WB Games' Nemesis System Patent Was Approved This Week After Multiple Attempts
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WB Games' Nemesis System Patent Was Approved This Week After Multiple Attempts - IGN:
Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, publishers of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 sequel, Shadow of War (both developed by Monolith Entertainment), have finally managed to secure a patent for the franchise's signature Nemesis System.
The US Patent and Trademark Office released an issue notice on February 3, 2021, stating that the patent would go into effect on February 23 of this year. Warner Bros. has the option to maintain the patent through 2035, providing they keep up with the necessary fees.
The patent, filed as "Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," effectively codifies the functions of Monolith's Nemesis system and the sum of its parts as the property of WB.
While the language in the application is fairly obtuse - as most patent claims tend to be - the "short" version is that the patent covers a system featuring procedurally-generated NPCs that exist in a hierarchy and interact with and will remember the actions of players, have their appearance/behavior altered by players, and whose place in that hierarchy can change and affect the position of other NPCs in said hierarchy (and yes, that's the simplified version).
It also covers the Social Conquest battles from Shadow of War, wherein players can fortify or attack one another's strongholds to see how their army of orcs fares against their friends'.
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