Warner Bros secures patent for Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system
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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