Has anyone received issue #4 of the mud companion?  I'm still waiting for mine and I've e-mailed the guys about a half dozen times but have never gotten a responce.

i am supposed to receive a free issue from them for ordering zmud.

zugg sent me an email saying something like this

Well accoring to their website issue 4 was printed and mailed nearly 5 weeks ago.

I am sorry... It just has not been sent out yet. Something else came up. It is a matter of time and being able to get the the post office before it closes.

Post office a bit far from the material plane is it?

Still waiting.... should start an office pool or something and the winner gets a FREE SUBSCRIPTION.... oh wait....

Seriously, I wish someone would be straight up with us.

Are we going to get the issue or not? If so, when? Are they actually printed? Are there still post office problems?

Lot

MCM is dead, the website is even gone. Consider your money a donation at this point, hehe. Seriously, hoping Thoric will not get mad at me, an underestimation occurred last summer.

Thoric offered new ZMUD registerees a free copy of MCM in hopes to boost sales or MCM via new subscribers. The problem was he understimated how many people buy ZMUD per month and the amount was so great that that it become overwhelming. To top it off, no where as many people as needed subscribed to the magazine to prevent any loss of monetary funds.

I do not remember the exact estimate, but I think it was 25% of those getting free issues would need to subscribe to prevent a downturn. Well, barely 5% bothered to subscribe and the end result was a huge loss of funds. Without the money a 5th issue was not possible and the funds to pay the post office were not there after a first batch was sent out for issue four.

It was a bad decision, some people are going to be upset for a while and if it makes you happy, I did not get my copy of issue four either. There is not much more I can tell you to give you comfort. Unless Thoric wins the lotto, there is a slim chance MCM will operate long enough to produce and ship out issues or refund those who have given money to the cause.

The website is dead? Odd, it loaded for me just now....

Anyway. At least we have an explanation of what happened and I think that's mainly what everyone wanted.

Odd, it loaded for me as well when I just looked.  Must have been a DNS issue when I looked last week.  Oh well...

As far as the reason, that is about it.  A misjudgement occurred and a few people, especially Thoric, had lost some money because of it.  Many new businesses die within two years, MCM became one of those casulties.

If anyone is brave enough to try such an endevour again, I would surely donate my time to it again provided I actually like the person to begin with, hehe.  I am sure many of you would as well.