[dabernathy89]

You can patent game mechanics - famous example would be Legend of Zelda's targeting system. Apparently Nintendo is extremely aggressive about patenting game mechanics.

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-is-trying-to-patent-some-really-...

[torstenvl]

Irrelevant, since NYT does not and can never (due to prior art) hold a patent on Wordle's gameplay. This is about copyright.

[deprecative]

Nintendo is a litigation company pretending to be a game developer.

[tomkarho]

Another example that comes to mind is the Nemesis system from Mordor games