Turns out you have corporate greed to thank for the existence of Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is, for the most part, a pretty unexceptional game that does most things pretty competently, though it does manage to slip into that coveted 7/10, imperfect but has something special about it to keep you thinking about it. I’m talking about its Nemesis system, a mechanic that means certain enemies you face off against remember you and your actions as they get stronger, maybe even calling out certain occasions where they killed you. It’s a lovely bit of design that, as it turns out, kind of just exists to stop the second hand game market.

How so? Well, former Warner Bros Games exec Laura Fryer recently explained as such in a recent YouTube video of hers. According to Fryer, while working with Monolith she explained to them that a problem Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum faced in terms of sales was that people were buying the game, playing it, returning it, which would then of course be sold second hand. This meant Rocksteady, and subsequently Warner Bros., weren’t getting as much money as they’d like.

“They were only getting paid for the first copy sold,” Fryer explained. “They lost millions of dollars.” Sure, multiplayer games were growing in popularity at the time, but as Fryer put it, “How do we create a single-player game that is so compelling, that people keep the disc in their library forever?”

She went on to explain that Monolith’s game engine couldn’t really do a big open world like GTA, and they apparently weren’t interested in multiplayer. So, they needed a hook. “And this thinking is what led to the Nemesis system, arguably one of the most creative and coolest game features in recent memory.”

The Nemesis system is a great one, I put hours into Shadow of Mordor because of it despite not being all that much of a Lord of the Rings fan, but frustratingly it is patented until 2036, so you won’t be seeing it in any other game any time soon. Especially because Warner Bros. closed Monolith last month, cancelling its Wonder Woman game (which was set to feature the system) along with it. What a load of rubbish, if you ask me.