My only exposure to RPGs thus far has been primarily DnD 3.5 onwards. I somehow ended up DMing a 3.x campaign that went all the way into lvl 30+ and got SEVERELY burnt out and disenchanted with that system. The party was a minmax nightmare mess, with a Decisive Strike Monk that falcon-punched the shit out everything, a Warlock/Ur-Priest with divine meta-magic that could cast divine spells, clone himself, and have each clone use eldritch glaive, One character who I can't even begin to remember what class it was because it was an abominable amalgamation of so many but had something to do with Bloodstorm Blade (basically attacked every possible thing within visible distance for disgusting damage), and a Bard red-shirt who was pretty much weak himself but could mind-control anything not immune to charm and made everyone else even more broken with bardic music combos. This was only just the characters themselves too, I don't even want to think about their cohorts and the ridiculous airship that they came up with. Oh and all the characters were evil except for the Monk who was neutral.
It was an unholy fuckfest.
I am not trying to hate on 3.x too much but personally I am much more than ready for a change of scenery, both to play and to run. Most of my current group is open to the idea of exploring other systems, and a few of them I've gotten to try and enjoy 4E, but there's this one stubborn guy (this guy played the Bard in the fuckfest campaign if you were curious) who swears by 3.x. He even turns his nose up at 4E, citing "lack of options and creative choices." This person has himself DM'ed and played much in the past, but with a different group with which I have no affiliation.
I guess I'm asking for a couple of things. If you guys have any suggestions for a new game; something cool, something different, I'd love to hear. I'm also asking for ways that you can cajole players to try something they haven't seen before.
As a last resort, I want to hear everyone's hard evidence, points against, and reasons why my group should quit DnD 3.x. If you are afraid of starting fires, just PM your reasons to me, we'll have a nice chat I'm sure, I've already got a building laundry list of my own gripes.
Thanks