Articles
WoW
The End of an Era
summary in terms of both people and progression, 2 weeks before TBC

What Became of BG?
after a year of WoW, how are things?

Moving On
leaving the biggest part of our lives behind, and hoping for something better

FFXI
FFXI Outlook
on the brink of quitting

The Promathia Problem
a reponse to Sundi's weak claim that everyone hates Promathia

Five Values
five changes that could repair tons, and cost little
Five Numbers
Ridiculously easy ways to mend FFXI's endgame

This article is obviously not a comprehensive list of problems and fixes. I'm just making a point: that some very quick fixes, matters of seconds, could be implemented to save a large chunk if not the majority of the endgame. Being concise is the theme, so in ascending order:

5) HP/MP Regen
Sundi admitted that players wanted to solo. He said that Aht'Urgan's content would be dedicated to soloing. Content is not the issue, the system is. Aside from issues such as death penalties, and the sluggishness and difficulty of transportation, simply adding HP or MP regen to players could increase their solo exp/hr in current content to approaching the hourly exp of a low quality party.

4) Amount of Storage
With players reaching anywhere from 2-14 level 75 jobs, content that demands 5 different tiers of equipment, players wanting to craft, and much much more, more storage is an absolute necessity to playing comfortably. Square has tricked players into paying them for mules by giving them gimped storage. Most players, however, don't even care. The trouble comes in the sometimes hours per week that are spent changing jobs and equipment from character to character. Increasing storage would affect all players positively.

3) Relic
Under an extremely generous assumption, a dynamis run makes 300 currency per run. A relic weapon takes roughly 15000 currency, post rebate, to upgrade. That's 50 runs. At 40 people per 3.5 hour run, that's 7000 man hours for one weapon. One weapon, half a year. Changing currency drop rate or the actual cost of relic would allow more than 1 person per 50 runs per LS to have relics. Leaving it the way it is will continue to lock out 99.99% of all players.

2) Sea Pop Item Droprate
It's beyond confusing why these pop items aren't 100%. If it was for a larger timesink, more effort for less loot - which is the case of sea vs sky - is absurd. Sky was largely successful for both newer NAs and less hardcore JPs. Every single LS in the game has gotten a lot out of sky, yet this concept was grossly mutated in the form of sea. If current loot rewards are going to remain, pop items must be changed to 100% droprate for sea to begin to approach being worth it.

1) 3 King Pop Rate
Square has done a good job on getting the same LSes to be after the same 3 mobs for 3 years. Honestly, how many LSes serverwide are maxed on Nidhogg, Aspid, and KB after 3 years? There are zero on Bahamut. The bottleneck is egregious. On Bahamut if kings popped every day and NQs were removed, which I'm not demanding, I estimate it would take the most active 3king LS around 2 months to max, us 6 months to max, and any other LS far more, beyond a year, to max. Every level 75 endgame player wants a chance at these fights and this equipment because of the exclusivity and magnitude of certain stats on certain slots. At this point cursed gear is not rare enough to be a status symbol, and a massive number of players are reaching 75. Increase the rate, increase the flow, nobody loses.

Conclusion
There are lots of alternatives to the 'change a single value' approach, but that these problems could begin to be alleviated with a tap of a backspace and a bump of the numpad - yet they aren't - is very disturbing.