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Post by oldpossum on Sept 3, 2016 12:22:15 GMT -5
It would be nice if those who ordered the bespoke experience received an extra even a tenth as nice as that.
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Post by thejackalope on Sept 3, 2016 15:54:02 GMT -5
It would be nice if those who ordered the bespoke experience received an extra even a tenth as nice as that. Would be nice if anything at all in the experience was a tenth as nice as that.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 3, 2016 20:51:00 GMT -5
I think the final object in the crate for "The Century Beast" was just as "nice" and interesting as the Beloved Patron artifact. What was definitely better is the box itself.
The artifact is solely a gift for donating over and above at an expensive level during the Kickstarter campaign. As part of that package, I also received all the other experiences the company offered up to that point, as well as a lifetime subscription to C&C (but, oddly, I still had to pay extra for the coloring book and arcane seal--go figure). Plus they've given me some other nice things.
However what I paid is considerably more than the price of all those things combined--the level at which I pledged was a show of support for a fledgling company doing creative work I enjoyed. The ONLY thing that has thus far made me really grumpy is the lack of more substantive 3D items in "The Century Beast" for double the cost of the other experiences. Actually I will amend that: I think the way they handled The Sitting Room was short-sighted and alienated customers. Todd has done a great job here trying to rebuild the community.
I was very glad to receive the Beloved Patron gift, along with the personal letter from The Artisan and a letter from The Curator.
It will be interesting, based on feedback, what they unveil this coming week, i.e., what the price is and what it gets you. The email promised interesting things.
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Post by thejackalope on Sept 4, 2016 0:13:34 GMT -5
I think the way they handled The Sitting Room was short-sighted and alienated customers. Todd has done a great job here trying to rebuild the community. Todd has done an excellent job. The closure of the Sitting Room is a black mark, especially if it's for the reasons I suspect: A small number of people used it to criticize the company and its offerings. Some of the critiques were fair, some a little nutty, some a mix of both. But, they often deleted it just the same when they spotted it -- as I've noticed they routinely do on their FB page. Not, IMO, the best way to conduct yourself. Be open to criticism especially when it is valid, be open to learning from it, and be open to responding to it.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 4, 2016 11:08:21 GMT -5
I don't think that's why they closed it. That's a small thing easily dealt with.
The Sitting Room was a sprawling mess because it was created and launched without really thinking through how it should be organized, and thus it was not organized at all!
Trying to reorganize all of the existing material into a new forum would have been extremely laborious and cost quite a bit in labor. It's also possible that in attempting to do that, they lost all of the information. I've seen that happen before.
However, The Sitting Room had a particular tone about it that began to disintegrate as the customer base began to grow much larger after the Kickstarter campaign. The quality of the writing in the posts often became mundane. For lack of a better way to say it, The Sitting Room lost its "flavor."
When MPC closed it, they might have been watching to see if their business was affected in any way. When this forum was created, it took the pressure off them. And I assume the MPC concluded that business was not affected if they were not hosting a forum.
All of this is just supposition since no reason has been provided by the company. But whatever the reason, it's gone. That, I think, was a mistake on their part.
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Post by professor on Sept 4, 2016 12:08:49 GMT -5
I think the final object in the crate for "The Century Beast" was just as "nice" and interesting as the Beloved Patron artifact. What was definitely better is the box itself. The artifact is solely a gift for donating over and above at an expensive level during the Kickstarter campaign. As part of that package, I also received all the other experiences the company offered up to that point, as well as a lifetime subscription to C&C (but, oddly, I still had to pay extra for the coloring book and arcane seal--go figure). Plus they've given me some other nice things. However what I paid is considerably more than the price of all those things combined--the level at which I pledged was a show of support for a fledgling company doing creative work I enjoyed. I took a peek at the price involved with the Beloved Patron pledge and feel that this was a very fair bonus for you to receive. I would've liked to have seen something a bit more substantial for the Cursed Heritage pledge than a charcoal sketch.
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Post by Beckett on Sept 4, 2016 12:32:53 GMT -5
I took a peek at the price involved with the Beloved Patron pledge and feel that this was a very fair bonus for you to receive. I would've liked to have seen something a bit more substantial for the Cursed Heritage pledge than a charcoal sketch. It was my understanding - please correct me if I am wrong - that the charcoal sketch was one of the items separating the Diamond Bespoke tier pledge from the standard Diamond level pledge, and that the Cursed Heritage bonus would be awarded by way of inclusion in the photograph and documentation from the Hille expedition. This would fit with The Genii receiving the sketch, since the Diamond Bespoke version of The Century Beast was included in the Beloved Patron pledge, while the Cursed Heritage and Expedition Sponsor rewards were not. This reminds me, I wonder if the one person who pledged at the Expedition Sponsor level never redeemed their reward, since there was no mention of a sponsor in either the Expedition or the Exhibition mailings.
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Post by professor on Sept 4, 2016 12:53:54 GMT -5
It was my understanding - please correct me if I am wrong - that the charcoal sketch was one of the items separating the Diamond Bespoke tier pledge from the standard Diamond level pledge, and that the Cursed Heritage bonus would be awarded by way of inclusion in the photograph and documentation from the Hille expedition. This would fit with The Genii receiving the sketch, since the Diamond Bespoke version of The Century Beast was included in the Beloved Patron pledge, while the Cursed Heritage and Expedition Sponsor rewards were not. As far as I can tell, the sketch was the only difference between Cursed Heritage and Diamond Bespoke. And someone's face crossed out with my name on the Hille expedition photograph. I'm not even sure that everyone got the same names listed on that photograph as I've not seen any comparisons mentioned. Those names btw were: Edvard Petter, David Niedzwiecki, Christopher "Thor" Thorstew, Jon Marc Laliberte, Russ Charvonia, Paul Cahiwat, Nicholas Corkigian, Aron Ernst, Candise Paul, An Wen, Linda Charvonia, Bishop Harber, Stephen Paulson, Nicholas Fudge. Still, I'm not sure that really justifies a difference in price of $300.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 4, 2016 21:51:39 GMT -5
Professor, just to be clear: you were at the Cursed Heritage level, but you did not receive the charcoal portrait, correct?
I believe Beckett might have it straight: I received the charcoal sketch, but had neither my name nor image included in the photo as did the Cursed Heritage level. I asked The Curator about that and he replied that the use of the image and name was reserved only for those who had pledged specifically at the Cursed Heritage level. That wasn't clear to me from the way the Kickstarter pledges were set up.
As an Aspie I sometimes miss things like that, but in looking at other Kickstarter campaigns, I have also found it confusing that people who pay less money for certain specific levels receive things that people who pay a lot more money at higher levels don't receive. The Indiegogo campaign for The Armchair Detective Company is similar. You can't assume that because you're pledging at a higher level that you will receive everything from the levels below.
So it pays to educate yourself, I guess. Lesson learned! Once someone here alerted me to the fact that the charcoal sketch was a portrait of me (didn't notice that at first ... duh), I felt better about not being included in the Cursed Heritage photo and list.
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Post by Beckett on Sept 5, 2016 3:57:40 GMT -5
I do prefer it myself when the kickstarter creators provide a chart that clearly states what rewards each pledge level will contain - which would have been especially helpful with the many versions of The Century Beast.
As an aside, the Beloved Patron gift seems to mark at least the third time the Company have reproduced (or acquired?) one of the idols Lovecraft described in The Call of Cthulhu. Here are the other versions:
This one has been taken from the Instagram page of the Company, where it serves as the profile - and only - picture at this time.
This one was used in the campaign description of the Century Beast Kickstarter:
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Post by professor on Sept 5, 2016 11:43:41 GMT -5
Professor, just to be clear: you were at the Cursed Heritage level, but you did not receive the charcoal portrait, correct? No no ... that's incorrect. I was at the Cursed Heritage level (although in my profile it was always referred to as Diamond Bespoke - I contacted the Curator about this and they assured me that I was Cursed Heritage) and I DID receive the charcoal sketch. I also had my name in the Hille Expedition photograph. As far as I'm aware, those two things are what separated the Diamond Bespoke and the Cursed Heritage experiences.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 5, 2016 12:17:39 GMT -5
So is this correct? Diamond Bespoke received the charcoal sketch, but not the portrait or name in Cursed Heritage. That reflects my experience.
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Post by professor on Sept 6, 2016 11:40:54 GMT -5
So is this correct? Diamond Bespoke received the charcoal sketch, but not the portrait or name in Cursed Heritage. That reflects my experience. Diamond Bespoke got the charcoal sketch as well? Then does that mean that all I got extra for the Cursed Heritage was my name on the Hille expedition photo? That was a poorly spent $300 then.
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Post by Beckett on Sept 6, 2016 12:24:18 GMT -5
Then does that mean that all I got extra for the Cursed Heritage was my name on the Hille expedition photo? That was a poorly spent $300 then. As per the pledge description, your likeness should also be included as one of the expedition members. As there were fourteen names on the photo and ten Cursed Heritage pledges, I assumed the faces that had not been scratched out were the Cursed Heritage backers. Is there any chance you might be included there as well? The faces are rather small in that photo...
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Post by thegenii on Sept 6, 2016 14:13:07 GMT -5
Professor, if you look at the new campaign on Kickstarter, you'll see that the inclusion of a personalized name is indeed priced quite highly.
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