8-man raids being just the boss fights.

The 24-man raids feel more like raids to me because there is a certain feeling of cohesion to them. You are in a particular place which you traverse as you fight a series of bosses with some trash mobs in-between. I was doing MSQ roulette the other day and it occurred to me that I wouldn't mind a similar style of instance as applied to a raid setting. That is to say, not only going through trash mobs but completing certain objectives, some of which have a bit of flair to them (like riding the magitek when in Praetorium). Of course, this is easier said than done, as the devs would have to have incentives in place and objectives and sections of a raid would have to be tuned to a proper "raid difficulty." On that last point, I am curious as to how non-boss encounters could be tuned to "raid difficulty." The difficulty of raids has always centered around the fights themselves, the boss encounters, so we have zero experience with... well, anything other than that.

I realize that FFXIV's raid culture has little concern for that kind of experience, however, and it seems to me that most are quite content with the present style of raids (that is, just having the boss fights), as can be seen with... well, their current design. This is just a personal wish with vague and ill-defined parameters.

There will always be the 24-man raids, at least.