My gut reaction was to dislike the enmity gauge, mainly while under the impression that it was basically an easy mode. After reading some of the comments in the thread, I can say that didn't hold water. But I'm still against the meter.

Adding a hate meter has an incredible impact on the fundamentals of battle. When it's there, we will be constantly looking at it, to make sure we're riding the edge. Some argue that this is fun and challenging, and while I don't disagree with that, I'm concerned that it will become such an overwhelming factor, that battles become...too systematic, too much of a number cruncher and not more of an exciting thing to do.

Part of the fun in a battle is having some unpredictability. If a boss suddenly goes for the mage line, and wipes half of them out, your battle tactics need to change while you get back on your feet. Riding the edge of a full wipe is much more exciting than riding the edge of whether or not someone takes hate. Of course, there's a chance that this could still happen with the gauge in place, but it'll be a whole lot more unlikely if we can see the numbers.

Having the gauge will let us in on the inner workings of any encounter. What weapon types do more damage, what a particular boss is watchful of (i.e. do cures generate more hate on one boss over another), etc. etc. It could be possible to formulate the most effective boss strategy in the first encounter. Where's the challenge in that?

Essentially, adding in the hate gauge will remove a lot the mystique of battles, and a lot of the fun and excitement that goes with it.


And I don't agree with the 3rd party tool argument either. If you can't beat them, join them? That's never been a good reason to do anything...ever. It's just giving up.