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Post by Beckett on Nov 25, 2017 19:46:54 GMT -5
Jason Kapalka is (or at least was) a MAJOR figure in the online gaming world as one of the founders of Popcap Games, as in Bejeweled. Very cool that he's been involved with MPC, but I can't imagine it's close to his main thing. He used to be the one to lend his name and contact information to the kickstarter campaign for The Century Beast too, and to date it is the only campaign created by his account, which he still uses to back current campaigns to this day - and which still sports the old seal of the Company in place of a profile picture. One of the campaigns he recently backed, by the way, is The Enigma Box.
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Post by dmikester on Nov 25, 2017 21:20:41 GMT -5
Very interesting. He must have been a significant part of the MPC early on, either as an angel investor or perhaps as one of the creative minds behind it. Still, seems pretty clear that he's not heavily involved now (indeed, Filigree's Kickstarter was created by Timothy Sullivan). Notably, in the comments section on The Century Beast, there are comments from both The Curator (likely Tim Sullivan I'd imagine) and then once from "Jason K."
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Post by badwolf on Nov 26, 2017 6:44:09 GMT -5
I just stumbled over this thread and OH MY GOD! I can' get over what you all have uncovered, but it certainly fits with the feeling and observations I've made over the last time. But I feel strongly for the creators of MPC. To have to sell something that brilliant and then watch it going to pieces must be devastating for them, too. Has perhaps someone sent them a message directly about all this? And no shipping to us in Germany just nails it. There is not much to add to the things you said, chrisu and Beckett , just that I feel slightly guilty about having contacted them so angry as I had to pay extra taxes for CnC. Maybe that was the thing that pushed them over the ledge. But then I didn't have any trouble with this issue of CnC, so they must have fixed the problem... By the way: does the shipping stop already apply to Vol 4.4? Do I have to cancel now? Or will I be canceled? (better than being charged first without delivery.. just kidding. - or am I?)
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Post by lucasscooter on Nov 26, 2017 18:02:12 GMT -5
Well that didn't take long - the website contacts are hidden via a company called contactprivacy.com but CA's equivalent to Companies House show MPC has two directors, Miles Bossons and Jason Kapalka. Jason Kapalka is (or at least was) a MAJOR figure in the online gaming world as one of the founders of Popcap Games, as in Bejeweled. Very cool that he's been involved with MPC, but I can't imagine it's close to his main thing. Taking a quick look on his Twitter feed, he's mentioned MPC twice since May of this year, once in a retweet of a blog post about an unboxing of Century Beast, and one bizarre and ominous tweet made two hours ago about the current Dread Holidays sale (I'm quoting it below): "I knew someone who got one of these packages! They’re dead now." And some quick digging shows that Miles Bossons is probably the founder and CEO of PUBG, another popular thing in the online gaming world (albeit semi-recently). He's not very active on social media, however. His last post/tweet on Facebook/Twitter were both in 2015.
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Post by thegenii on Dec 2, 2017 1:23:54 GMT -5
What makes this even more frustrating is that the people who have left the MPC have most likely had an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) written into their contracts. So, they legally can't comment on any of this, and the people who are now running the company sure as hell aren't going to tell us why the folks in charge were ousted.
This is not uncommon.
There are so any companies doing these types of packages now, that with Todd's sure hand at the helm I'm confident that we will have a LOT to talk about with the three experiences from the Armchair Detective Compny as well as many others in the coming year. Our community can survive the downward spiral of the MPC by readjusting its focus.
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Post by thegenii on Dec 2, 2017 1:30:30 GMT -5
Here is their answer: Hello, Christian: Thank you for writing about this - I apologize for the delay in getting back to you! I am so sorry to disappoint you on this one - but not long ago we had to make the difficult decision to suspend delivery to many parts of the world, as we were repeatedly encountering difficulties in having our packages safely arrive, and in a timely fashion. Despite our best efforts we have yet to find a satisfactory system that will get these into the recipients' hands as desired. We are striving to find a solution, and would not rule out the possibility that we will resume doing so, but for the time being I am sorry that we will not be sending our wares to Germany. However, in cases where an experience is already in progress, we will certainly see the remaining mailings sent out, so this will not affect your Hunt for the Forgotten Tomb or Rise of the Cult stories! Thank you for your understanding, and of course should you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me forthwith. Allen a Concierge with Member Services For what it's worth, this is grade A bullshit. As a publisher of some 40 years, I have and continue to send books and DVDs all around the world on a weekly basis. Amazon sends packages all over the world on a daily basis. What this sounds like to me is that the MPC has decided it no longer wishes to fill out the required customs forms (which for a small company can take 30 minutes). Plus, items to foreign destinations have to be mailed differently--you can't just leave them at the post office (you have to stand in line). If there are a lot of foreign orders, then it would require a full-time employee to deal with these. And that's a simple equation: the new powers that be don't think it will be financially worthwhile.
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Post by craigrj on Dec 2, 2017 9:42:54 GMT -5
That doesn't necessarily hold any water either though, because there's been no indication that are stopping shipping to the UK, and we're still (for a little while anyway) subject the same rules as any other EU country for packages from Canada....unless perhaps there is some Commonwealth Countries deal that makes it possible?
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Post by centaurofattn on Dec 2, 2017 10:19:03 GMT -5
As someone who is managing this type of thing by himself for recipients from multiple international locations, I can say that the process of getting the mailings sent is probably not the issue. I type up everything on the computer, pay on the computer, print it out on a label, and then just drop the package. No need to stand in line (PM me if you want those details, saves a ton of time!).
The only thing I agree with in their decision is that for some countries, they are not experiencing the arrival of packages in the same way. Sometimes customs in one country charges the recipient for some reason, or holds it for an unusual amount of time, which if the experience includes non-packages (like mine does and some parts of experiences like CB perhaps), means that mailings could arrive out of order, have to be spread out awkwardly far, or could even be sent back by customs for no real reason. I could see that being an unpleasant experience for people receiving an experience as a gift, which MPC has mentioned is the majority of their customers.
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Post by chrisu on Dec 2, 2017 11:10:22 GMT -5
Especially Considering that they are shipping to New Zealand makes me scratch my head. I might be out of line there with my suspicions. Either they analyzed which countries they ship the most packages to. And then they decided to only supply these. But really? Australia and New Zealand? Or they decided only to do business with ex commonwealth countries. The only thing I am sure is this: I did order all 8 experiences and only once had a problem where the reveal was earlier than the box. Not that they couldn't fix this with only a tiny bit of planning. So what else could this be? Some English Speaking Counties First policy?
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Post by squirrel on Dec 2, 2017 12:29:16 GMT -5
It can't be just the common wealth or a problem with EU shipping - as Ireland's still in the list. We're not in the commonwealth, and there's no plans in the near future to leave the EU
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Post by badwolf on Dec 2, 2017 13:33:06 GMT -5
Been to Kerry a couple of months ago. Liked it very very much there!
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Post by thegenii on Dec 2, 2017 17:05:49 GMT -5
The only country with which we have continued ongoing problems is mail delivery to Italy (and many others do as well, as seen by the number of eBay sellers who excluded Italy from the places they will ship to).
It's expensive as hell to ship books, and we have a special rate with a private shipping company for overseas that is $5 a pound. One of my books (a two-volume set) weighs 20 pounds! We charge $100 postage by DHL tracked shipping. And we sell a lot of them.
If anyone at the MPC could be bothered, I can't imagine why they can't cultivate a business relationship with a similar company.
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Post by Beckett on Dec 3, 2017 17:09:50 GMT -5
For what it it worth, in Germany the recipient of a parcel is technically the one importing it into the country and thus the party that would be subject to taxes and duties. Still, while that leads to quite the hassle for an unexpecting recipient, it is usually very manageable for people who would order an Experience for themselves, and on top of that, there seems to be a way to pre-calculate not only taxes - always 19 % VAT on the full price of the Experience including shipping - but also the much more varied customs duties. I have seen it being utilised by US sellers on eBay, and it has worked like a charm ever since. I would assume that when push comes to shove, we are just not worth the trouble. I can't speak to the rest of the world, but I imagine that at least for Germany the market for english language mystery products that cost a ton of money, a third of their value in shipping and at least 19 percent on top of the full price is rather limited. If you look around here, or at the map, there are four of us that we know of, only a handful more who hail from non-english-speaking countries in Europe...
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Post by dmikester on Dec 7, 2017 0:53:17 GMT -5
Very tangentially related to the "Dread Holidays", the MPC has published a gift guide to all of their Experiences. Seems to only be accessible via a Facebook link, but here's the direct link for those who don't follow them on Facebook: www.mysteriouspackage.com/gift-guide
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Post by thegenii on Dec 7, 2017 19:10:28 GMT -5
Didn't work for me; I just was directed to their normal home page.
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