I have fond and distinct memories of my Mother's horrified look as I walked around the house singing "Where there's a whip, there's a way," and even more fond memories of the humorously bewildered look as I tried to explain her where I got the phrase from. A few years later, I had the pleasure of being able to read the books that these fantastic movies came from, and further enjoy the tales of Tolkien on yet another level. In the recent past, the new movies have brought the story even more to life with epic Hollywood flare. Turbine takes Lord of the Rings Online[/b] to the next step - we've read about the world and we've seen movies of it, but in April 2007 we get the chance to gather our fellowships and embark on our own adventures and tales in Middle Earth.

I've played a range of games from UO to WOW and what holds my attention more often than not are the diversions and the community - I have Centipede and Space Invaders if I want to sit around gaining points and leveling. seems to have drawn a lot from existing popular MMOGs and added in a range of extras to create a familiar yet unique game world.

The following categories will receive a numerical rating from 1(worst) to 10(best), and a brief summary of why I rated it how I did. These ratings and impressoins will be from my perspective - that of a casual gamer.

Races (9.0) - "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"

The races are the standard fare of hobbit, elf, dwarf, and human. Elves...

Suddenly all doubts vanish...

But I'd like to compliment him. He improved his spam a little, this time he left it unfinished, at least...

Wow, some desperate user destroyed the spam machine in the middle of spamming! Oh well, at least it looks like it is destroyed completely, I was afraid it would simply go "elves... elves... elves... elves... elves.... elves...elves...elves..." until somebody hits it with a bigger hammer. Nice work.

(laughing uncontrollably...)

Sigh... there goes novelty. Perhaps spam should never try to be serious and should always stay in the comedical realm. Then again, some of the greatest spam we`ve had mixed religious references and deep philosophy with brilliant comedy and marketing.

I`ve been thinking. What makes a spam good spam? Is it bad grammar? Or is it something else... that something that can`t be described. A lot of spam with bad grammar were also bad. And mr.austin`s second attempt impressed many of Mobygames users. I do think that variety is needed... not every spam can be "Totally wah!"... but should spam be so different? Is it narrow-minded to say that all spam should have "Free oh`s!". Or are we just so spoiled by good spam that every other spam leaves as unimpressed and grumpy?

Bottom Line: I`m confused. It seems that mr.austin doesn`t have that magical something. The good grammar was just a flashy gimmick... all style no substance. And I feel ashamed that I let myself be impressed by that gimmick.