Eleduar
Assistant
Sitter of the original sitting room. Vault 3 opener. Lover of mystery, otherworldy, supernatural.
Posts: 68
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Post by Eleduar on Dec 8, 2016 23:15:02 GMT -5
I'll be honest- I felt both irritated and disappointed when I found out that some of the Chapter 4 locks had been opened ahead of the issue even being shipped. There's something that doesn't sit right with me about opening locks by just throwing out guesses (even educated ones) until you find one that works, instead of actually puzzling out the solution. It just feels like cheating to me (inasmuch as one can cheat at something like this). It certainly doesn't seem to be in keeping with the spirit of C&C and it feels like it goes against what we're always telling newcomers about building a community, and this being more about the journey than the destination. I remember waiting eagerly for my issue to arrive so I could (figuratively) sit down with everybody and start puzzling out answers for the locks. Finding out that some of those locks had already been opened really took the wind out of my sails. I just kind of felt like "Well geez, why even bother now?" It doesn't build much of a sense of community when some people are sitting down to work through to the solution only to have others go "Oh, well, we already guessed the answer without even looking at the puzzle, but we can discuss it anyway." And don't tell me it's the MPC's fault for putting the locks up early or "dumbing down" the puzzles so that the answers can be guessed- no one made you start guessing Vault codes (oh, and what with all the remarks about "dumbing down," well, thanks for making those of us who found the puzzles challenging/didn't guess the answers beforehand/enjoy some of the new "dumbed down" articles and features feel stupid). That being said, I do feel that the plot was more cohesive and fleshed out in Volumes 1 & 2. MPC, if you're listening, I feel like we need the storytelling of the first two volumes, but the extra, blinged out puzzles of the third. I completely respect your view point and as someone who waits to read the C&C until their buddies to get theirs in the mail, I could see how this might be a bit irritating for someone else that sounds like they are part of a larger whole. However from my happy look of things, I think to some who puzzle away on their own, or those in smaller groups (perhaps a cozy couple, a duo of two besties, a parent and child, etc.) it would be very delightful and thrilling to discover answers from future issues, invoking a sense of pride in oneself and self esteem that often can be hard to find in a world that can sometimes seem so dark.
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Eleduar
Assistant
Sitter of the original sitting room. Vault 3 opener. Lover of mystery, otherworldy, supernatural.
Posts: 68
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Post by Eleduar on Dec 8, 2016 23:19:43 GMT -5
Preferring the Vol 1/2 story to the Vol 3 story is totally legitimate (even though we haven't yet completed the Vol 3 story). I just get my back up when people suggest there's MORE story in 1/2, or somehow NO story in vol 3... or that there weren't any random or disconnected single-word puzzle answers in 1/2. (There were plenty.) I prefer the puzzles being marked, because I didn't enjoy not knowing what was a puzzle and what wasn't in 1/2. It was too wide-open. Anything could have been a puzzle, and a lot of people saw puzzles where there weren't any, which struck me as a big waste of time. I much preferred the Victorian medium serial to the Madame Morpheme story. The puzzles in this volume were more puzzly... a lot of what we called "puzzles" in 1/2 were actually just straight-up decryption tasks, not puzzling. The method was the same: 1. identify something as a secret code 2. find the alphabet for that code 3. decode it. I can't speak for the first two volumes (as I have not read them), but I have to say I've really enjoyed the variety of puzzles and the amount of creativity and diversity that went into the puzzles for volume 3. I especially liked the more "hands on" puzzles, which required (semi spoilers) the curios themselves, moving things, cutting and pasting, and even to my delight...making "signs" with my own hands.
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Post by khoward on Dec 11, 2016 18:01:15 GMT -5
I would be fascinated by a documentary about the puzzling process/choices as they built a Volume. I am impressed with the interconnections between every element.
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Post by ladybug on Dec 12, 2016 14:50:14 GMT -5
I also really enjoyed the story from Vol 1/2, and I enjoyed the hunt for the puzzles. Having the puzzles marked certainly made things easier, but I liked the adventure of finding them too. I thought Vol 3 was quite good as well, and of course, the Strawberry puzzle was amazing, a really nice throwback for this child of the 80s! I really really liked having the final story piece in the vault. I thought that was a nice change from the previous ones where the entry was a little anticlimactic. The varying levels of difficulty in the puzzles, the playing to different strengths and bodies of knowledge, and the deep levels to some puzzles made it a joy to work with others on this board. And I have to say, the people on this board make the whole experience so much more fun -- the friendliness and sharing really makes this a special community. I hope MPC can continue to give us a challenging mix of pencil-and-paper puzzles mixed with interactive online stuff and tactile elements!
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chelseamc
Adjunct
Vault Cracker - Volume 1
"In this perplexity I was reduced to the last condition of mental despair..." -A New Era of Thought
Posts: 27
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Post by chelseamc on Dec 13, 2016 14:21:57 GMT -5
Personally, I thought Volume 3 was the MPC's best yet. I've been along for the ride since Curios and Conundrums launched, and it's been a pleasure to watch both the quarterly and the MPC grow by leaps and bounds along the way. Granted, there have been some growing pains, but CnC is now so far above and beyond what I could have hoped for as a hobby that I share with distant friends that I couldn't be a more stalwart supporter. That said, I liked the 4-part fiction from V2 much better. I miss learning about the MPC and OSS from the earlier issues, but with as big as the publication has gotten, it's probably good to keep a few things mysterious. The recipes in past issues were fun, as well, but that's a personal bias. The new Vault was fantastic, and being able to enter codes as we went was so much more rewarding than having to wait all year and then flail to get everything entered at once. The curios were stepped up, too, and a few choice selections will be displayed in my someday-library.Favorite parts this go around included the incredibly elaborate, multi-tiered puzzles, some of which led to enormous fun on other websites. Not to mention the wide variety of puzzles available. It stretched my sleuthing to the limit, which was a blast. Plus, they elicit real emotions- elation and relief at having successfully solved something, frustration at hitting a wall, warm camaraderie at teamwork, and a welter of conflicting feels at the end there. Count me in for the long haul. I'm excited to see where they go next- social media? dead drops? different items to different members? I, for one, would help Kickstart an actual Sitting Room.
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Post by MrKairo on Dec 28, 2016 17:09:15 GMT -5
Well, here we are at the end of another Volume. I'd like to revisit some of my earlier statements using the all-powerful lens of hindsight.
Issue 4 did a lot to redeem this Volume in my eyes. Not only was there a veritable cavalcade of story elements (Big O and the Strawberry puzzles in particular), but, to a certain extent, they brought some of the mystery back. I'll admit that, when Issue 3 arrived, I went straight to the puzzle page and ignored the rest of the paper for a while. Volume 4, on the other hand, had pictograms and completely unexplained lines of random letters and subtly bolded letters that form a message... No longer was it a matter of just finding the symbols. Which is exactly how I think it should be: having the padlocks is great and helps with "goals", but let some secrets of the paper stand alone from the Vault. Call them easter eggs, if you want. You don't need to find them to enjoy the movie, but they help enrich the experience for those of us who are interested in seeking them out.
As I said before, I am very happy with the quantity and difficulty of the puzzles this Volume. However, I would like to double-down on my appreciation for the quality. While there were certainly some duds (the Jumbles and Perplexle spring to mind), the rest were mind-blowingly impressive. I was impressed when many of the puzzles had a second or third layer, but I was even more amazed to find that there were puzzles that secretly spanned all four issues (in this case I am once again thinking of Strawberry, where it used words and answers and even curios from all four issues together so impressively). The variety of puzzles was off the chart, from rebuses all the way up to full-fledged video games. Really, really spectacular. I do miss the cryptographic ciphers a bit and I wish there had been a video this time around (I mean, they clearly now have a video department), but nonetheless, very impressed.
I stand by my criticism of the paper's content. Marshall McLuhan long ago said that "The medium is the message." By that he meant that the way we receive information colors the way we apprehend it. However, it also means that messing with the medium messes with the message (go ahead and say that 5 times fast). You are releasing a 1900's style paper about oddities. I would much rather see that style of journalism, rather than tongue-in-cheek literature travelogues or Ask Death. It just took me out of it.
But overall, I am extremely happy with the quality of this Volume.
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Post by oldpossum on Jan 9, 2017 19:01:39 GMT -5
I have a question about this volume, and I'm not sure where else to post it, so hopefully someone will notice this and respond here. Last year was a busy one for me, and as a result, I'm terribly behind on investigating this volume of C&C. For those of you who are staying current with your puzzling, I'm wondering about the extent of the online elements of this volume (vault locks, etc.) and how timely they are. I'm not looking for any spoilers. I just want to know, if I am several months behind in catching up, am I missing too much of the payoff of the experience by not staying current? I worry that my Volume 3 is just going to waste and that the online elements might disappear, cutting me off from the full experience. Can anyone speak to this?
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Post by MrKairo on Jan 9, 2017 22:30:18 GMT -5
I have a question about this volume, and I'm not sure where else to post it, so hopefully someone will notice this and respond here. Last year was a busy one for me, and as a result, I'm terribly behind on investigating this volume of C&C. For those of you who are staying current with your puzzling, I'm wondering about the extent of the online elements of this volume (vault locks, etc.) and how timely they are. I'm not looking for any spoilers. I just want to know, if I am several months behind in catching up, am I missing too much of the payoff of the experience by not staying current? I worry that my Volume 3 is just going to waste and that the online elements might disappear, cutting me off from the full experience. Can anyone speak to this? There were no timed broadcasts this time around and I haven't seen any of the online content go away yet. While the vault locks were timed with the issue releases, I don't think that will affect your enjoyment of finding the answers. You shouldn't have a problem getting the full experience.
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Post by k80 on Jan 10, 2017 11:28:05 GMT -5
I have a question about this volume, and I'm not sure where else to post it, so hopefully someone will notice this and respond here. Last year was a busy one for me, and as a result, I'm terribly behind on investigating this volume of C&C. For those of you who are staying current with your puzzling, I'm wondering about the extent of the online elements of this volume (vault locks, etc.) and how timely they are. I'm not looking for any spoilers. I just want to know, if I am several months behind in catching up, am I missing too much of the payoff of the experience by not staying current? I worry that my Volume 3 is just going to waste and that the online elements might disappear, cutting me off from the full experience. Can anyone speak to this? We've learned from past experience now (hello, first broadcast) to archive anything that might become ephemeral. While you won't have to wait at all for the vault padlocks to go up, your experience should remain largely unchanged. We've got your back, don't worry. Also, this volume was a lot different from the first two, no worries about phone calls or timed broadcasts anyway. You're good!
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Post by dmikester on Jan 10, 2017 14:50:22 GMT -5
helenahandbasket, you've read my mind about a long-term posting plan of mine here. I'm currently in the throes of urgent deadlines for a number of my college-bound students, but I'm hoping, once everything quiets down, to start threads in all of the experiences and volumes about references and general real-life concepts related to each one. The detail the MPC puts into the experiences is incredible (I'm still blown away by the amount of thought put into the newspapers that wrap around some of the items), and with such a smart and savvy community, I bet we could create a pretty incredible collection of info.
Also, I have no way of confirming this, but I remember not too long ago we were discussing the oddities of the appearances of the tracking numbers with the first mailings of the John Augur and Demon Jar and our uncertainty about why some people got tracking numbers and some didn't. I'm currently getting most of the experiences delivered to me all at once thanks to the Dread Holidays, so I get many shipping notifications from the MPC. The first shipping notification that was sent after our tracking number discussion had an added line that I can confirm wasn't on any of the previous ones and has remained since, specifically this: "IMPORTANT: Tracking numbers can take up to 2 BUSINESS DAYS to appear online." Could be a total coincidence, or someone from the MPC could be lurking in the wings....
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Post by Todd on Jan 10, 2017 16:06:44 GMT -5
As with most people, there were things I really enjoyed about Volume 3 and things I did not enjoy so much. Some of the puzzles were challenging and some of the meta-puzzles lead into deliciously deep rabbit holes. Typically, I prefer cipher-based puzzles that provide additional story by solving them, but I cannot emphasize enough that I have an overall positive view of the puzzles.
The negative elements that I would mention are twofold: Tone and Timing.
As for Tone, I appreciate the expanded size of the paper and the opportunity that gives to experiment and find a voice. I hope to see further exploration of stories that tie in with the real world. Serialized fiction provides a nice break, and just because I didn't personally like the storytelling voice of Madame Morpheme, I won't discount the story outright. The plot itself was entertaining, and I feel a disembodied attachment of sorts to one of the characters. The travelogue took us to a number of literary destinations, but our own world is so rich with interesting places. I liked the tales of unusual deaths, but liked it less that Death himself penned the column. An advice column is certainly a must-have, and Aunt Agony rises to the occasion. All in all, I applaud the risks that MPC took and call them of mixed success.
I recognize that the marked puzzle element was necessary for the phonemic cipher puzzle in Chapter 4, and the map as well. But I definitely missed the element of not knowing where to find the puzzles. I'm sure many people pressed right to the puzzles when they received the later issues and saved the articles for a rainy day.
Also, I felt much more involved in Volumes 1 and 2 because I believed that Andrew was directly engaging the subscribers with his hidden puzzles. Here I was, just an ordinary guy, caught up in this world of intrigue because I was able to find the hidden messages! And now I find I've just been an interloper all along. That's a tad disappointing.
Timing, however, is probably the biggest flaw of this volume, IMO. Making the Chapter 4 locks available before the issue even shipped lead to guesswork-solving of a number of locks. Then, those who received their issues first by virtue of location were able to advance through the remaining keys quickly so that the vault was opened when, by my guess based on the survey conducted here, at least 10% of the subscribers still had yet to receive their issue.
As I recall, the Volume 2 Vault was delayed for a couple months after the final issue of the volume shipped. When the Vault went live, we all had a pretty level playing field since we'd pretty much exhausted all of the puzzles and it was now just a matter of finding the idiosyncrasies of the keys. I'd like to see some sort of equalization put back into the mix in future volumes. As to how that could be done following the model of Volume 3, what if the Daytime locks only now became available? Subscribers could get the instant gratification of entering the Night Lock keys, and find some of the hidden Day Lock puzzles, but they surely wouldn't have found them all, and we would have a fairly even starting point for the final group of locks.
All-in-all, though, I had a wonderful time working the puzzles and building the community. Much thanks to MPC and to each one of you.
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Post by wortelboer on Mar 11, 2017 14:07:06 GMT -5
Being relatively new to puzzle cracking...I found this Volume overwhelming at times...and frustrating...but when I did come back to puzzles and figured them out (at times with a lot of help)...it was a wonderful feeling. It was challenging but in the end not too challenging..
Today, I cracked the last Vault and what was inside was amazing. Loved the ending. It is definitely worth all the vault cracking to get to. That being said...as a reward for making it through ALL the labyrinth of vaults, I would like the opportunity to buy a challenge coin marking my achievement. Certainly the Curator could put a code or a link to a special page to purchase such items.
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Post by Prozac on Mar 12, 2017 13:02:16 GMT -5
...as a reward for making it ALL the labyrinth of vaults, I would like the opportunity to buy a challenge coin marking my achievement. Certainly the Curator could put a code or a link to a special page to purchase such items. I could not agree with and wholeheartedly support this excellent idea more!
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Post by wortelboer on Mar 12, 2017 13:16:03 GMT -5
Being relatively new to puzzle cracking...I found this Volume overwhelming at times...and frustrating...but when I did come back to puzzles and figured them out (at times with a lot of help)...it was a wonderful feeling. It was challenging but in the end not too challenging.. Today, I cracked the last Vault and what was inside was amazing. Loved the ending. It is definitely worth all the vault cracking to get to. That being said...as a reward for making it through ALL the labyrinth of vaults, I would like the opportunity to buy a challenge coin marking my achievement. Certainly the Curator could put a code or a link to a special page to purchase such items. I don't think it is too late to do something for Volume 3...it is still new enough that it could be added. Since it was such a departure from Vol. I and II..I think it makes sense.
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