RPG or FPS -- which comes first?

[Warborn]

I remember back in the day, one thing that was echoed fairly often during speculation was that the game was meant to be more an FPS than an RPG. So that, a BR1 character would have a pretty even chance against a BR20 person, because it would be more "pure" FPS this way.

Now just recently Samhayne mentioned on the AGN chat that he has worked previously on Everquest, and that he's a big fan of character development. This is interesting, because I believe this marks a switch from the aforementioned design focus ("as even as possible") to a more MMORPG slant, with more ways to accrue benefits and rewards for your character, increasing the gap between BR1 and BR20 until the old argument simply isn't valid anymore.

So I'm curious, what do you guys think? Would you rather see Planetside have more ways to get stuff for your guy, to increase his power and capabilities to such a point where the old BR1 (totally new) vs BR20 (veteran) fairness axiom is totally invalid? Or do you think they should try and keep the game even as it is right now, but roll out more weapons and vehicles and stuff for people to cert in and use?

To kick it off, I'm personally in favor of the RPG slant. Planetside does not have what it takes to be a truly excellent FPS game in the traditional sense. No headshots, no rocket jumping, and so on. If you play it like Counter-strike, you'll get bored fast. But having lot's of ways to build up your character and unlock vehicle and weapon variants and other advantages is something that I think appeals to everyone, to one degree or another. People like to increase their levels and stats and get phat lewt, and that's one way that they could make Planetside really compelling, while also working to improve the core gameplay through other means.

So whatcha think? Keep it as fair as possible and just expand the arsenal/give cosmetic awards like merit commendations will be initially, or give more disparity between the newb and the vet through the implimentation of abilities and otherwise advantages that you can earn through playing?