Watching the E3 presentation on Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor out of sheer morbid curiosity. My mind is posing unto itself one simple question: just how much will they rape the lore? The game’s whole premise lies so far out of what Tolkien envisioned that anything these developers come up with will prove incredibly egregious from a literary perspective. On the other hand, with what’s been happening with the Hobbit movies, this game seems really mild in comparison. I guess I have to shrug my shoulders and say “who the fuck cares”? Middle-Earth has been so underused (and poorly) as a gaming franchise, and Tolkien has been dead for over forty years. Copyright is not meant to be a barrow-wight chanting around the graves of long-dead authors. Unlike the Star Wars prequel trilogy, none of this takes away from the true canon. I’ll admit I used to be a really purist Tolkien fan, but this kind of stuff doesn’t bother me anymore. So long as the game is decent, anyway.

Simple fact is I will probably end up playing this just to have fun in Arda, something I haven’t done since the Lord of the Rings tie-in console games for the Gamecube. Way to take me back, memories. If the game succeeds, then maybe Middle-Earth will grow into a great video-game franchise at long last.