Yesterday I wrote about my disappointment with Steve Jackson Games with regard to their handling of the transition of their Pyramid Online Magazine subscription service. They were shifting from an html format to a much improved pdf format.
You can read the old post to get the whole story. Needless to say, I was upset by two things.
First, that the transition -- which included making available a download featuring all the old Pyramid Online articles -- happened during a time that was crazily busy for me. This was not Steve Jackson Game's fault, just an inconvenience on my end. An inconvenience, that led to me not finding out about the change until well after it had happened. So I missed the archive.
Second, that almost two weeks after sending an email discussing my problem to Steve Jackson Games, I still had not received a response from them. I wasn't expecting them to send me the archive as an attachment or any other kind of special consideration. I just wanted to inform them of the problem, in the hopes that they would handle similar future transitions in a way that is less time sensitive and more customer friendly. I didn't exactly say that in the email, but that was my intention. All I expected was a reply from Steve Jackson Games in return for the email. Some small part of my soul hoped for access to the archive, but as I have written that wasn't really expected. I just wanted good customer service.
It did not appear that I was receiving that service in response to my email. Though it should be noted that I included a list of emails that I sent the email to and ones that I thought I maybe should have used. As it turns out, I should have used one of the emails I did not use.
Today, I received a very nice and professional email from Steven Marsh -- the editor of the online version of Pyramid Magazine. The email was everything I had wanted, if not everything I had hoped for, and it explained the situation perfectly. It even explained why/how they made the archive available.
Sadly, it also affirmed that they would not be making it available again.
Hopefully, they will change their mind on that and offer it at e23 for a fee. There were some excellent articles in the html version of the magazine and it would be a shame to see them disappear forever. After seeing a deceased friend's website completely disappear with the death of journalspace, I am particularly sensitive to the frailty of digital content. But I must admit that I have no idea what the editorial time or the logistics of such an offering would be.
I just know that I once more feel like a happy part of the Steve Jackson Games family. I don't feel like an anonymous consumer, but like a valued client.
That said, I am very much looking forward to the Munchkin Quest Expansion.
FNORD!
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