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Ex-Warner Bros. Exec Reveals the Real Reason Shadow of Mordor's Much-Loved Nemesis System Was Created (www.ign.com)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is remembered for many reasons, but perhaps best of all for its Nemesis system, an incredible mechanic for generating memorable Orc encounters. According to a former executive, the Nemesis system came about from trying to solve a different problem: secondhand sales.

In a new video, Laura Fryer — former vice president of WB Games who oversaw the publisher's Seattle studios at the time — talked about her time with Monolith. While discussing the way trend-chasing affects the industry, Fryer mentioned that chasing trends is what "literally led to the Nemesis system."

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[-] Prox@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago

This sounds to me like the right way to combat secondhand sales. Rather than making the game shitty and/or locking features behind online-only, unlock-keyed connections, they added a content mechanic that was actually fun.

I mean, this is basically the entire premise behind roguelike games, just applied to an action RPG instead (in a small way).

this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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