The MMO blogosphere is a colorful place full of talented people: writers, reviewers, podcasters, machinimists, painters, musicians, scientists, yes even cooks, just to name a few. And then there are the poets: bloggers who enjoy playing with the formal aspects of the written word as much as (and sometimes more than) message and meaning, people who engage in wordplay and subtle witticism to serious or more frivolous effect – quite often just to provoke a smile from their audience. It’s a beautiful thing to be creative in any shape or form and poetry is a way to be creative with language.
My love for languages and poetry is no news to more frequent readers. Every now and then I let it shine through some parts of my more serious posts, even if way too rarely or then I experiment with different writing styles just because. Poetry doesn’t only happen on the surface even if it’s easier to detect via verse, rhyme and other stylistic devices. A well-written piece of prose full of poetic magic feels like molten silver or a warm 
blanket on the soul. I cheer every time a fellow blogger makes me feel in such a way about games.
Alas, let us shake the bonds of srs blogging bzns this lovely NBI October! Let us engage in some lighthearted forms of lyricism – the spontaneous and experimental, the ironical and conversational or if you so desire, the classics (or a parody thereof)! Too many people shy away from the ivory tower that is poetry but creative writing happens in all shapes and forms and anyone can join in for some fun and experimenting!
Let this second NBI be your opportunity (newcomers and sponsors alike) to contribute to an around-the-MMO-blogosphere poetry slam!
You could, for example, go with something simple: A haiku or limerick about your favorite NPC, your worst dungeon run, your most beloved MMO zone –
Haiku:
“Elwynn, my lovely
How I miss your gentle tune
Too long I’ve been gone.”
Limerick:
“I’d rather have epics than gold,
A mantle or sword for the bold.
To tell where I’ve been,
The things that I’ve seen.
No coin tells my stories of old.”
Or, you could always check out examples on other blogs for inspiration, such as –
- Jeromai’s screenshot poetry
- Melmoth’s “The Haven” (E.A. Poe parody) or “Fie sir, fie sir” (W. Blake parody)
- Klepsacovic’s “Of customer service: a bad poem” (rant)
- MMO poetry Quiz by myself
Any and all NBI poetry slam entries will be rounded-up on MMO Gypsy as well as the official NBI site by the end of October 2013. Feel free to leave me your URL in the comment section or the respective NBI forum thread. Challenge yourself and try something new! There’s no right or wrong ways and no winners – only participation.
And now let loose those creative juices – Happy slamming!
Wahey! It’s here! But but… no guidelines, no topics, now I need to cudgel my poor brain for ideas…
Hehe I was considering it. for some that would be a fun extra challenge, no doubt. however, experience tells me enough people already shy away from creative writing as is, without added theme restrictions. so hopefully thematic freedom will get more bloggers to join for this! I look forward to your post. 🙂
(if you really need a challenge: petrarchan sonnet on Tequila the Sunless! muaha – Shall I compare thee to a sunless day?)
Gotcha. One petrarchan sonnet coming right up…
Erm, soon(TM). Maybe a week. I just got back into Don’t Starve and it’s distracting me!
I shall not begrudge anyone their Don’t Starve! and you have 3 weeks! 😛
127 days in, three depths worms ate Wendy. And that cave death corrupted my save somehow. 🙁
On the bright side, here are your -two- Petrachan sonnets delivered as requested. Though not each line strictly follows iambic pentameter… let’s call it poetic license.
http://whyigame.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/gw2-lovehate-song-for-a-dragon-nbi-poetry-slam/
I fit into this contest
like a hook into an eye
An abomination hook
A squishy basilisk eye
You do realize you have just foregone any chance of being excused from this exercise 😛
Not, I’ll not, resurrection timer, despair, not feast on thee, not untwist, slack they may be, these last armor durabilities and cry “I’m calling it!” I can, can something, hope, wish for better dps, not choose not to play.
It’s okay – I accept nonsense poetry too 😉
A Charr engineer in Queensdale,
caused the champion train to derail.
He caused quite a spat,
in the region map chat.
Such behaviour is beyond the pale.
lol I admire how you managed to rhyme anything with Queensdale!
you should deffo do an individual entry on CMP 🙂
Just for you, Syl. Anyone else, and I would’ve said no way. But for you, I did it.
http://casualaggro.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/mmo-poetry-slam-because-why-not-nbi/
Awesome <3 cheers!
Your wish is my command. 😛
http://josephskyrim.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/nbi-poetry-slam.html
I’m not even going to try to rhyme 🙂 Soon the blogosphere will know just who the most terrible poet is among us …
Thought I’d try one of Jeromai’s picture thingoes too. 😛
http://josephskyrim.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/ode-to-mabinogi-pic-heavy.html
Well, I bit. I didn’t say it was worth reading, but if you don’t mind getting a Police or Madonna song stuck in your head, go for it. Ha!
http://gamerladyp.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/nbi-poetry-slam/
Here’s my own addition that I never thought I’d actually write
http://healingthemasses.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/nbi-poetry-slam-i-long-for-more/
Thanks to all of you who have contributed so far and for spreading the word! some truly awesome and fun contributions already! 🙂
Me too, me too!
http://mightyvikinghamster.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/nbi-poetry-slam/
I’ve been on holiday or I’d have commented sooner. Still working my way through the blog backlog. Thanks for the link love for that year-old post, so ironically undercutting my somewhat incoherent “no one’s going to read your back pages” NBI post of earlier today! Even as I was writing it I was thinking of exceptions. I’ve had enough weird experiences of that nature to know better, too.
Been some while since I wrote any actual poetry. Prose poetry is one thing but verse entirely another. Still, October-Write-A-Poem is a lot easier than NaNoWriMo…
I’d love to see some screenshot poetry from you! in any case, there’s still two weeks to go. 🙂
A YouTube Channel
Loaded with music from Wrath
Resubbed a month
Haiku for all you
New Blogger Initiate
Almost end of month
http://trollshaman.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-persuasive-power-of-soundtrack.html