Revision as of 08:13, 9 August 2012

Communication Rules

Created on: 17th December 2010

Document History

This section lists rules for communication in Medieval Europe. They are appliable to every means of communication internal to Medieval Europe (IG mails, forum, chat... etc). These rules are automatically accepted with a user registration and the acceptance of Terms of Usage.

Notes

1. This document can be modified anytime by the Staff. Changes will be notified to Medieval Europe community in advance
2. If a player is recidivous, ban can be extended to game for every offence type
3. The ban applied to deny access the game will be at IP address level, while Forum ban will be at Account level
4. Punishments will be published in a specific board. The punished players will have some time for put their character on freeze (meditating) if game-banned
5. Administration reserves the right to extend or shorten the punishment
6. Administration reserves the right to punish behaviours that are not listed here but that they consider offensive or injurious for the game

Role Play (RP) ON/OFF: what does it mean?

Being in RP ON means that you are “acting” to be your character. Then all discussion, debates, chats and actions involve characters and are not referring to real players.

Being in RP OFF means that you are speaking as a player (a real person) and you are relating to other player.

Points to Ponder

1. IG scrolls are considered RP ON areas by default. You have to add a RP OFF tag to your messages in order to go RP OFF.
2. IG chats are considered RP ON areas by default. You have to open a RP OFF room to go RP OFF and invite only players who accept this. Global Chat is always RP ON.
3. The official Forum is divided into sections and each one has a RP ON/OFF tag specified. That tag is applied to all the boards the section contains, unless you find a different tag.
4. Forum signatures are considered a form of communication.
5. All rules are applied both on RP ON and OFF posts/scrolls/chats. Being RP ON gives a bit more “freedom” but common sense must prevent you to go too much beyond the acceptable limit. Never forget that, even if RP ON, what you write or make can result offensive of injurious for other players, and could be interpreted as referring to them.
6. ME Administration considers IG (In Game) Scrolls by default 'ON', if a tag OFF is not specified. This means that the scrolls content are always directed from the character to the character. Content of these scrolls are not and will not be moderated by ME administration and should be resolved by the characters.
7. The 'ON' mode is subject to punishment (rule B) too.

Examples

Off email

  Subj; [off] Ehi Hello
  Body: Do we take a coffee at 4PM?

On email with some off sections

  Subj: Good morning My Lord
  Body: Good Morning, My Lord. I will start to craft your sword in an hour.
  //off: ehi send me the coins!

Mail ON (OK, if not repeated over time, see rule B)

  Subj: You're dead
  Body: You are a traitor, I will kill you as soon i come to Florence.

Mail OFF (will be punished)

  Subj:  [off] You are a Jerk
  Body: You are a jerk and i knew it.

How the Punishment System works

When a rule is broken, the guilty player is given one or more “PP” (Punishment Points). The punishing action that will be taken against that player depends on how many PPs he has accumulated.

When some offenses are made at the same time or in a short period, the PPs are added to determine the punishment.

When some offenses are made in different times, the newer PPs are added to the older ones to determine the new punishment, even if the previous offenses already brought to an action. PPs are deleted after 3 months without any offense committed, while if a new offense is made before 3 months, all PPs cooldown period will start again.

Topics, posts or parts of them that are considered an offense will be removed.

Really small and involuntary offenses, at Administration’s discretion, can be not given any PP and bring to a simple correction of the offense and a fast warning/advise.

Minor Offenses

The following are actions which are considered minor offenses by the staff. One or two violations of these guidelines, especially when they are clearly done by mistake, will not amount to any violation points being earned. If the same violation happens repeatedly or is done clearly on purpose, however, the staff reserves the right to grant violation points for them.

1. Posting strong language, i.e. cursing/swearing, in an RP manner is not appropriate, however, the moderators may simply edit out the offensive word for the first action if it seems it was done by mistake and let the poster know. If it happens again, it will count as a violation.

2. Deviations from the original subject to ruin a topic, flaming or trying to stop other users/players from chatting and posting freely are not appropriate, however, moderators may show leniency for the first offense.

3. ME is a HISTORICAL GDR based on life in Europe in the year 1300s, so we recommend users respect this and use the Historical context guide for further reference. RP that does not conform with the game's rules and regulations will not be tolerated. Medieval Europe uses a historical context strictly for gaming purposes. This means that only IG (In-Game) historical events should be considered. When roleplaying, a player should not refer to REAL historical events but only to what happened in the game. Whoever will roleplay on a historical event never happened in ME will be considered to have made a metagame/powerplay and will be contacted to update his/her post. If it happens repeatedly and willfully, the player may be awarded violation points for disturbing the atmosphere for other players.

4. Any other action which violates the Communication Rules may be considered a minor offense instead at the staff's decision.

Rules and related Offence Points

A. Posting material, language or images, inappropriate for a PG-13 rating.

B. Spreading of illicit information, language and/or image, that is harmful, considered threatening, abusive, unlawful, slanderous that defames and/or vilifies another player/user/other. Use of vulgar,obscene, damaging someone's privacy, racist behavior, class-conscious people will not be tolerated and a ban will ensue. Flame is allowed only if mild, in RP and not repeated over time.

C. Accusing another player of cheating, bug abuse, multi-account and other game infractions. For reports, please use the email in the Contact page.

D. Distribution of adverts and/or advertising material, "spam" or any other programs created that disrupt or minimize the function of the software and hardware or any other third party telecommunication programs. Diffusion of any material that contains viruses or other codes, file/s or programs created to interrupt, to destroy or to limit the operation of the software, of the hardware or of the installations of other third party telecommunications.

E. Posting links (visible or hidden) to other games or websites with material that violates Rule 1 and 2.

F. Posting a tavern conversation or external chat transcript without the consent of all participants.

G. Posting private messages, e-mails, MSN logs, screenshots from private forums, or any kind of private conversation, without the author's permission is not allowed.

H. Publishing material from private internal or external forums without the consent of the owner or administrator.

I. To resort to "private justice" to seek revenge. We therefore ask you to contact the Moderators should you have some difficulty with some member/s or some other member is being verbally abused, threatened etc.

J. Faking your online ID, example: by having more characters and using them both to manipulate communication.

K. In no way whatsoever is it permissible to discuss the activities/decisions of the moderators/directors on the public forum. Slandering of Admins or staff is forbidden. To forward any complaint/s (if any) to the moderators please use the pm (private messages). Breaking of this rule will add 4 points. Repeated offences can results in a permanent ban from the game.

L. Spam is posting the same content in different threads. It is not tolerated on the forum under any circumstance. Users posting spam will be warned and their posts removed. Repeat offenders will be punished.

M. Signature rules

To help keep the board loading quickly for everyone, we ask that members keep their signatures within the following guidelines:

1. Signature pictures should be no larger than 450 pixels wide by 100 tall (450x100). This means the total area of ALL images in the signature.
2. No animated pictures please.
3. PG-13 level applies to sig images as well; cursing and rude gestures are forum violations and will be treated as such.

Non compliant signatures will be deleted or altered by a moderator. Broken images will be deleted. Continued failure to adhere to the sig rules will result in a temporary loss of signatura capability and/or incur of infractions.

Infractions

• 3rd warning = 2-week sig ban;
• 4th warning = 1-month sig ban + 1 point;
• 5th warning = 6-month sig ban + 1 point;
• 7th/8th warnings = temp/perm ban.

N. Posting in a international board without translating the text in English or posting in a board without translating the post in the used local language is prohibited.

Z. If none of the rules above can apply but the staff feels that your behaviour is ruining the experience for other players or in general is not appropriate, you can be punished at staff discretion.

Tools

If you don't have personal webspace and bandwidth to host your own signature images, here are some options:

• http://imageshack.us/
• http://www.imageark.net/
• http://www.zippyimages.com/
• http://www.photobucket.com/

Punishment System

1 Point: Warning via PM from admin or mod
2 Points: 24 hour suspension from the forum
3 Points: 3 day suspension from the forum
4 Points: 7 day suspension from the forum
5 Points: 14 day suspension from the forum
6 Points: 30 day suspension from the forum
7 Points: 90 day suspension from the forum
8 Points: Player will be reviewed by Admin for possible permanent ban from forum

Slide-Back Rule

If a player has not violated any rules for 3 months, the player's accumulated violation points are reduced by a point. In severe or exceptional cases, the administration can skip to a longer suspension period or a permanent ban.