Addressing the "Uh oh, invalid token" error

[Zayin]

Hey everyone,

In a nutshell, the new process to get a token is:
1.Click Explore
2.Click Muzu

Do not:
1.Refresh the grove page IF you are concerned about data usage (this may or may not re-download all the images, which could take longer and use more data)
2.Use the back button to go back to the grove (this will not refresh the token that Muzu has for you)

So some of our users have had some questions about the error you get when you refresh the token page and get an "Uh oh, invalid token" error. This was a feature we put in mainly to prevent users from using auto refreshers.

For those of you who don't know, you can easily get an add-on for your browser that will refresh the page every x minutes, depending on how you set it. Up until now, this has made it very easy to farm tokens on our site for those users who are familiar with this. We can't easily detect the practice, because on our end, it looks no different than if the user was sitting there hitting refresh every 15 minutes.

Now we could go back through the logs, and see those users who got a token every 15 minutes *exactly*, and punish them for exploiting the system, based on the assumption that they were using an auto refresher, but no one wants to go through all that, especially with no hard evidence. So we targeted the source of the problem, and just made it so that you *have* to click on the token giver (Muzu).

We wanted to stop this because it was an exploit. We don't want users to set the game up to play itself. Worst case scenario is that we attract a bunch of users from other sites who just farm the tokens with auto refreshers so they can trade away for other site currencies. It's like having a money printer.

What happens in an online game where players find an exploit? They discover that they can shoot into a hole and keep getting loot, or that a chest refills every minute, so they just keep opening the chest. The developers will find out, and shut it down, because now, the only logical way to play the game, is to use that exploit. Any other way is just ineffective by comparison, and unfair for those who don't even know what a browser extension is.

For those of you concerned about data usage, keep in mind that your browser caches all images it downloads. Basically, if you visit the explore page, it will download that Grove image, which is about 690 kilobytes. It will then store it away, so that every time you go back to the Explore page, instead of asking Eldemore to send it's copy of the picture, it will use the copy it already downloaded last time you visited the Grove.

Therefore, unless you clear your browser cache, or perform a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5), your browser won't download the images again until the links for those images change to something else.

Also, the animated text has virtually no effect on your data usage. It runs in your browser via javascript, but it is still only text.

About animated text: Some of you were concerned about the animated text, which perhaps slowed down your computer. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test this on a wide variety of computers, so I'm sorry some of you are having issues with it. Keep in mind, this is just the first version of the new explore system, and we will improve upon it, perhaps even during the event. I am thinking about putting in a way to disable it for users with older computers, if I have the time.

[UPDATE] We did remove animated text from the free-roaming dialogue, so you won't see it outside of cutscenes and Q&A sections.

I hope this addresses some of your concerns, and you are still able to enjoy this awesome Halloween event!