First Impressions

I said exactly the same thing... Until the missed messages from last issue and this issue were discovered. I have renewed hope.

I'll be honest that my first reaction to the response was one of incredulity, as it was very short and relatively impersonal compared to the length and detail that I went into.  The free issue didn't even register at first, and I certainly didn't ask for it or expect it at all.  But as I reflected on the response, I'm not really sure what else it could have been beyond The Curator completely breaking the fourth wall and breaking everything down with a level of candor that they've never displayed before.  The MPC doesn't like to reveal anything about content or future plans or the inner workings of their company, and refunding the cost of a product that a customer was totally unsatisfied with is just good customer service (I see the credit more like getting refunded for Brain Butchers than getting Clockwork Mutineers for free).  The response was very fast and with a customer service representative who I've had a lot of great interaction with in the past and who I actually hadn't heard from from this year, so they clearly remembered our interactions and had him respond, which in fact does make it feel rather personal.  

I'm not saying that I now suddenly feel like the MPC are off the hook; I'm serious about considering canceling my subscription.  But it is nice to know that they are at least responding to e-mails and doing what they can to acknowledge the situation, which makes me think it's worth writing to them just so that they have feedback to work from when evaluating the direction of the company.

I discovered the MPC and C&C midway through Volume 3, so I didn't understand or experience the transition from Volumes 1 and 2 to Volume 3 until I went back to the earlier Volumes. I'm totally fine with changing formats (I honestly have no idea how they could top the intricacy of Volume 3, especially given that there are still puzzles in there that we haven't properly solved), but my main concern, which I conveyed to them in my e-mail, is that I think the creative quality is off. The Zombie Survival Guide is really, really bad, by far the worst written thing I've seen from the MPC, and a lot of the articles in Brain Butchers just have no pep or cleverness to them (some of them do, to be fair). Most of the puzzles in Brain Butchers feel rushed in a way that I've never seen from them before. I'm thrilled that there seem to be hidden messages and a possible second layer of puzzles, but that doesn't excuse poor writing and puzzle design, so I'm still on the fence.

I am relatively new to this having purchased volume 3 on a whim and finding it incredible and absorbing. I finished that halfway through this series so bought Gods of Madness and then knew by the time of this issue I would be all caught up and able to participate in these boards. GOM was a let-down compared to volume 3, and now Brain Butchers feels equally lacking. I miss the vault and the paper crafts are just annoying. My issue only arrived with me today so I've not read the paper yet so can't comment, but the feel of it just isn't right and I'm not as excited to get stuck into it as I was with Volume 3. So sadly I've cancelled my membership thinking I'd prefer to put the money towards an experience instead. I will be watching these boards with interest though in the hopes that you all say how it's improved and that the vault is back!