After several years of trying, Warner Bros has finally secured a patent for the Nemesis system featured in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The Nemesis system, essentially, procedurally generates a name, rank and personality traits for powerful enemies, and if any enemy managed to kill the player, that enemy would be promoted and given those characteristics. It was widely praised upon Shadow of Mordor's release for being an innovative system that allowed players to form a connection with relatively minor characters. Now, Warner Bros may be able to stop other developers from implementing a version of it in their games.

The move has proven controversial in the gaming community. Among a slew of negative comments regarding the patent, some prominent voices have spoken up as well. Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone and John Wick Hex, Tweeted the following: "This is really gross, especially for a franchise that built its brilliant nemesis system on top of a whole heap of mechanics replicated from other games. As all games do. Because that's how culture and creativity works. Be a better neighbor, WB."

Critic Jim Sterling compared it to Namco Bandai's patent on gameplay during loading screens, also expressing concern about the way it can stifle the creative process: "[The patent] expired in 2015 but we still don't see games really do the idea. It's because a 17-year void of creativity happened and nothing was built upon," they said. "By the time the patent expired, the very idea was more or less a relic nobody bothered with because they'd never been allowed."

This isn't the first time a publisher has patented a gameplay mechanic. EA holds the patent on dialogue wheels as they look in the Mass Effect series, and Nintendo holds the patent on gameplay measuring a player's sanity (from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem). Of course, there are examples of other games, such as the Amnesia series or Darkest Dungeon, factoring sanity loss into its gameplay with no legal trouble from Nintendo, so a patent doesn't necessarily mean no other developers can experiment with the idea. But it is an option for Warner Bros now if they so choose, and that's got people worried.

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[Kwyjor]

I'm going off US law, so it might be different elsewhere. you can own rights to, say, a collection of recipes, or a book of recipes. but not a recipe itself. it's just a list of ingredients and you can't own it. there are limits to what you can claim as yours, this one is one of the more well-known. Some try and own a unique method of production of recipes, but that's not the recipe.

I don't know what you're referring to, and if you have some links with more information I would be very interested in reading them.

Consider: where would you draw the line between what is a "recipe" and what is not? What if someone came up with a new kind of lubricant or adhesive or automobile coolant that no one had used before, and was just a "list of ingredients" in particular proportions?

I just wanna create something that people will like and I can proudly say "I made dis", lol.

But what if someone completely rips off your idea and no one believes you when you say "I made dis"?

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Yeah it definitely feels like we're in uncharted territory now. Can I patent climbing to the top of tall buildings/landmarks to activate surveillance towers or beacons in open-world games? Because I'm pretty sure that would put Ubisoft out of business.

Please do, I never wanna climb another tower ever again