TOPIC: Tokens for puzzles

Earlier today I was talking with a TD player and he mentioned he wasn't happy that folks solving riddles online (think he meant discord) are getting Tokens worth hundreds of dollars while most players in the community have to spend money to buy their Tokens. I really haven't been following whatever puzzles/riddles have been going on or the prizes for solving them so I'm not sure exactly what he means. I've always thought side quests are cool and having a Token reward for solving something between games is a fun idea. I brought this up with one of my friends (a non-TD player) this evening and he said he could see why the guy might be upset and think it wasn't fair. Wondering what others here on the forums think???

Such an openended question.

I think ... it's easy to be unhappy when measuring against someone else's experiences.

This is a hobby of desire. So much of it is predicated upon desire. So, whether jealousy or envy or covetousness, there's quite a bit of counting someone else's blessings.

Different people will have different stuff/experiences. But, there's another element - is it fair?

There are cases of rewarding people for doing something "you" like that we know of (if we don't know about it, it doesn't matter). Auction will have a puzzle, for instance. "Your" stuff you can do what you want with it and it's as fair as my being able to decide what I do with my stuff. Where it can appear unfair is when it looks like a vendor is treating customers differently.

Putting aside that vendors do treat customers differently all of the time, in the cases I am aware of, it's a "private citizen" doing what they feel like doing with their stuff, which is no different than my coming up with some entertainment based quid pro quo. Now, if someone was like "ruin someone's life for my filthy lucre", that would be bad, though arguably fair. If someone was "support this charity for my meager offerings of plastic and metal", that would be not so bad, yet not any more or less fair.

We all want nice things. And, that's the problem - "nice" is relative such that it's typically more "we all want nicer things than what other people have" to validate that something is "nice".

Ommm ...

This could be a reference to the meta puzzle discord . There are plenty of runes and other things in the dungeon that people are trying to solve, and I believe there is a token reward for doing so. It’s free to join and participate, so your friend could just join in there.

The meta puzzle Discord is free and open to all. It’s a bit of optional, extra fun that keeps the TD spirit alive between cons/VTDs. I haven’t had time to follow it closely in the last few months, but I’m happy for those who are. They are putting in extra effort—I have no problem with them getting extra rewards.

Being upset about the meta puzzles strikes me as odd. Anyone can play. It would be like being upset about Trent’s party and raffle at GHC. Trent has generously chosen to host a party. It’s open to all. It’s not unfair to the people who can’t go to GHC. If you want to enter the raffle, you can. (Either by attending or asking someone who is attending to participate on your behalf.) If you you don’t enter, you shouldn’t be upset that some of those who do will win prizes. I probably won’t submit any entries, but I still plan to cheer for anyone who wins.

I would invite anyone who feels left out to join the discord (msg me on here if you need link).

That said I would also like to assure everyone that their is no secret font of free tokens being kept hidden by those in the know.

Most of the relatively small number of personal rewards given out have come events initiated either in VTD runs or by items included randomly with treasure from those same runs.

The usual pattern is some lucky individuals randomly find some strange items in their treasure, ask what is this, and are directed to the discord where they answer a few riddles, and coordinate with others who found the same item on the next steps of their side quest.

Occasionally an open riddle gets asked. This usually requires getting lucky and tracking down a certain individual at a physical TD event to claim any kind of reward. The rewards for open riddles are also proportionately smaller since they are open to all comers.

Finally I'd like to remind everyone who feels slighted that whatever tokens have been given out have come from the personal collection of an individual and were given out of the the goodness of his heart.

Lequinian wrote: Why did we move these to discord instead of staying / duplicating here on the forums? Is the side quest limited to only a few winners?

@Ian - I'm not sure I follow unless you're taking every hypothetical.

@Kusig - That seems very confrontational. And I don't think an opinion is more valid based on how much one has spent.

@All - would someone elaborate as to what free tokens are being distributed? (If it's secret, PM me.) I thought the Mystic Orb transmute created enough bad feelings.

(and unfortunately, I see this thread devolving in to the "vocal whiner minority should shut up" comments again.)

When the complaint is about someone giving away "Tokens worth hundreds of dollars while most players in the community have to spend money to buy their Tokens", I felt it was necessary to display that my financial investment into my entertainment is probably higher than whomever was complaining.

As others have said, its free and open to all.

I agree that the puzzles are great... TD involves many puzzles in the dungeons and for many years has done puzzles outside the dungeon. It anything, I would encourage TD to do more of these puzzles outside the dungeon. The Orion Belt puzzle is one of my favorite TD memories!

Lequinian wrote: Why did we move these to discord instead of staying / duplicating here on the forums? Is the side quest limited to only a few winners?

There was no official call to move anything to discord. Some people who preferred discord setup an unofficial discord to talk about TD with people who would not otherwise ever use the forms, eventually a few people from the mothership wondered in.

It's very similar to the sudo unofficial TD facebook group for the people who dont want to use either facebook or discord.

Lequinian wrote: Why did we move these to discord instead of staying / duplicating here on the forums? Is the side quest limited to only a few winners?

Sometimes a person is seen as having an official voice representing TPTB of a given activity whenever they post in that event's official forums (whether that representation is perceived or actual). If said person also wants to be able to have a personal involvement in whatever that activity might be, they might naturally want to separate that to a less officially sanctioned method of communicating where they can do things more as an individual not representing anything official.

And as a different reason, the forums suck for certain types of communication.

I normally don't do this but I feel it may be helpful. I have spent on 99.9% of my collection where as many have grinded hard and traded to make something. Would I like to do that too? yes but I just don't have time right now so I spend. When I hear about all the IS given away at SkullCON and now this puzzle, it doesn't frustrate me or make me feel like less or that I have been cheated because others got free ( relatively ) and I didn't. Would I like free things that have lots of value... I think all of us would say yes... who doesn't want free things. But just as many have said, these puzzles are open to all and its not a matter of who is favored more or spends more, these puzzles are for the mind and lets face it.... I have many talents but mind bending puzzles are iffy for me... kill a room full of goblins... done!! Some of these are just hard and they are meant to be for fun and the joy when players accomplish them.

I am sorry to hear some are upset but I also think when I hear this about all of the BIIGGGG spenders who, because of there spending, allow Jeff and his teams to create new dungeons, exciting VTD and other things. They don't get anything extra and if we think of the cost to make something vs buy it outright.. making costs way more and may of them are loosing money... I like our community. mostly I see kindness and willingness to help others even though some have never met each other. its quite amazing to find.I hope we can all be happy for one another and think of the fun we can have together instead of the freebies some get over others. I do apologize for the long message and I hope you all have a blessed Sunday and a good week coming up!!

T

Is the implication here, that people who play TD should only be able to gather in virtual or real places that are officially organized by TD? That what they do with information found in dungeons must be discussed only in sanctioned spots? That people who own tokens should only do things with their tokens in a spot determined by others?

I dont know who was displeased, amd I'm sorry if they are.
I can't imagine people giving away their own things in a fun way as more than someone being incredibly generous.

What people choose to do with their own things is completely up to them.

If you think you're missing out, spend the time in the chat.