Great post! It's a bit of a word wall, but more people need to do things like this to get SE's attention and shine light on the real problems with the game.

I agree with alot of what you wrote, and I think it's a great start. I do think the Crafting/Durability is a fun system, but I think it just needs to have an Auction House to support it properly and spread the goods competitively, quickly, and more evenly between the cities. The wards can stay as a supplement, I always liked looking for special deals in the bazzars of Jeuno.

My biggest concern is not any of the mechanics or ideas behind the game so much as the core system it's built on. It's easy to change the name of a class, or tweak the amount of XP you get from a fight, but the changes I really want to see are performance issues. I have a killer computer, and a lightning fast internet connection, but I still get really frustrated when it takes my character what seems like 5 whole seconds to stop, sheath/unsheath weapon, stand straight up and then resume running. Why can't this be done while running?

The responsiveness of these commands and actions is what makes the game unplayable more than anything else for me. I want to press a button, and at least FEEL like the action has started, and will finish when the cast bar tells me it will. Trying to cast spells without macros is incredibly frustrating due to the mismatched casting bars, and even when I select an action, I feel like he waits a second or two to even begin casting.

The UI has gotten slightly better since the launch of the game, but I still feel like it takes me 15 minutes to reset my action bar, or apply my new skill points. I want this to feel responsive, quick and functional. There is 2011 folks, FFXIV is supposed to be a next generation game; there's no reason we should accept anything less. I'm very sorry for ranting about this, but I am growing very tired of SE refusing to acknowledge that this is even an issue. (For those of you who are still a bit unsure about what I mean, go download the Crysis 2 demo and click around in the interface without actually entering a game. It's quick, snappy, and I know that the moment I press a button, something will happen and I'll get to where I'm going. Even with the game going on, the menus work just as quickly. This is something WoW also does just as well. Button pressed, menu up. Key pushed, spell cast. There is no wait, no room for your mind to consider that anything other than what you just asked for, actually happened.

(Disclaimer: I really don't like WoW and I'm not saying Crysis can be reasonably compared to FFXIV, but they have DAMN good UI systems and the actions feel smooth.)

Also, why do I need to select "Stand up" from a menu instead of just moving? This is one of a few areas I felt we've actually stepped backwards from FFXI.

Please tell me what you think. I really don't believe I'm alone in my feelings about these things.