A former vice president of the Warner Bros Games has revealed the true genesis of the beloved monolith nemesis system.
The nemesis system, for those strangers, is an intelligent mechanic in the game that tracks a player’s actions to create enemies who feel able to remember past meetings. In the case of Midolito Middle Earth Games, this allowed enemies to increase through the rows and promulgate revenge.
But, although it is a rather bright mechanic for other orc hunters, it was actually created with a slightly more corporate mentality at stake, with the idea of reducing used games.
In a video that documes his time with Monolith, the former executive of the Warner Bros Games, Laura Fryer, said a sales drop for the launch of Rocksteady in Arkham Asylum was attributed to users who play the game, then returned their copy to a retailer, when it would later be sold as a used copy.
“This was excellent for players, because they could buy the game and then sell it to a company like Gamestop and buy something else,” said Fryer (thanks, Ign). “It was great for Gamestop, because then they sold that game for a discount and pocketed the money.”
But, although this purchase and review was a blessing for the tastes of Gamestop and those of us who seek to recover a little money, it was a “disaster” for developers “because they did not pay them” for each game. “They were only paid for the first copy sold,” Fryer said. “They lost millions of dollars.”
And that leads us to the Nemesis system, with Fryer stating that the study faced “the same problem” with Shadow of Mordor. So, the question was asked: “How do we create a game for a single player that is so convincing that people keep the album in their library forever?” And the solution, well, that was ultimately the nemesis system.
“We knew that Monolith’s game was not yet able to have a completely open world like a GTA, and this team was not interested in following the multiplayer route. But we still had to solve the restriction,” Fryer said. “And this thought is what led to the Nemesis system, possibly one of the most creative and great game characteristics in recent memory.”
As for the system, although it is an incredibly popular and innovative mechanic, it is now locked by a Warner Bros patent until 2036, after the closing of Monolito earlier this year.
The Nemesis system will be used again in the Wonder Woman game of Monolith, although that project has now been canceled together with the closure of the study.
