Earlier this month we ran the Dark Cloud contest (our second PS2 contest) in which we asked everyone who wanted to get their hands on Sony's latest RPG, Dark Cloud, to tell us just why random dungeons (which Dark Cloud incorporates) are still popular after so many years, and why these games still appeal to you.

We received well over 100 entries, varying from the very well done to the... well, not so well done. Here we'll showcase what the winner, Adam Lindsley, did to outperform the rest of the field, and we'll also feature two runners-up who did very well, but not quite as well as our winner.

What we were looking for in each of the entries were the basics such as coherency, spelling, and grammar; a nicely laid out and informative opinion about just why random dungeons are so popular after all this time; and that little bit of personal flare and touch when one showed just why it drew them personally.

We would like to thank Sony for allowing us to give out such a great prize, and we would like to thank all of our entrants. Although many did well, and we'd love to give out more prizes, there only can be one winner.

Without further ado, here are the winner and the two runners-up.

Randomly Generated Dungeons: Why you can't put'em down. Adam Lindsley's winning piece.  Why randomly generated dungeons are still popular. William Forcier's runner up article.  Random Dungeons: The Unique meets the Unknown. Dean DeLongchamp's runner up piece.