Shadow of Warner
Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment has just received approval for the patent of the Nemesis system used in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The system tracks player interactions with enemies to procedurally generate rivalries that develop over the course of the game. It's a fascinating mechanic with a lot of potential for different uses.
Unfortunately, with this patent approval most of those uses will never be realized, as WB will be the only entity allowed to use it. So let's all get in on it while we still can!
The patent goes into effect February 23, so from now until then it's fair game (so to speak). In that time let's make games that show the potential of this mechanic that will be lost when Warner Brothers gates it away.
One Rule to Bring Them All
All you need to qualify is to make a game utilizing the basics of the Nemesis system, which IGN describes as,
"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."
This is more of a guideline than a rule; feel free to take it in whatever weird direction you want. Anything else--genre, length, etc.--is up to you. You can submit up until February 22, 11:59:59pm Eastern Time.
A Shortcut to Rush Through
If you want an easy way to get started, developer WolfBytes has created an open-source parody of the Nemesis system, the Frenemy system.
The Desolation of Law
The point is not to recreate the Nemesis system one-for-one, which would be a violation of expression that patents should protect, but to show how many applications the idea of procedurally generated NPC relationships could have, and how arbitrary this patent is. Patents and copyrights exist to protect the creators of specific expressions of an idea, not the idea itself. Other developers might have their own ideas for how a relationship system could work that might not even infringe on the Nemesis system, but they will be scared away from implementing them due to the risk of a lawsuit from a giant like WB. Video games have suffered in the past from overly broad patents: Namco kept loading screen mini-games to themselves, Sega hoarded direction arrows in driving games, and Nintendo had sole use of the plus-shaped D-pad. The Nemesis patent goes far beyond any of those and potentially closes off entire mechanics and subgenres by putting it in the custody of a company that even with billions of dollars at its disposal hasn't even used the system since 2017. It's bad for creators and bad for the culture.
But that's all in the future. For the time being, make a game with making enemies.
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