Exec, former warrior brother. Revealing the true reasons for Mordor's beloved Nemesis System

Middle Earth: The Shadow of Mordo Remembered for many reasons, but perhaps the best reason for its enemy system, is an incredible mechanism that produces unforgettable orc encounters. According to a former executive, the nemesis system comes from trying to solve another problem: second-hand sales.

exist New videoLaura Fryer, former vice president of WB Games, oversees the publisher’s Seattle studio, talks about her time with Monolith. When discussing the way trends affect the industry, Flair mentioned that chasing trends is “literally leading to an enemy system.”

At that time, second-hand game sales were a hot topic. The company likes it Electronic Arts and Ubisoft Measures such as sales season passes are being taken to offset the active second-hand gaming market. Fryer said that through analysis, the sale of the Arkham shelter in Rocksteady was attributed to the theory that people would play games and then return the disc to the retailer.

“It's great for gamers because they can buy the game and sell it to companies like GameStop and buy other products,” Fryer said. “It's great for GameStop because then they're going to sell games with discounted games and they spend money. But for game developers, it's a disaster because they're not paid for each game. They're only paid for the first copy they sold. They're losing millions of dollars.”

According to Flair, this is the emergence of the nemesis system. Faced with second-hand game sales and potential losses, how can the studio encourage players to stick to their games? It seems, an unforgettable experience.

“How do we create a single-player game that is so compelling, that people keep the disc in their library forever? We know Monolith's game engine wasn't yet capable of having a fully open world like a GTA, and this team wasn't interested in going the multiplayer route. But we still had to solve for the constraint. And this thinking is what led to the Nemesis system, arguably one of the most creative and coolest game features in recent memory.”

It turns out that addressing this constraint will lead to an incredibly memorable system of named orc competitors who will remember your actions and previous encounters to develop the story in action combat. It is usually the most typical part of Monolith's Lord of the Rings, the Middle Earth: The Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Shadow of War.

However With the sudden shutdown of the overall production And canceled its Wonder Woman project, this particular success seems destined to make life in the vault life. Although the enemy system will be implemented in the Wonder Woman game, Warner Bros. still owns the patent for the system, which Expiry date in 2036.

It's fascinating to hear more about how hatred institutions come together, even if that means Further sigh It will collect the fact that dust is collected for the foreseeable future.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.