Shadow of Mordor: A Lesson in Intrisnic Motivation

Almost a decade after its release, I still find myself returning to Middle-Earth.

It’s 2023. Tears of the Kingdom, perhaps the most innovative game of all time, releases in less than a month, a PS5 so futuristic I can appropriately deem it “alien” adorns my cabinet, Kratos’ ray traced ax beckons me to a falsified world more visually stunning then my own, and yet, I still find myself in Mordor, killing orcs and branding captains in Monolith’s 2015 classic “Middle earth: Shadow of Mordor.” While this may seem odd for the uninitiated, especially due to the fact that the franchise is now most well known for having microtransactions in its 2017 followup and patenting a system that has never been used since, for anyone who has graced the ghoulish gallows of Mordor, my hyper-fixation is completely sound.

Shadow of Morder received favorable reviews upon release. While many enjoyed the game, the consensus was that it felt similar to its counterparts (most commonly drawing comparisons to the Arkham series), and that the nemesis system was a true innovation in the medium of gaming. This opinion became fact when Monolith patented the system, ensuring it couldn’t be used in any other game series’. Which is a shame, because the nemesis system, and its integration with the game’s other mechanics, teaches a fantastic lesson on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in games.

Intrinsic motivation is the doing of an activity purely for the satisfaction brought by completing said activity. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, involves a reward of some kind, a more realized motivation for wanting to complete a task. For example, a level may have intrinsic motivation in the form of satisfying game design. Sure, the extrinsic motivation of a new weapon at the end of the level may be compelling enough to keep a player hooked, but the intrinsic satisfaction of playing a game purely because its fun will further incentivize players to engage with the game and its systems. Meaning, game design is a careful balance between the implementation of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in order to keep players actually playing the game. If a mission is missing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, a player simply has no reason to play said mission, and the ratio between the two motivations is what keeps players with the controller in their hands.

Booting up Shadow of War nearly a decade after its release is certainly indicative of solid intrinsic motivation, especially when unpacking the game’s mechanics. After eight years, I would hope I’d have beaten the game at least once by now, which means an inevitable lack of extrinsic motivation. I’ve completed the main quest, gotten the tangible rewards for doing so, game over, right? That would be the case, if the game wasn’t so fun.

The player character, Talian, navigates the highly vertical, gorgeously dilapidated wasteland that is Mordor with effortless grace. Skills that enhance player momentum after each jump, timing challenges to further boost your speed, leaps that can scale entire cliff faces, Talian’s movement is honed in on smooth entertainment. Similarly, Talian’s movement in combat provides enough incentive to come back for months after finishing the main campaign. If you thought Arkham supplied a power trip, then Talian’s movepool will have you playing as Batman in the gym, as the player character progresses to a point of godhood by the end of the game. Talian can take on swarms of enemies with an engaging combat system that has mechanics to incentivize fast, chaotic conflict. For example, the combo meter doesn’t end after the end of each encounter, meaning conflicts can be chained to reach combo’s in the hundreds. Pair this with skill tree upgrades that enhance your abilities at different combo meter levels, such as making Talian not lose his combo meter after a hit or deal two instant KO’s instead of one, and you become an orc hunter. The combat mechanics are intrinsically satisfying to engage with, and they’re complex enough to allow for other intrinsic challenges to arise. For example, Youtuber Whitelight discussed how he realized Talian moves so quickly in stealth, he created the personal challenge of being quiet as loud as he can, attracting the attention of as many enemies as possible yet killing them at an equal pace so stealth is maintained. This is a perfect example of how systems can provide intrinsic motivation, and in Mordor, these mechanical motivators are spruced up with gruesome animations that are so smooth, they’re like the same butter orcs are revealed to be made of when you decapitate a chief in slow motion while blood spools from his new stump. 

And it is the chiefs themselves that add the greatest intrinsic motivation for the player. The system is composed of captains and chiefs of various levels in a hierarchical format. The player engages with these captains through combat, with the incentive to do so either being story related (i.e. a captain attacks for a story mission), extrinsic motivation (tangible rewards for beating a captain), or the most compelling, intrinsic motivation. The system accomplishes a sense of intrinsic motivation by inserting a secret weapon: narrative. These chiefs are not just polygons, they’re people. Each character is generated with a set of strengths and weaknesses the player can use as strategic information in battle, as well as a name and personality based on these attributes. With an infinite supply of orks, that depth plus the addictive combat would provide enough variety to keep a player busy for a few months, but when things get personal, that’s when the game becomes addictive. See, these orcs remember everything, and their existence is not limited to your battle arena. If a captain kills you in combat, they rise in the orc hierarchy, thus giving the player’s actions meaningful consequences, and an intrinsic motivation of revenge to go at them again. This intrinsic motivation is only amplified when you meet on the battlefield, where the orc now calls you by name, shames you for a previous defeat, belittles you if you ran away, etc. In other words, the orc captains dynamically react to your in-game actions, thus making conflicts personal, thereby adding a level of intrinsic motivation though narrative and gameplay mechanics melding in a way not seen in other systems.

I will never get sick of seeing an orc captain through a wave of his underlings, those hellish eyes attempting to kill me with a glare as he berates and insults, fueling my fury, motivating me to take on my new sworn arch nemesis. However, there is a reason I only come back to the game a couple times a year instead of playing it 24/7: the ratio is off. As previously mentioned, game design is a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The two exist as a pair, a yin-yang of player psychology to keep consumers invested for as long as possible. A level cannot be successful if the ratio is imbalanced, and if Shadow of Mordor is anything, it isn’t balanced.

Remember those skill tree upgrades I mentioned? Those are only a few in an upgrade system with seven branching paths, all with enhancements that increase Talian’s power to fantastical heights. Able to tank a hit without breaking the combo meter? How about you upgrade that to never breaking the meter at all? Finally mastered the two for one KO? Upgrade that to a fiver. Eventually, extrinsic overrides intrinsic in Shadow of Mordor, and as the mechanics become increasingly easy, they become increasingly dull. No amount of intrinsic fun can make up for an infinite drought of challenge, which is also applied to the nemesis system. It’s not invincible, and neither are the chiefs that construct it. By the end game, Talian has become so powerful that orcs would be idiotic to even look at him. Because it’s the end game and the extrinsic rewards have run dry, and now the intrinsic motivation of challenge and narrative ring hollow due to the newfound lack of engaging gameplay, there’s no reason to play. This point was inevitable as well, as the game’s extrinsic rewards throughout the campaign consisted of either weapons or xp to get Talian to this end-game point of invincible boredom. Suddenly, the most replayable game of all time has become dull.

But that’s the thing, it hasn’t, not completely, and that’s the power of intrinsic motivation. Despite having no extrinsic motivation to do so, the game engages long past the credits with its intrinsic rewards via entertaining and engaging gameplay mechanics. Eight years later, I still decapitate orcs regardless of how brainless it is because it’s fun, and because of that, I don’t need the game to give me a reason to play, as I'm already compelled to return to Middle-Earth.