Revision as of 08:18, 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. PG-13 material

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

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Up to 6 PPs.

B. Spreading of illicit material

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 or damages their privacy.

In RP ON situation, it should be clearly related to characters only and not heavy and not repeated. More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 5 PPs.

C. Obscenity and racism

Use of vulgar, obscene, blasphemous and racist (against races, religions, sexual preferences and any other players real lives aspects) behavior. Cursing

In RP ON situation, it should be clearly related to characters only and not heavy and not repeated. More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 5 PPs.

D. Ads and viruses

Distribution of adverts and/or advertising material, "spam" or any other programs 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.

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Up to 8 PPs.

E. Links

Posting links (visible or hidden) to other games or websites with material that violates Rules A-B-C.

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Up to 6 PPs.

F. Screenshots and private conversations

Posting (via screenshot also) private messages, e-mails, MSN logs, chat transcripts, posts from private forums or any kind of private conversation, without the author's or all participants’ permission.

In RP ON situation, it should be clearly related to characters and game situations only. In RP ON situation, only information coming from the Game (official Forum included) are allowed. More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 3 PPs.

G. Communication manipulation

Faking your online ID, for example by having more characters and using them both, in order to manipulate communication.

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. It could be punished for multiaccounting. Up to 3 PPs.

H. Public complaints

Discussing the activities/decisions of the moderators/administrators on the public forum and slandering of Admins or staff. It is forbidden both covertly or openly.

Asking for information about moderation activities is allowed only in the forum administration/moderation board, in a polite and not accusatorial or arrogant way. It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Up to 4 PPs.

I. Spam

Spamming or opening multiple topics about the same subject. Spam is posting the same content in different threads. Spam is also posting unuseful or meaningless or repeated content repeatedly.

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Up to 3 PPs.

J. Going off-topic and disturbing

Deviating from the original subject of a topic, both voluntarily or not. Disturbing other’s topics by posting non related material.

Going off-topic can “happen” to players and sometimes it can add interesting information. But you should never forget what the topic is talking about and what it was created for. In RP ON situations you should think about how appropriate is your participation, particularly in Closed RP or particular RP situations (trials, embassies, etc). More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 2 PPs.

K. Flame

Flaming, bashing and trolling. Flaming is is hostile and insulting interaction between players/characters. Also provoking someone to behave bad, break these rules or start flaming is included into this offense.

In RP ON situation, it should be clearly related to characters only and not heavy and not repeated. More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 5 PPs.

L. Translations

Posting in a international board without translating the text into English or posting in a local board without translating the post into the local language.

In RP ON situation, it should be clearly related to characters and game situations only. More information is in “Remember” section of this document. Up to 2 PPs.

M. Referring to real world

When RP ON, referring to real historical events, holy texts and religions, political situations, and to reality in general.

For gaming purpose only InGame happened events, religions, politcs, etc are allowed. Everything that has not got (or didn’t have) an InGame execution does not exist in the game (and on all other game related communication tools). Up to 2 PPs.

N. Real life topics

Speaking about real life politics and religions. Up to 2 PPs.

O. Signatures

Signature pictures mustn’t be larger than 400 pixels wide by 125 tall (400x125). This means the total area of all images in the signature. Few lines of text can be added above or below the images, in a small font. Total height of both images and text must not exceed 100 pixels for more than a line of text. Links (respecting rule E) are allowed.

It is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Regarding the contents of signatures, all rules are applied. Up to 1 PPs.

Signatures can be deleted when breaking rules. After several breakings “signature ban” can be added to the PPs system, following this guide: 3rd warning = 2 week sig ban 4th warning = 1 month sig ban 5th-6th warning = 6 months sig ban 7th warning = permanent ban.

P. Banned players

Speaking on behalf of a banned player: it is not permitted in both RP ON and OFF situations. Only exception to this rule is made for judges in forum trials, who can receive via IG private message information from the banned player and post it on his behalf. Banned players can use the ticket support center to communicate with Administration. Up to 3 PPs.

Q. Abuse of power

Not respecting Group Leader and Local Moderator protocols and limitations. Up to 4 PPs.

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.