The Nemesis System. Why Hasn't There Been More Games Using It Since?

[korijenkins]

It's funny how good features that are fun get copyrighted, while loot boxes were added in every fucking game ever conceived with nobody daring to copyright that.

[Makabreska]

It's funny how good features that are fun get copyrighted, while loot boxes were added in every fucking game ever conceived with nobody daring to copyright that.

Well, they surely try! We had this famous case from 2017 of Activision patenting matchmaking based on possessed shop items: “For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective”.

They seemed to do nothing with it....yet!

[Okacz]

Well, they surely try! We had this famous case from 2017 of Activision patenting matchmaking based on possessed shop items: “For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective”.

They seemed to do nothing with it....yet!

Either this patent didn't go through then or it is easily loopholed, most big budget mobile games (or even smaller ones, not hard to implement) use this filthy trick.

[Makabreska]

Either this patent didn't go through then or it is easily loopholed, most big budget mobile games (or even smaller ones, not hard to implement) use this filthy trick.

Oh it went through in 2017, it got number US20160005270A1. Was pretty big news back then. And Acti patented it to be the one and only that's using it, they just didn't (at least official) started doing it. And I don't know if others are already been utilizing the trick, kinda hard to prove that matchmaking is being fixed around MT gear.

[Okacz]

Oh it went through in 2017, it got number US20160005270A1. Was pretty big news back then. And Acti patented it to be the one and only that's using it, they just didn't (at least official) started doing it. And I don't know if others are already been utilizing the trick, kinda hard to prove that matchmaking is being fixed around MT gear.

Well, a lot of mobile games can be easily-ish decompiled, especially when they are build on commercial engines like Unity. It's not hard to get to the bowels of some of the more crappy-working matchmaking systems (that are partially programmed in the frontend of the application) and find that such ideas are being used. And yeah, it literally costs the dev nothing to implement a thingy that makes your hidden matchmaking rating a bit more "lenient", for instance, after you make a store purchase. You know, psychological stuff, player subconsciously starts associating making in-app purchases with victories.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Well, a lot of mobile games can be easily-ish decompiled, especially when they are build on commercial engines like Unity. It's not hard to get to the bowels of some of the more crappy-working matchmaking systems (that are partially programmed in the frontend of the application) and find that such ideas are being used. And yeah, it literally costs the dev nothing to implement a thingy that makes your hidden matchmaking rating a bit more "lenient", for instance, after you make a store purchase. You know, psychological stuff, player subconsciously starts associating making in-app purchases with victories.

I think stuff like that will almost always be handled server-side, so that makes the decompile process kinda moot. You already enter search and confiscation warrant territory there.