Forum Rules and Regulations

[Azraela]

Posting in these forums is a privilege which may be revoked at any time without notice, at the sole discretion of the forum moderators and/or administrators.
BigPoint reserves the right to remove any content that they feel does not adhere to the spirit of the game and/or the forums.

Thanks to the users, a community is able to flourish in which everybody can participate. In order for the community to be designed to be as fair as possible, a few rules for dealing with each other exist and absolutely must be adhered to. Nevertheless, constructive arguments are always welcome. It goes without saying, however, that while posting your opinions, nobody shall be made a subject of ridicule, humiliation, insult, condescension or harm. Respect for others is our first priority here.

Tips - these are not rules, but merely guidelines to keep you from being ignored:

• Use the search feature to find information on a topic before you post a question. It is located in the upper right quadrant of each forum page. Your fellow community members will greatly appreciate this effort.

· Read Sticky topics and FAQs. They were created to help the users and/or contain vital information, and there's a decent chance that there is a solution for your issue in one of them.

• Consider posting an introduction of yourself- it's a great way to get started and meet other players.
• When you create a new topic, be descriptive in the title. Naming your topic "help!" or "omg..." will not get you as much help as "I am unable to do 'x'" right off the back.

· Say “Thank you”- if an answer proved helpful to you, the writer, who, after all, sacrificed a bit of his/her free time to answer your question, would definitely be thrilled to receive a positive reaction from you. Besides, a thank-you will signal to other users that you were already helped which will also eliminate this topic from further discussion.

Contacting Support

• All Customer support requests should be submitted via the Submit Ticket link found in the support section of the main website.

• Customer Support requests made through the forums will be deleted.

Infractions and Bans
The forum moderators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate, which includes, but is not limited to failure to abide by the Community Guidelines.

• Depending on the severity of the infraction, BigPoint reserves the right to block access to the forums for any length of time up to and including account closure.

• If your account is suspended under these circumstances, you may lose access to your forum account for the duration of the suspension and/or the balance of any prepaid period, without any refund.

• Repeated or severe violations of the Community Guidelines will result in a permanent banning from the forums.

• BigPoint reserves the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis.

Forum Rules and Guidelines

Politeness

Never forget that you’re dealing with other human beings here! When writing an article, most people unfortunately forget that messages aren’t just read by computers but by (other) living beings as well, mainly by humans. Remember this at all time and don’t stoop to the level of verbal slander. Remember: The more impolite and ruder you act, the less people will be willing to help you when you need something. A simple rule of thumb: Never write anything that you would never say to others directly.

Spelling

Not many people are English teachers and experts when it comes to perfect spelling. Nevertheless, it’s advisable to read through your web contributions before sending them. Spelling mistakes can often lead to unintended misunderstandings.

Age

To feel that you have an advantage over somebody just because the other person is perhaps younger than you are, proves just how arrogant people can be – the same also applies to people who are older. A 14-year-old teenager can ask intelligent questions just as well as a 45-year-old adult can talk nonsense. Age should never be a subject of discussion here.

Verbal altercations

It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Everybody plays an active role in keeping harmony in the community. If somebody has a different opinion than someone else, this should be seen as a suggestion at the most – but not as a reason to become spiteful or to be verbally abusive. Swearing or provocative language will not be tolerated. Please try to draw a clear line between game and reality here. This is just a game forum which doesn't have anything to do with real life. Whoever misbehaves will have to face the consequences; this applies to all users involved. What exactly these consequences entail, depends on the severity of the violation committed.

Threats

Threats are not tolerated. If a threat is made, an official warning will be made. We reserve the right to take further action.

Inciting criminal activity

Anyone who publically incite others to commit criminal offenses here, should expect legal consequences. URLs linked to websites which are dehumanizing in any way, shape or form will be deleted as well as the users who posted these items. Acts of piracy will also not be tolerated.

Cross-posting

If you have a question, please post it in one forum only and not in all. Posting your question in all forums doesn't necessarily mean that you'll receive an answer more quickly; in fact, it only has the opposite effect. Your entries will be deleted. Cross-postings are seen as impolite and bother users who are nice enough to answer questions from others.

Look through old threads first (=old entries)

It's very annoying if the same or very similar questions keep popping up on a regular basis. If you browse through old threads, you'll often find the answers you're looking for immediately and don't have to wait for an answer to be sent. In addition, you'll also have to expect to be ignored if you bring up a frequently asked question again.

Selecting a subject line

You should select a subject line for your posting which makes it apparent what the issue is at hand. "Heeeeeeeeelp" definitely does not qualify. Many exclamation marks are also seen as being a nuisance, rather than helpful. Avoid writing your texts only in capital letters, BECAUSE IT'S NOT ONLY HARD TO READ, BUT ALSO IS INTERPRETED AS SCREAMING ON THE INTERNET.

Proper English please

Please keep in the back of your mind that your web announcement can be read all over the world. For this reason, you should try to use proper English as much as possible. Whoever thought they could avoid using the shift key, because they think that capital letters are unnecessary in the English language and who ignore the netiquette as well, make the text just as hard to read as a person, WHO ALWAYS WRITES THEIR TEXTS USING CAPITAL LETTERS, WHICH HURT THE EYES AFTER A COUPLE WORDS AND DECREASE THE READING SPEED DRAMATICALLY.

Missing punctuation can also make sentences run into each other which makes it hard to logically separate sentences from each other making them hard to read (such as in this run-on sentence). Typing and spelling errors also don't exactly help to increase the readability of a text. For this reason, you should always take the time to read through the text and correct any obvious mistakes before posting it. Those who clearly don't make an effort to formulate their questions properly shouldn't expect others to make the extra effort to answer them.

Be polite

Even when you publish a question or answer in a rush, please re-read it before hitting the ‘send’ button. Often a text which is written in a hurry will have a more negative effect than was actually intended. Consider whether or not the text can be misunderstood. This can happen quite easily if the text has a sarcastic undertone. Emoticons such as a ;-) (wink) can help to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.

Impatient behavior

Some answers take time. We're happy about the widespread participation in the forum, but we can't guarantee any quick replies. Impatient behavior won't help your case any further.

Spamming and Trolling

Just as in other forums, unnecessary posts (spam messages) which clog up the discussion are not desired. In the case of repeated spamming offenses, we reserve the right to take further action. Warning: Spamming shouldn't be confused with trash talk, which is, of course, allowed in the forum designated for this type of post such as the open forum, entertainment thread groups, etc.

This includes:

• Creating multiple topics or posts on the same subject in one or more forums.
• Excessively communicating the same or similar phrases or gibberish
• Empty posts.
• If you wish to state that you agree with a previously made statement, please don't just post 'I agree', but post reasoning as to why you agree with that statement, or make some elaboration upon it.
• This includes image-only replies and "bumps"

Support Issues

Do not post any content discussing disciplinary actions taken against a Community Member, in-game character or clan, or any Customer Support issues.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Account or billing issues.

• 3rd party tool abuse issues.

• Discipline received by BigPoint Support, Admins or Moderators.

• The status of any pending, open, or closed Customer Support tickets.

Inappropriate content

• Inappropriate content will not be tolerated and will be deleted.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Images, words, statements, usernames, signatures, or links that are, or refer to, sexual, drugs, vulgar, obscene, graphic, profane, defamatory, abusive, hateful, bigoted, violent, threatening, or otherwise offensive subject matter.

• Thinly-veiled obscenities (using alternate letters/symbols).

• Flaming, harassment, or verbal attaches intended to belittle, humiliate, defame, threaten, or cause embarrassment to another.

Petitions

Petitions are not allowed. If you would like to see a change made to the game, please post a well-thought out topic in the appropriate ‘suggestions and ideas’ forum.

Responsibility

Every user is responsible for his/her own contributions. In their posts, each user has the right to freely express their own opinions. But even this right, which is laid down in the Basic Constitutional Law for the Federal Republic of Germany with regard to freedom of expression, is constricted by certain other laws, in particular the StGB (German Criminal Code). It's also up to the forum operator to decide whether or not to publish such content.

Creating Multiple Forum AccountsCreating multiple accounts to circumvent a suspension, ban or to use to spam the forum, will result in further disciplinary action.

Links

Material or links to sites advocating or discussing illegal activities, both online or offline including, but not limited to:

• Cheats

• Hacks

• Trojan horses

• Viruses

• Malicious programs

• Abusing illegal drugs

• Content that violates the Terms of Use Click Here
  

Since we carry a certain amount of responsibility in respect to what is and what is not posted online in the forum, we generally forbid the posting of all external links. External links are links which lead to external pages (outside of BigPoint), not including clan, guild and family pages or forums. Of course, there are some exceptions, but these must be allowed by Support.

Images

You can post images in the forum by uploading images on the image upload page. Of course, all images are allowed as long as they do not violate any governing laws or forum rules.Examples of forbidden images: - Pornographic images - Violent images - Racist images - Politically-motivating images. These were just a few examples. If you're not sure about the content, please ask a forum moderator if the image is acceptable or not.

• Images must be hosted remotely, as we do not allow direct uploads to these forums.
• Images must adhere to all Community Guidelines.
• Images found in violation of the Community Guidelines will be deleted.
• Please do not post large images or quote images in replies.

Closed threads

If a moderator closes a thread, then please don't create a new one. There's a reason why closed threads exist, even if the reason isn't exactly apparent at first. You can find out why a thread was closed from the forum moderator responsible for that thread. If you think a moderator closed a thread based on his/her own interests or would like to make a general complaint about this, please send a private message to a super moderator or a forum administrator.

Political opinions

Everybody has a political opinion. One person may have a more neutral political view, whereas the other may think in a more extreme way. One is conservative, the other middle-of-the-road, and a third is liberal. These opinions and views are of no interest or importance here. So, keep your opinion to yourself and don't push your views/ideas on others. In the forum, the use of political statements should be exercised with caution. It's within the discretion of the moderator to edit or delete these comments.

Contact info

You never know who reads the forum and can see your personal information. This pertains to all personal contact info such as ICQ, MSN, Skype, TS, Yahoo Messenger, mailing address, telephone number, cell phone number, etc. For this reason, only send your personal contact information with a private message to the person who is meant to receive this information!

Wing/Guild ads

It's nice that you identify with your clan or your guild, but please use the designated advertisement area (usually at the bottom of the forum). If everybody was to place their ads in other areas, the really important things would be obscured.

Nickname

In the portal, you have an almost unlimited selection of nicknames. However, there are a few things to pay attention to here. Don't select a nickname which insults other users or has the intention of bothering others, such as fake nicknames. Of course, racist names or names which glorify violence or are offensive in any way are also forbidden.

Harassment

Are you being extremely harassed with *edit**edit**edit**edit**edit**edit**edit* in the forum? Then just make a screenshot of this and specify the nickname, date and time at which this harassment occurred. Of course, you can also "report" this harassing message by drawing the attention of a forum moderator to the post. However, a screenshot of it should always be made first. Furthermore, you can also file a complaint with the police. With our help, the police can determine who harassed you and they can take action accordingly.

Just say "NO"

Nobody can force you to talk about something which makes you feel uncomfortable. You don't have to answer anybody if you don't feel like it. If someone is bothering you, report it to the moderators or the administrators. They will inform Support immediately.

Meet in person? Never alone!

Does someone from the game want to meet with you in person? Think it over well as to whether or not you really want to meet them, and talk it over with your friends and family. Choose a public place and make sure you've got a few friends close by. Stay at the original meeting place – no matter what the person may promise you. You never know who will be waiting for you there.

Ads

It is not allowed to advertise external products or services at BigPoint. This means that you're not forbidden from telling someone which type of mouse you use or what type of car you drive, but that's about as far as it should go.

Signature

With your signature, you can give your postings their own personal touch. So that the overview remains intact, a few rules should be followed: A maximum of 1 banner is allowed in the signature. The maximum size should not exceed 500 x 200 pixels; this size is set as the standard size for a banner ad by the VDZ (Association of German Magazine Publishers). If advertisers are able to fit their slogans into a banner of this size, than this shouldn't be a problem for you, either. In case you need more room, just leave a few graphics out. In addition to the image, you're allowed a maximum of 4 lines of text and 2 blank lines. Important: A large font size will reduce the number of lines allowed!

Complaints

The game thrives off of you and the whole Community. Your opinion and feedback are therefore very important to us and very welcome. We also look at complaints as a good chance to cater to the needs of users in the future. Please remember to also be polite here! Calls for a strike, verbal assaults, insults to employees and other users as well as appeals for players to switch games are absolutely taboo. These don't belong in the forum and will be removed immediately. You'll only hurt yourself in the end, since we will completely ignore any offensive feedback. Please write objectively when expressing your opinion. We'll be glad to look into your issue and help you as quickly as possible to solve the problem. This list is not quite complete, but we think that these rules will serve as a good start. If necessary, this list will be expanded and improved!

A couple of handy online abbreviations:

IMHO – In my humble opinionLOL - Laughing out loud
ROTFL – Rolling on the floor laughingTTFN – ta ta for now!CU – See youRTM – Read the manual

Refrain from posting answers when you're angry. Take a day to think about things and then respond appropriately. Treat other users in the same manner in which you would like to be treated. Thank you for your attention.