p), I'm gonna have to try it some time.
5. Yeah, I know about it, but don't really have much time needed to make a meaningful addition.
I'm in for a 9.99$ game.