As expected, Warner Bros’ patent application for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system has been granted.
IGN reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office released an issue notice, which is currently offline, on February 3, 2021, confirming that the patent will take effect on February 23, 2021, with an option to keep it until 2035.
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As we reported last week, Warner Bros. to receive approval for this patent since March 2016, although it has already been referenced in March 2015. Monolith Productions’ Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was released in September 2014.
The patent is called “Nemesis Characters, Arch-Enemy Fortresses, Social Vendettas and Followers in Computer Games”, and is now assigned to Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. recent approval.
According to the patent statement, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection in November 2019. But Warner Bros stuck to its guns, and in October 2020, a Notice of Allowance was issued. This indicated that Warner was able to overcome the rejections, and the USPTO believed the invention was patentable.
The disclosure of the Nemesis patent, brought to light by the beautiful video about the Nemesis system by Game Maker’s Toolkit below, has sparked a debate about the rights and errors of Warner Bros’ actions here.
“This is really gross, especially for a franchise that has built its brilliant nemesis system on top of a whole bunch of mechanics replicated from other games,” said Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone. tweeted.
“Like all games do. Because that’s how culture and creativity work. Be a better neighbor, WB.”
“Because I had to learn a little bit about this: a patent is not copyright and having a patent doesn’t necessarily mean they enforce it or win a case over it,” said Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail tweeted.
“What it does mean is they took a step to make sure they could do it legally and that in itself is ‘meh’ enough that I hate it.”
“lmao what a lot of shit,” wrote Josh Sawyer, Obsidian president Twitter last week.
“If you take someone’s design and make it a better version, you should get a trophy and a triumph through the streets and the people who made the previous version should applaud you and say, ‘wow that was really cool.’ “
Over the years, has the patent stopped other developers from attempting to use their own Nemesis-like system? Tweets by narrative designer and writer Cat Manning suggests it may have:
“I’ve looked at the patent and it’s so broad it’s absurd! Multiple other emerging narrative systems I’ve seen and worked on could be described with their language! It probably wouldn’t be legally enforceable, but me and other indie developers don’t have the money to find out!
“I have no interest in copying the whole canvas of the Nemesis system! Personally there are some other things I would do differently. But the patent is so broad that I still worry that it is licensed to use ANY similar work to stop. developed! “
In fact, over the years, many developers and publishers have obtained patents for video game mechanics that appeared in later games. BioWare, for example, has a patent on Mass Effect’s dialog wheel, but dialog wheels have appeared in subsequent games. Sega once had a patent for Crazy Taxi’s compass arrow, although it expired in 2018. Nintendo currently holds a patent on the Eternal Darkness mental health meter.
Now that the Nemesis system has finally been patented, thoughts now turn to whether it could return in some form in an upcoming Warner Bros. game. Maybe a new Middle-earth? Batman? Harry Potter?