Aww shucks.. Shouldve stayed sober.. Congratz to ZFR!

I expected a μαϊμού to be fluent enough to read N. Kazantzakis with no problems. Colour me disappointed.


Congrats to all and everyone that solved a mystery/riddle, and big thanks to _Slaugh_ and mrkgnao for their generosity.

Funny thing is I almost went to a place that has statuary of the stations of the cross the other day, but this particular ritual wouldn't likely have occurred to me - none of the churches I've ever attended have given it much emphasis. I wouldn't have associated the #14, for example.

I was PMing with mrk hours ago about it being related to the crucifixion (thus why I've been listening to said soundtrack - though it's a long-time favorite), but was looking more broadly. I thought the ear, for example, might refer to Malchus.

In any case, I stopped working on it precisely because I didn't want the prize anyway, but I do appreciate the offer. You should go halfsies with mrk though :)
Once upon a time I could read Chekhov and Pushkin. Now I can barely read Grebenshikov.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhcNYYJrhY

No, no, don't give him any ideas.

Yes, and I mean it's not like you would ever suggest a solution in that vein either. ;)

The stations of the cross...? I'm actually a Christian, and I still didn't see that connection. Mind explaining how it worked exactly? I'm still not entirely getting it.
And a hearty congratulations to ZFR! Honestly, you deserved it, considering how hard you worked for it with all these guesses.

Sure.

Reminder: If you are a devout Christian and are offended by references to Jesus in a non-religious context, do not click on the spoiler.

[spoiler]
1) Jesus is condemned to death -> [ignored, as explained before]
2) Jesus carries his cross -> cross -> fingers crossed -> fingers
3) Jesus falls the first time -> fall -> bottom half of body -> legs
4) Jesus meets his mother -> mother -> breastfeeding -> chest (plus unrelated double meaning of the word "chest")
5) Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross -> Simon -> in Hebrew, Shimeon -> from the Hebrew root "shama", to hear -> ears (plus unrelated "rained ears" pun)
6) Veronica wipes the face of Jesus -> face -> face
7) Jesus falls the second time -> fall -> bottom half of body -> feet
8) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem -> meet women -> hands on Aya's rack
9) Jesus falls the third time -> fall -> bottom half of body -> butt
10) Jesus is stripped of his garments -> given that I already used chest and legs, I decided to consider Santa's beard as a garment (weak)
11) Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross -> nailed -> nails
12) Jesus dies on the cross -> dies -> brain dead -> brain
13) Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation) -> lamentation -> tears
14) Jesus is laid in the tomb -> laid -> on back -> back

Notes:
I had initially planned to do legs + knees + hips for 3/7/9, but couldn't find any "good" links for knees and hips
I had initially planned to do liver for 12 ("die' vs. "live"), but could only find a Hindi skit about Santa's Liver, which I didn't understand, not knowing Hindi (except for the words "doctor", "liver" and "Santa").
[/spoiler]

...most of that makes almost no sense whatsoever. Not to insult you, but you said it seemed "easy enough to solve without hints", and I say that's only possible if somebody has some seriously convoluted logic that they normally work with. I mean, at least somebody got it, but it seems more just like random chance because bler made the connection with "offensive" and "Jesus" since Christians are often perceived as the touchiest of people. That was basically the biggest clue there was once you said he needed to be more specific. Miko paved the way after that.

Congrats to the winners .. I figured it must have had something to do with the "Last Supper" .. The (drinking & eating) body and all that.

wooo! congrats ZFR!!! thanks for the added fun, mrkgnao!

 
A huge thanks to all the participants!  It's been a pleasure to host this giveaway!  :-)
 
 
A special thanks to the following folks:

bler144:      Our unstoppable statistician.
phandom:     Our spreadsheet master.
helpo1:       Our field investigator and compulsive Tic-tac-toe master.
ZFR:          Our geographer.
mrkgnao:    Our novelist.
 
 
As a bonus, here are some useful details and statistics...
 
 
 
 
Eliminated games
 
 
 ▪  It's not a stereoscopic video game.
   ×  Swat 5

 ▪  The game is not published by Sierra Entertainment.
   ×  Evil Genius 2

 ▪  uPlay is not required to play this game.
   ×  Beyond Good & Evil 2

 ▪  It's possible to play without the Steam Client.
   ×  Half Life 3
   ×  Portal 3

 ▪  Something appears eight times in this video and is not part of the game.
   ×  The Witcher 4: Rise of the Unicorns

 ▪  You won't find a PEGI label on the box.
   ×  ObsCure 3

 ▪  The game is not published by the Top Men ᵀᴹ
   ×  No One Lives Forever 3

 ▪  It's not a point-and-click game.
   ×  Day of the Tentacle 2
 
 
 
 
Eliminated villains
 
 
 ▪  James Gordon reports that no villain has left the city.
   ×  Harley Quinn
   ×  Poison Ivy
   ×  [url=http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/The_Joker_%28Batman:_Arkham_Asylum%29]The Joker[/url]

 ▪  The villain is not the owner of a planetarium in Hillwood.
   ×  Carlo Falcone

 ▪  Lara Croft has never met the kidnapper.
   ×  Amanda Evert
   ×  Jacqueline Natla

 ▪  The kidnapper is not affiliated with the Umbrella Corporation and has never met Dalton Fiske.
   ×  Albert Wesker
   ×  Big Jim Slade

 ▪  The villain is not wearing a hat.
   ×  Jack the Ripper
   ×  LeChuck

 ▪  Nothing is covering the kidnapper's mouth.
   ×  Darth Malak
   ×  Mileena
   ×  Scorpion

 ▪  The villain is not wearing an eyepatch.
   ×  Dimitrij Volkov
   ×  Marquis Montalban
   ×  Sagat

 ▪  The kidnapper is not bald.
   ×  Agent 47
   ×  Jon Irenicus
   ×  Kane

 ▪  The villain has no beard.
   ×  Challus Mercer
   ×  Kagan
   ×  Vaas Montenegro
 
 
 
 
Eliminated countries
 
 
 ▪  No sun appears on the country's flag.
   ×  Japan
   ×  Philippines
   ×  Uruguay

 ▪  It's not the land of wood and water.
   ×  Jamaica

 ▪  No yellow star appears on the country's flag.
   ×  China
   ×  Vietnam

 ▪  The country's flag is not blue and white only.
   ×  Finland
   ×  Greece

 ▪  The red color appears on the country's flag.
   ×  Brazil
   ×  Ireland
   ×  Sweden

 ▪  You won't find the national coat of arms on the country's flag.
   ×  Egypt
   ×  Portugal
   ×  Spain

 ▪  The country's flag is not black, yellow and red.
   ×  Belgium
   ×  Germany  ᴬ

 ▪  It's not in North America.
   ×  Canada
   ×  Cuba
   ×  United States

 ▪  It's an European country.
   ×  Australia
   ×  Peru
   ×  South Korea
 
 
Notes :    ᴬ   As summarized by Arnold Rabbow:  "the German colours are black–red–yellow but they are called black–red–gold."
          ᴮ   The coat of arms of Switzerland shows the same white cross as the flag of Switzerland, but on a red shield.   ( Wikipedia )
 
 
 
 
Guesses
 
 
 ▪  <span class="bold">All guesses in PDF format</span>, including the clues  (Posts 1 - 1619)
 
   ⌂  16 remaining combos   ( 0.15 % )
   ⌂  3 remaining games   ( 25 % )
   ⌂  8 remaining villains   ( 26.67 % )
   ⌂  8 remaining countries   ( 26.67 % )
   ⌂  1272 guesses   ( 11.78 % )
 
 
 
 
Wave           Combinations                Clues          Combos            Chances

No clue         10,800   ―  100 %           n/a            12 - 30 - 30          n/a
Clues # 1        8,748  ―  81 %             0 - 3 - 3        12 - 27 - 27         19 %
Clues # 2        7,436  ―  68.9 %          1 - 1 - 1         11 - 26 - 26         31.1 %
Clues # 3        5,760   ―  53.3 %          1 - 2 - 2         10 - 24 - 24         46.7 %
Clues # 4        4,356   ―  40.3 %          1 - 2 - 2         9 - 22 - 22         59.7 %
Clues # 5        2,660   ―  24.6 %          2 - 2 - 3         7 - 20 - 19         75.4 %
Clues # 6        1,632   ―  15.1 %          1 - 3 - 3         6 - 17 - 16         84.9 %
Clues # 7        980   ―  9 %              1 - 3 - 2         5 - 14 - 14         91 %
Clues # 8        484   ―  4.5 %             1 - 3 - 3         4 - 11 - 11         95.5 %
Clues # 9        192     ―  0.0001 %        1 - 3 - 3         3 - 8 - 8           99.9999 %
 
 

Congrats to {TheLuckyPerson==mrkgnao/ZFR} and thanks, as previously mentioned, to {TheGiveawayPerson==_Slaugh_}. :)
In reverse order this time. And beware, I'm not going to draw a revolver again. :P

Third yay! :P

Well, just one mistake in 53 eliminations... That's more than 98% correct. I'm clearly improving. :P

BTW, if anybody cares, here's my private WIP elimination list.

PS: Thanks again to _Slaugh_ for the exhaustive statistics. :)

Thank you / congrats / bye

In for helpo

Thank you _Slaugh_ for the exciting 2 week game. I'm already looking forward to the next one.
Thank you mrkgnao for the novel, it was a pleasant add-on (though I must confess, I was not even close to solving the riddle)
And thank you everyone for your support in so many posts.

And I would like to thank, besides Slaugh for the giveaway and mrkgnao for the winning entry, all those who entered for me. I tried keeping track initially, but it became too difficult later on. So thanks to all of you.