What's the season, sir?
It's hunting season, and you
Are being hunted.

Alrighty then, thanks
Everyone for posting!
Lots of good stuff here

I think you'll agree.
It wasn't easy picking
Three recipients

After much head-scratching
And slight premature baldness
Due to head-scratching

From seven, it came
Down to five, and finally
Down to just three poems:

1. Lifthrasil

The bard writes poems
This summer I would love to
Listen to his tale

Wow, what an evocative image! There's many ways it can be interpreted. For the religious among us, the bard might be The Creator and if so, that's a really profound poem. For the more literal, somebody just wants to play the Bard's Tale, but it's still a mighty fine way of saying it. Saying it out loud is just fun and fills me with a sense of wonder. Nice job, Lifthrasil! Did you say you wanted Risen 2? If so, you've got it. Better confirm by PM or post though, just so I get the right game.

2. Potzato

Summer in the air,
awaking the dungeon, heroes
in keeper's lair.

Summer is often my least favorite season, but you wouldn't know it from these excellent poems! I don't know about you, but this one feels mysterious, creepy, heart-warming and adventurous all at once and I think it's pretty tricky to arouse all those thoughts out of just 17 syllables! So Potzato, tell me, what's going to be in your summer air?

Now this last one was tricky. It was basically a five-way tie between Telika, fronzelneekburm, MrStarker, Jeets2 and BranjoHello and I had a devil of a time picking. (Honorable mention to iphgix, who made me laugh out loud.) In the end, I had to go with my gut and choose:

3. Both Jeets2 and Mrstarker

Brr, its cold outside.
Just one more turn left to go.
When did spring arrive?

is Jeet2's winner, at least for me, and,

Fog hides monstrous shapes.
Is that an air-raid siren?
What did you do, James?

is what clinched it for Mrstarker.

One is a great encapsulation of human nature and the other is chilling to the point of goose bumps. They're both just so good, I think you'll agree! I wanted a more light-hearted poem to win and Jeet2's is a great one about the passage of time and a good, absorbing game, not to mention very true of the genre. Even if you haven't played Silent Hill 2, I imagine the mysterious last line makes you wonder and if you have the whole thing is a thrilling bit of psychological poetry! So Jeet2, and Mrstarker, what would you like?

So I'm very, very sorry for breaking my limit of three, but after looking at what I've got and the most expensive game on GOG, I know I could handle four winners. I guess I just picked three because it's customary to do three. Sorry, sorry!

After reflecting on everything, I thought it would have been nice to give away some sort of little prize to everyone who participated, but I don't know that GOG does stuff like virtual gift certificates. (They should you know, it would be nice.) If they did, I could give away $5 coupons or something like that.

I was thinking on it and I thought, what if we made it a tradition? Every time GOG does a seasonal sale, a few weeks afterward, we celebrate with a round of poems (doesn't have to be haiku, but I'd sure love it to be, I think the limitations are enticing and as you can see people still post a few free verse and other poems anyway) and a few winners, though next time with more tiers so everyone has a chance to win something? What do you think, good idea? Bad idea?

Over the next few days, I at least hope to respond to all of your poems with what I liked about them, but for now I have to get to the business of distributing prizes, so if you'll excuse me!

Congratulations to the winners, and yes I think it should be done more. Of course it can become a more traditional form of giveaway (why don't more giveaways use that format ?), but maybe also something without gifts drives.

Heck, you know what, these should be integrated to the game cards pages.Or maybe just a haiku-based "guess the game" thread - after all we have screenshot guessing threads for both games and movies already...

Congratulations to first-time poets (including me ;-) ).

The winners are named
Please enjoy your prizes, and:
Congratulations!

(Admittedly, from the little that I know about poetry, this one completely, utterly, fails as an haiku in pretty much everything except the basic form ... but it's heartfelt! :) )

Congrats all winners, well done! :)

Sazanamistyle, I enjoyed this thread a lot - I love giveaways where you are asked to do something creative; writing and poetry in particular make it even more interesting. So thanks a lot for this!

If there'd be a regular occasion, maybe a monthly poetry contest even (doesn't have to be a giveaway), I'd be all for it.

Thank you Sazanamistyle for a great giveaway.
Congratulations to all participants, it was really nice to such efforts and creativity.

And yes, we would expect more wordplays on a forum (i.e. place made of written correspondance) full of old grumpy gamers.

Wow! Thank you, Sazanamistyle, for your kind words about my poem and for your awesomely generous giveaway. And yes, I would love to explore the world of Risen 2.

After the sunset
I stroll into the forum
And find that I won

The Generous One
Has spoken and has granted
Unexpected joy.

This was a magnificent giveaway that got all the participants to share their creativity so a big thanks to you Sazanamistyle for your generosity and ingenuity. There were a lot of great entries so I definitely don't envy your position and I really appreciate your kind intentions of rewarding all the participants, it is really the thought that matters.

I would have never attempted to understand or write a haiku if it weren't for the encouragement here as well as observing the nice contributions made by others, so that in itself is a reward. Even if my first attempts are probably abysmal but atleast I have got some experience in this kind of poetry. So congrats to all the deserving winners and once again +rep to you Sazanamistyle. :)

EDIT: Forgot to mention the games that I was referring to if anyone is interested, based on the same order are as follows:

1- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
2- Jack Keane (obviously)
3- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
4- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

lol~ Are you seriously apologizing for your generosity? *fit of giggles*

This was a lot of fun, and even if I'm not great at it, I really enjoy poetry :D I'll be happy to participate in anything you come up with, prizes or no ;D

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who participated! ^__^

Anyone know if Jeets2 and Mrstarker regularly check the forum or only come around every few days or so? I haven't had a response from either of them yet, so I was wondering if they were less prolific members.

Edit: I already PMed both of them, but I'm wondering if I don't need to check once every couple of hours to make sure I don't miss them.

If you PM'd them, they'll have notifications that are pretty hard to miss. I'm sure they'll check in with you soon :)

Awesome Idea!! +1

not in but I would like to try my own poetry about games or gog games.

Thanks for your generosity and congratulations for the idea.

Sorry, I saw the message, but I had to leave in a hurry this morning before I had a chance to reply. I actually just came back a few hours ago from listening to Ben Okri talk about his work and recite his poetry. Very fitting, considering the topic of this giveaway and that Ben Okri is a fan of Matsuo Bashō.

Anyway, this was a great giveaway and it was a lot of fun to write the haikus and to see what other people came up with and to guess what game they were about. It would be great to see more creative giveaways like this, so I'm all for it becoming a tradition.

As for the game, I've gone through my wishlist and I think Shadowrun Returns is really the stand-out candidate for me, as I'm a big fan of anything dealing with cyberpunk or film noir.

Thank you Sazanamistyle, for this giveaway: one of the most interesting, profound and elegant ever, I must say.
Congratulations to the winners for their amazing creativity and to all that contributed for enriching our lives with their creations.