I've gotten my share of strange and/or passionate e-mails and private messages since joining the GameSpot staff but, for whatever reason, the comments really piled up over the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. As an aside to my more traditional GameSpotting musings, I thought I'd sample a few of these for you. Names have been obscured to protect the guilty. Unless the name made me laugh, that is. In all cases, spelling and grammar have been perfectly preserved.

Item #1 comes from via e-mail from a concerned Gran Turismo 4 fan who evidently was angered by my Gran Turismo 4 Japanese import impressions:

How is it on line? How many cars race at once? More then six I hope. If the is no online play and the bump car effect is still in the game. How will this game move the bar foreword? ... What other industry could tout such BIG INPROVMENTS and actually have changed so very little.

I barely have the heart to tell him that GT 4 won't arrive with online play enabled.

Item #2 arrived also via e-mail from a reader in South Carolina who wrote an impassioned letter decrying the EA/NFL and EA/ESPN partnerships that have recently developed:

And now... THIS! EA made me a little mad when they went and disposed of their enemy the way they did. They got outclassed from sitting on their ass so long, and it ticked them off. So now there's a good chance we're ALL going to suffer for it. They probably won't bring back those two fellows who did their hilarious (at times) commentary for ESPN ("Dan" and "Peter"), the "shoulder charge", the diving tackles, the MUCH BETTER LOOKING PLAYER MODELS (EVERY player in MADDEN looks like a block of granite!), etc.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions, and also I hope you have some words of solace or encouragement about this impending "doom". =)

This is not the first comment I've seen lamenting the state of sports gaming, the death of Visual Concepts' NFL 2K franchise, the lack of healthy competition in the market place, etc. Many people have asked me if I'm outraged by developments such as this and, frankly, the answer is no. Hindsight being 20/20 of course, we should have seen deals like this coming along months ago, if not years. The saddest part of the EA/ESPN deal? I'll be 48 years old by the time the 15-year exclusive deal expires. FORTY EIGHT. Now that is worth getting outraged over...

Item #3 arrived to me via GameSpot's private message feature and displays a commonly held misconception among our readers:

hey i was wondering if u gamespot emplyees could send me a $500.00 ebgames gift card for my birthday on Febuary 27th

First of all, I think this guy is confusing us (GameSpot) for the retail game store Gamestop. Secondly, even if I did work for Gamestop, why would I send you a gift card from EBGames, their direct retail competitor? Wouldn't I just send you a Gamestop card? Finally, the saddest part of this message is that I spent most of the weekend desperately seaching for someone I could randomly send $500 to. If only this gentleman had sent me his full name and address! On the plus side, I think we still have some of those Balrogs left...

The last message, Item #4, happens to be my favorite one of all, simply because it's sent from a user named mrsweden:

So are you swedish or what?

That's it. That's the entirety of the message. Apparently, this mrsweden guy is totally into being Swedish. And you know what? As a fellow Swede, I am totally cool with that.

I'll be back to the regular GameSpotting shrieking and raving next week. For now, feel free to fill up my mailbox with more good stuff. Even if you're not Swedish.