Former Warner Bros. Executive Unveils the True Inspiration Behind Shadow of Mordor’s Beloved Nemesis System

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.”

At the time, used game sales were a hot-button topic. Companies like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft were taking measures such as selling season passes to counteract an active used game market. Fryer said a sales drop-off for Rocksteady’s Arkham Asylum was attributed, by analytics, to a theory that people would play the game, then return the disc to a retailer.

“This was great for gamers, because they could buy the game and then sell it back to a company like GameStop and buy something else,” Fryer said. “It was great for GameStop, because then they sold that used game for a discount and they pocketed the money. For game developers, though, it was a disaster, because they weren’t getting paid for every game. They were only getting paid for the first copy sold. They lost millions of dollars.”

This is where the Nemesis system, according to Fryer, came about. Faced with secondhand game sales and potential losses, how does a studio encourage players to hold onto their game? Memorable experiences, it seems.

“With Shadow, we faced the same problem,” Fryer said. “How do we create a single-player game that is so compelling, that people keep the disc in their library forever? We knew Monolith’s game engine wasn’t yet capable of having a fully open world like a GTA, and this team wasn’t interested in going the multiplayer route. But we still had to solve for the constraint. And this thinking is what led to the Nemesis system, arguably one of the most creative and coolest game features in recent memory.”

Solving for this constraint would, as it turns out, lead to an incredibly memorable system of named Orc rivals, who would remember your actions and previous encounters, developing stories out of the action combat. It’s often the best-remembered part of Monolith’s Lord of the Rings duology, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Shadow of War.

Yet with the sudden closure of Monolith Productions and cancellation of its Wonder Woman project, that particular success seems doomed to life in the vault. Though the Nemesis system was due to be implemented in the Wonder Woman game, Warner Bros. still owns the patent for the system, which stands with an expiration date in 2036.

It’s fascinating to hear more about how the Nemesis system came together, even if it means further lamenting the fact that it will gather dust for the forseeable future.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.