I can appreciate ideas to help, and honestly it's a well thought out and discussed plan.....but....the major issue is:

What you list as your MAJOR PROBLEMS, some of us see as MAJOR AWESOMENESS!

1. I don't want a predefined role, I want to make my own character. Sorry being cookie cutter isn't fun for everyone.

2. Being a mix of what you want is fun for some players. It allows them to create their own vision of their character tailored to their own play style that they can mesh with like minded players. (and form a linkshell etc etc etc.)

MONIR:
1. Staples of the franchise - This has some merit, but again your point is subjective for several reasons.
a. Some players have not played any ff before.
b. What you call class "staples" of the franchise did not appear in many ff games (6, 7, 8, 10, 10-2, 12,13), in fact other than the tactics series, and ff 9 + 11, no ff game has featured these "staples" in 17 years. Many players are so young they might not even have ever played a ff game with said "staples". And let's not forget the BIG DOG FF7, the game credited to have "sold the PlayStation and made rpg's mainstream" [^ Final Fantasy Retrospective Part V. [GameTrailers.com feature]. GameTrailers. August 13, 2007. Retrieved July 16, 2008.^ "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children". Find Articles; originally published in 1UP.com. October 2003. Archived from the original on August 19, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2006.^ Kraus, Alex (August 29, 2006). "'Dirge of Cerberus' defies expectations, for better and worse". USA Today. Retrieved July 16, 2008.^ GameSpot Editorial Team. "The Greatest Games of All Time". GameSpot. Retrieved July 16, 2008.] Did not have these "staples".
c. Some players are tired of the same old classes after 7 years or more.

The armory system works, folks, it ain't broken. What's broken here is the continued reflectance for the FF11 gaming community to move on to brighter, better, and newer things. To actually embrace the system and go with it. To find you can create a character that is all your own.

I know for some of you, you feel uncomfortable operating outside of a "staple class system", that's fine make a character that only heals and call it a white mage.......nothing stopping you.

My question on this topic is where do we stop? Where do we draw the line between making ff11 and 14 similar?

I certainly agree that ff11 was a great game, I played it for many years , and still like to play it.

I certainly agree it has some great features that need to be used in ff14 (targeting, auto-translate, search feature, etc.)

But where do we draw the line? I am not asking that in a snarky kinda way, i am actually asking.

SE is running a business after all, so lets examine that:

At it's peak ff11 had over 500,000 player logging in daily, and still to this day has over 300,000 doing the same....that's pretty hard core player retention!

But....

W.o.W. Recently hit a peak of 12 million......thats 6 zeros, son... 12,000,000....

If you are running a business? Are you going to make a game to try and please the 300,000 who are already pleased? or.....Are you gonna go for some of that 12,000,000 pie?

If you answered the first answer you are not going to be in business long. Simply creating a game to please the FF11 players is not going to bring in the cash. They need to gain many new subscriptions as well in order to compete in todays mmo environment.

I firmly believe they can.....but I also firmly believe that the way to do so is not to create more of the same old same old that ISN'T drawing in the players.

It's time to stop looking back and start looking to the horizon, let it go, and let's adventure into the sunset together.

I thank you all for your messages of support and for being a part of the conversation; and for making the ff14 community a vibrant one.