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Post by Jakesy on May 21, 2017 8:43:46 GMT -5
I personally prefer the newspapers shape (contents to be decided in once I've read it) as the biggest problem I had with the previous volumes was the folding to complete certain puzzles.
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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 May 21, 2017 9:26:38 GMT -5
My first impression is disappointment. Given the additional time they took and the marketing ("Prestige Box!"), I was expecting much more. 1) I was unimpressed with the Curios. They used to surprise me. I used to sit and scrutinize those things. (Holy crap, an absinthe spoon! Why is this token so weird? What is the story with this lice comb?) But these Curios remind me more of LootCrate, where it is just stuff without an experience attached to them and I expect the same sort of stuff each time. I joined the Mysterious Package Company for, well.. mystery. Not "Each month I shall receives stickers, a pin, paper craft and a pewter knickknack." They're just stuff. If someone saw any of this in my house and asked about it, all I could say is, "Got it in a subscription box," as opposed to, "This lice comb is the secret to two hidden messages." 2) In Volume 3, I didn't like the marking of the puzzles because I felt like they betrayed the story concept of the paper (that a hidden figure was using the paper to send encoded messages). Using the symbols to mark the puzzles felt like A.M. waving his arms yelling, "There's something over here everybody!" But I forgave them because the symbols were another cipher used several times and had an awesome final payoff. But the difficulty ratings marking the puzzles on this are so much worse. That's not just "Look over here." That's "Here's where you should look and it's a low-difficulty puzzle so why not bring the kiddies..." 3) Which brings me to my last disappointment: the solutions. I get that, for a lot of people, it can be infuriating not to be able to figure out an answer. You just want to KNOW. But not having ready answers was a selling point for me. I wanted to have to team up with my friends or reach out to the internet for help. I wanted to have a sudden epiphany that lead to the answer, not to have a hint or the whole answer just out there at a link. Some of the puzzles in previous issues kept me (and this forum) busy for months. Now, it will take days at most. Which I find sad. I realize that MPC is trying to appeal to a larger audience. That's just makes fiscal sense. But by watering it down to this extent, they are killing the things that made the company special and kept me coming back for more. Thus far, Gods of Madness is less engaging than if I had gone to a bookstore and picked up a crossword book. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this issue is packed with ciphers that I haven't noticed yet. Maybe MPC is playing a long game and subsequent issues will lead to deeper enjoyment of this one. But it honestly doesn't look that way at the moment. If this keeps up, the next issue will probably be my last. PS Not a big thing, but using C&C as a big ad for one of the Experiences is pretty tacky... I've just finished typing a reply in the Codex thread (http://curiosandconundrums.freeforums.net/thread/576/codex) and after seeing this post of yours, Mr. Kairo, I feel we are of the very same mind. As K8 put it, +1 to this. |
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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 May 21, 2017 9:29:47 GMT -5
I just hope we don't get a paper-craft every. single. month. They're cute and all, but I haven't put either of mine together yet, and probably won't. Take the few bucks that it costs to create and print those, and put it toward either upgrading the rest of the curios, or adding another small item. I second this. When I said in the past, that I enjoyed some "hands on puzzles", I meant the tenacious hours of carefully cutting, pasting, folding, drawing, etc of parts of the C&C (or rather copies of it) to find eureka! moments. Not more paper craft curios. |
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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 May 21, 2017 9:36:53 GMT -5
FYI - I sent an email to my Concierge at the MPC with my feedback on the issue. The response was: Thank you for taking the time to write and let us know your thoughts on the new C&C! I have shared your words with the entire creative team for their consideration, and know this will factor into the decisions they make for upcoming issues! Of course, should you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me forthwith. Allen I sent my feedback to them as well and got basically the same response. I hope everyone who has a strong opinion either way will take the time to send an email especially if they are as receptive to feedback as Todd believes. I have sent my queries and complaints (four, by my count) over the past few months to the concierge. However unlike the very prompt and kind letters from the Curator in the past, I received: 1. no response 2. a seemingly carbon-copied generalized response that did not answer my question....and they got my name wrong. How do you get someone's name wrong when they sign it at the bottom of an email? It's even listed in my membership profile.... 3. same as #2, but from a different concierge. Also got my name wrong. 3. no response |
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Post by phill on May 21, 2017 11:01:21 GMT -5
First impressions - what is it with c&c and stickers? Enough with the stickers already! And the papercraft? Looks like I'm one of the few who assembled the disagreeable goat, and believe me cutting all those pieces out is as tedious as you would imagine. This one looks even worse in that respect. Let's at least have these perforated or pre cut in future issues, otherwise they may as well forget it because I imagine the majority of people just won't bother with it. The Cookbook ? Meh. Interesting for a flick through but that's about it. The main curio is nice but only tangentially related to one article. All in all, pretty disappointing. They could have done a much better job of providing curios that more directly related to the theme of Gods of Madness. Seriously on the fence about sticking around for issue 2, if it means more stickers I won't use and a papercraft I won't make. Also really annoying that as a UK resident I get mine a lot later than most, by which time a lot of the puzzles have been solved and I don't feel as much a part of the community. |
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Post by thegenii on May 22, 2017 20:26:52 GMT -5
phill, it would be quite expensive to die-cut or perforate the cut lines for the paper projects: that would require the creation of a metal die, which is an extremely expensive proposition. When I was a kid, punch-out books were all over the place. There were no "cut-out" books. Now there are few punch-out books, and pretty much only cut-out books because of the expense of the die.
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Post by phill on May 23, 2017 13:19:29 GMT -5
Then I'm all for ditching the papercraft. I must say that on the whole, other than the obelisk there really wasn't any difference from the curios included with previous issues, except maybe that they were less relevant to the puzzles this time round. I was expecting more of a change given the build up mpc has given it.
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Post by parlortrick on May 25, 2017 13:38:04 GMT -5
I agree with all of this. I feel like they're actively trying to compete with more 'family-friendly' (for lack of a better word) subscription mysteries, when their unique approach all along has been exactly what those experiences DIDN'T offer. I've sent my thoughts along, too. I don't want a bunch of things that are just going to collect dust in my apartment - in my mind, everything included should somehow pertain to the mystery at large.
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Post by Ankhara on May 26, 2017 13:24:36 GMT -5
I finally received my box yesterday and have to say I am disappointed in the box itself, I was hoping for something a little more useful/keepable. I am fine with one object vs. multiple smaller objects in the contents; however I would hope it still applied to the contents of what was written in the broadsheet. I don't like the new size, I feel a broadsheet should be a full size newspaper not a trash rag size from the supermarket. I haven't had a chance to start reading the stories or work in the puzzles so I am hoping I find more to my liking in the actual contents of the paper. I will be passing along my sentiments to the MPC as well and hope all our input leads to a better product. If the curbing of curious/horror appeal continues to diminish I will more than likely cancel my subscription.
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Post by k80 on May 26, 2017 17:26:40 GMT -5
I finally received my box yesterday and have to say I am disappointed in the box itself, I was hoping for something a little more useful/keepable. I am fine with one object vs. multiple smaller objects in the contents; however I would hope it still applied to the contents of what was written in the broadsheet. I don't like the new size, I feel a broadsheet should be a full size newspaper not a trash rag size from the supermarket. I haven't had a chance to start reading the stories or work in the puzzles so I am hoping I find more to my liking in the actual contents of the paper. I will be passing along my sentiments to the MPC as well and hope all our input leads to a better product. If the curbing of curious/horror appeal continues to diminish I will more than likely cancel my subscription. Oddly, and I agree with you on every point but this, the size and lack "horror" are the same as the first two volumes- and the reason I subscribed in the first place, as it's their only product at the time without horror and I dislike that genre. It might be the only thing I like about this change, inclusive. |
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Post by offsky on May 29, 2017 23:35:21 GMT -5
I sent some polite feedback to MPC about my disappointment with the lack of harder puzzles and received a nice reply back which I will quote here:
I hope others will also send their feedback, so that MPC gets a better picture of what the subscribers want.
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Post by johnkiddier on May 30, 2017 6:14:44 GMT -5
Hi folks,
I'm relatively new here having purchased vol 3 but not getting around to completing it due to a house move. I just received Gods of Madness and was really excited to dig in and start peeling away the layers.
First impressions are not good. I personally don't care for papercraft or stickers etc unless it's linked to solving a puzzle. As I'm in the UK $45 does seem steep for just 3 folded sheets of broadsheet paper with a handful of marked puzzles. I could have got a 50p puzzle book of this was what I wanted.
Are we certain there's no further layers of puzzles in this episode and is it standalone?
Has anyone noticed a discrepancy to reported facts on the very first page?
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Post by wortelboer on May 30, 2017 6:20:49 GMT -5
Hi folks, I'm relatively new here having purchased vol 3 but not getting around to completing it due to a house move. I just received Gods of Madness and was really excited to dig in and start peeling away the layers. First impressions are not good. I personally don't care for papercraft or stickers etc unless it's linked to solving a puzzle. As I'm in the UK $45 does seem steep for just 3 folded sheets of broadsheet paper with a handful of marked puzzles. I could have got a 50p puzzle book of this was what I wanted. Are we certain there's no further layers of puzzles in this episode and is it standalone? Has anyone noticed a discrepancy to reported facts on the very first page? As far I know, no one has found deeper puzzle layers, but there some oddities: some things that stick out....a short message phrase...something that is missing, some thing that is leftover, references to certain something that pop up in various articles...which all lead me to believe that while this issue has not much to offer, there may be something down the road. I HOPE!!!!! I would be interested in knowing what discrepancy you found. Please PM me.  |
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Post by Todd on May 30, 2017 8:15:42 GMT -5
Are we certain there's no further layers of puzzles in this episode and is it standalone? We're not certain of anything at this point. There are an increasing number of oddities and idiosyncrasies being noted, but so far nothing that has led us to a eureka moment. At least, nothing that anyone has shared here. And I hold nothing back. |
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Post by Todd on May 30, 2017 8:38:12 GMT -5
I would be interested in knowing what discrepancy you found. Please PM me. There are a number of discrepancies that I noticed with minimal research. For example, the caption under the picture of Pablo Fanque. He was deceased by the time the picture was alleged to have been taken. The editor specifically calls our attention to what he says must be a discrepancy in the Mme. Tussaud article. I have yet to vet his observation. But I did order the suggested book. Feel free to create a thread to compile such observations. |
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