Anyone else miss the game before jobs?

[Jandor]

Bad metaphor to choose: If the Wright brothers built it backwards the plane wouldn't have flown.

Maybe it would have flown backwards?

[Malzian]

Maybe it would have flown backwards?

Could be... could be.

[Atoli]

Not really, no.
While I miss some of the cool, creative skills that we had,
the ability to actually play the game without leveling a single combat class
and elemental resistances actually mattering (because we could also use all elements if we wanted)...

...I generally prefer how much more straight-forward and balanced the game now is.
Roles and job give everything meaning, a distinct playstyle that makes it actually interesting to play different classes instead of everything being the same mash-up of skills...
I also like just knowing "this thing is good for my class, that thing isn't" instead of having to come up with some convoluted idea to make something crazy work.

[Welsper59]

Maybe it would have flown backwards?

[Xhieron]

... freelancer ...

[Queue "Ahead on Our Way." Enter Boco. ...]

I love this idea--but it couldn't work in an MMO because of the hegemony of the theorycraft. I would love to see some more liberal customization options, though, and I'd like to think 3.0 would be a good place to start--allowing more cross pollination within roles, at least. We only have so many slots for cross-class stuff, and we'll only see true breakout builds once there are enough good options to genuinely compete for them. If my slots are chosen for me (e.g., Swiftcast, Surecast, Cleric Stance, Protect), I have no way to distinguish myself other than moment-to-moment encounter performance.

[Kallera]

I miss it terribly.

It honestly felt like we were (or could be) or our thing, excelling in one aspect but somewhat capable in another. plus there is the fact that you are tailoring it yourself and it was its own thing, without the need to plug nostalgia.

If the job system DIDN'T make classes persona non grata I think I could forgive it. the fact that classes are rendered useless in the face of jobs, and that there is no will to address this other than "delete the classes" frankly annoys me a great deal. And I am still angry about THF. Make them their own separate identities, instead of just deleting them.

[Greedalox]

I enjoy classes/jobs in MMO's. I could go for maybe different specs within a class for sure, but I'm not a big fan of Freelancer + Micromanaging specs in that way.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I didn't play 1.0, but I really don't understand why the job system even exists. What for it was created? We could as usual raise our classes and gain skills- like in any other mmorpg. What for this separation on skills like pugilist skills and monk skills, when it could be just the common skills of one class

Jobs have been a staple of Final Fantasy since the first game, and everything else after it. During 1.0, Tanaka wanted to do something different by having unconventional names for "classes" with no jobs in sight. That changed when Yoshida took over.

Think of the starting classes and then jobs in this way. In real life, you go to school and take classes so you want to specialize in something. By gathering a lot of knowledge from your classes, you can specialize in a field career such as a job. Your job is your role in life and what you work for. That's basically what the class and job system are like in FFXIV. You learn your class as a Pugilist by acquiring skills where you can then specialize in the Monk job.

[Xhieron]

... And I am still angry about THF. ...

You're not alone. I feel like THF more than anything previous represents a major misstep. They could have easily axed all of the classes and it would have little impact on the "Final Fantasy"-ness of the game apart from 1.0--until Thief. Now they would be getting rid of a central, iconic job if they killed classes, yet it's functionally impossible to mechanically separate THF and NIN at this stage.

[Istaru]

You're not alone. I feel like THF more than anything previous represents a major misstep. They could have easily axed all of the classes and it would have little impact on the "Final Fantasy"-ness of the game apart from 1.0--until Thief. Now they would be getting rid of a central, iconic job if they killed classes, yet it's functionally impossible to mechanically separate THF and NIN at this stage.

Maybe when they kill classes, we get THF as a job. Same can be said for the ARC things becoming RNG instead. I doubt it, but who knows?