Game Policies

This page refers to policies about game play on the server.

Definitions
A few definitions are needed for this page to be well-understood by those who don't have gaming lingo.
 * IC: In-Character. Ideally, this means that you are playing your character, and not affected by your normal human emotions. But really, we're all human beings (well, most of us are), and so we should really try to keep our in-game and out-of-game identities almost as if we're two separate people (or however many characters you are playing, plus your "actual" you). Hope this clears up the idea.
 * OOC: Out-of-Character. This is the "actual" you. You shouldn't be this person on the server while on the grid, though in the OOC areas (and on this wiki), this is perfectly fine.
 * OOC Masq: OOC Masquerade. See the policy below, it actually does explain it.

Enforcement
Players will have a "three strikes" penalty for gross violation of any policy, unless otherwise specified. Those who have minor violations will receive only two warnings (the system will automatically escalate the warnings after that point), after which each warning will issue a strike. Further actions will be reviewed. The +strikes for all policy violations are removed after 90 days unless otherwise specified.
 * First Warning: Users will receive notice that they have been +warned, and notification of the comments of the staff member who issued this +warning.
 * Second Warning: Users will receive notice that they have been +warned, and notification of the comments of the staff member who issued this +warning, as well as notice that the next +warn they receive will be a +strike instead, regardless of policy.
 * First Strike: User will receive a 10-day penalty in the Player Freezer, and all objects they own will be @nuked.
 * Second Strike: User will receive a 30-day penalty in the Player Freezer, and all objects they own will be @nuked. User will also not be permitted communication while in this state, and must log in once per day for the day to be counted.
 * Third Strike: User will receive a 90-day penalty in the Player Freezer, including all alts, and all objects owned by all alts will be @nuked. Because of the nature of this command, alts will need to be approved by Symphony or the RP Wiz.

Censorship Policy
People are expected to be considerate and tolerant of others, and to not force someone to use a term they are attempting to avoid. This includes profanity, so-called "hot words", and any other form of restricted (e.g., censored) speech, including personal choice in censorship (e.g., self-censorship). We permit these, although censorship may be damaging to society, on the basis that free choice is also very desirable.

Censorship Policy is Also Known As

 * Gag Policy
 * Selective Expression Policy

Justification for Censorship Policy
This game is intended for young adults, not old children. Therefore, profanity should be avoided in general. But because we enjoy freedom of speech, it does not make sense in most cases to limit free speech in once case and permit it in another. The absolute freedom of speech is not permitted on the Internet any more, but we can make a pretty good case for allowing certain terms. Our allowance requires the following:
 * 1) That "hot-words" (words that trigger the internet's filters and terrorist tracking systems) be reserved for in-game play and not be used lightly. Assume that you are being tracked, and that there are those who want to justify our game's demise. Also, our system is coded to shut off those who use too many of these, lock them out by IP address, @nuke their accounts, and demonstrate just how serious we are.
 * 2) That people observe the laws of your own country concerning profanity, restricted terms, etc., and not require others to violate the laws of their own country. Censorship is a reality in many places, and we encourage responsibility within the law. This being said, many people need the leeway to NOT express certain terms in RP, and so may replace any restricted term with the word &lt;censored&gt; at their own option.
 * 3) That people accept the free choice of self-censorship as a choice and personal preference, and permit others the same free choice that they themselves enjoy. People who choose not to use certain words should not be forced to use those words in a way that they find personally objectionable, whatever the reason. We permit use of the word &lt;censored&gt;  in a scene, because sometimes our characters make choices that we ourselves would not. So go &lt;censored&gt;  yourself.

Exceptions to Censorship Policy
No known exceptions to this policy have been conceived.

Enforcement of Censorship Policy
Those who violate this policy, either by using words which are prohibited in the place they live, or by requiring the use of these words by others, except by the allowance of use of the  word  &lt;censored&gt;  in the middle of a post, pose, emote, say or other command, rather than actually requiring anyone to use a term another player might find objectionable, shall be issued a &lt;strike at the discretion of the reviewing staff member.

Player Command: help censor

Staff Command: +warn/censor  or +strike/censor

Privacy Policy
Players may not expect or demand privacy in any place (in-character or not) at any point in time on this server.

Privacy Policy is Also Known As

 * TSing Policy
 * Voyeur Policy
 * Spying Policy

Justification for Privacy Policy
Users should conduct themselves in a manner consistent with game play. Sexual scenes are permitted, provided all players (not necessarily characters) involved in the act are consenting.

Some players and all staff can set themselves to be invisible. This is necessary because if players modify their actions because someone is watching in-character, it would violate OOC Masq (see below).

What players do between one another (regardless of whether they believe they are in-character or not) while not using our software to do it is not our concern; however, since it's difficult to tell the age of another player with any degree of precision, we need to assure that players understand that there is no privacy on this server. This doesn't guarantee any lack or presence of privacy; it only serves as notice to our players that they may be watched at any time without their knowledge.

Users who choose to engage in TS on the server are proceeding at their own risk.

"Private" paging is recorded for use by law enforcement personnel, and acts as a legal protection for Gates of Eternity. However, for the sake of keeping our logs minimalized, it will only retain 5 megabytes of in

Exceptions to Privacy Policy
There are no exceptions to this policy. No facilities for private communications exist on this server. If we have SSL enabled, its primary purpose is not privacy, but in security of the communication.

Enforcement of Privacy Policy
Players who insist on privacy will be issued a +warn, +strike, or player account termination.

Staff Command: +warn/priv or +strike/priv

Kindness Policy
All users will  be kind while out of character (OOC). Being kind requires that we treat people in a way which is considerate, generous, and friendly toward other users of the system.

Justification of Kindness Policy
Kindness is the result of compassion. Everyone who is out of character is required to be compassionate, and to treat one another with kindness. This kind of a policy is required only because there are so many trolls in the world who start shit because they're bored. We need a policy which helps people to act in a way which is helpful to other people outside the confines of the game.

However, characters can be assholes. They are, most of them (even Angelics), frustrated with their situations, and take it out on the world around them. Characters don't have to be kind; players do. However, use of this policy in a way which causes radical changes to a character's behavior because of the emotional state of the player should be avoided, where it is within the player's capacity to do so. Where it is not, players should refrain from game play together. But it's not mandated that this happens; it's just a good idea.

Exceptions to Kindness Policy
Staff are permitted to equal the unkindness of players who are acting in a way which is contrary to this policy, as a warning to the players who act in an unkind way.

Enforcement of Kindness Policy
Staff Command: +warn/kind  or +strike/kind

Character Deletion Policy
All players may request that their accounts be suspended and/or deleted at any time, for any reason (or no reason). Characters which are inactive will also be deleted after 4 months.

Exceptions to Character Deletion Policy
Special dispensation is given for the following reasons: Other special dispensations may be offered as the staff sees fit.
 * Civil, military (including USNG), and other national service: Upon notification that this will occur, the account is placed in the Honor Chamber, which will preserve the account from deletion for so long as the account remains in there (we hope the game is running when you return). Though we aren't required to receive notice, we would appreciate it if you could forward some kind of (unclassified) official paperwork or a verification code we can validate through official channels.
 * Incarceration: Upon notification that the player is or will be incarcerated, the account is placed on "vacation mode" by a wizard, and the player object is moved to the starting room.
 * Death: Upon notification that the player has died, we will erect a statue object in memoriam to the player, which lists all alts and a ulogy. These statues are in the Honor Chamber.

Enforcement of Character Deletion Policy
Character accounts which are not used for one year will be deleted after an attempt to contact the player using the email address on the player object (which is required for signup).

Character accounts may be manually deleted upon request to Symphony or the RP Wizard.

Character accounts which don't have a vacation flag on them and which have been inactive for more than 4 months are automatically flagged for deletion.

OOC Masquerade Policy
All users will commit to separation of knowledge between player and character.

OOC Masquerade Policy is Also Known As

 * OOC Masq
 * Player/Character Knowledge
 * Metagaming

Justification for OOC Masq
Perhaps the most-enforced rule on any server is what is or is not considered character knowledge. Obviously, a character doesn't know everything you would know as a real-world human being, any more than you would know everything that the server admins know.

Exceptions to OOC Masq
Staff are not bound to this while acting as a staff member; however, they must observe this for any and all characters within OOC Masq. But because staff are human beings and typically handle 20-30 characters in any given month, staff have some leeway which is broader than that of players, so long as this isn't interpreted as blanket permission.

Enforcement of OOC Masq
Staff Command: +warn/masq  or +strike/masq

Server Exploitation Policy
Users will refrain from knowingly committing (or refuses to reveal knowledge about) any attack or exploitation of the game's or server's shortcomings.

Wizards on the server may also place the server into restricted access mode, which will disconnect all non-staff or non-Royalty users.

Server Exploitation Policy is Also Known As

 * DDoS Policy
 * DoS Policy
 * Vulnerability Policy
 * Exploitation Policy
 * Server Software Policy
 * Software Policy
 * Bug Policy

Justification for Server Exploitation Policy
Though violation of this policy hasn't ever happened to us, it's good to have a policy in place "just in case". Plenty of people think we make money on something like this, without ever realizing that every donation we have received would not cover even one month's service.

Exceptions to Server Exploitation Policy
Our internal server security teams may (with notice to the admins, and upon approval from Symphony) engage in brief, non-impacting testing of the server's security and vulnerabilities.

Enforcement of Server Exploitation Policy
Users who knowingly or unknowingly engage in or assist in any attack, exploitation, or other vulnerability of the server will receive no warnings, and will simply be frozen and deleted by the server admins.

Those who are not users are unaffected by this policy, but our ISP will notify INTERPOL and coordinate with the police forces of countries involved in order to determine the identity of the attacker(s).

Other than that, we simply wait it out for a month or two, until it's clear that we're a boring target. Then everyone can get back in.