DECALOGUE: PUNISHMENTS AND APPEALS

[Azroen]

Dear players,

The game admin team would like to take some time to explain the system that we have in place, so that everyone understands it and we avoid confusion.

Within this document are the following items:

1. The general guidelines that the game admin team follows when issuing a punishment for a decalogue violation.

2. The proper method for appealing a decision and/or a punishment on a game server.

If anything listed within this is confusing, or if anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

~ Azroen
Game Admin Coordinator
coordinator@the-reincarnation.com


Decalogue Violation Punishments

When it has been determined that a mage has violated the decalogue, the game admins will decide on a punishment for the mage depending on the given situation. Below are the punishments that the game admins may use, and the general guidelines that they follow when issuing punishments.

Note: the lists of what actions bring which punishments is only a general guideline, and the game admins may decide to increase or decrease the punishments due to the situation that they find.

The following are general punishments for the following offenses:


Warning - Warnings are issued to players informing them that either a rule has been violated or that they are in danger of violating a rule. Generally warnings are only given for first time offenses; if a player has already been warned and repeats the offense then they will likely receive a punishment.

Things that may receive a warning:

• Offensive language that is used as part of speech and not directed at another player as an insult. Example: Sending a war arrow with the message, "F***! You onlined me! Dai!!!"
• Illegal coordination within a mage chain as per the policy on mage alliance chains.
• Revealing minor in-game information. Example: Posting hero kills with mage names and IDs in mage descriptions.
• Use of minor scripts/bots.
• Failure to register as a multiaccount if the account requires it.

Mute - Mutes are issued when a player is unable to communicate civilly with other players. Generally a player will first receive a warning, but after they've been warned or if their violation was serious enough, then they may be muted. A muted mage is unable to send messages of any type (arch mails, war arrows, guild messages), is unable to edit their mage description, and is unable to receive incoming arch mails (exceptions: they will still receive war arrows, BM messages, and guild messages). The muting will last until it is removed by an admin.

Things that may receive a mute:

• Sending offensive arch mails, war arrows, guild messages
• Continually harassing other mages through arch mail, war arrows, guild messages
• Sending out illegal in-game information to non-allied mages

Timetwister (take turns of mage)[TT] - A timetwister punishment will remove a full turn set from a mage. If a mage has full turns when a TT is issued then their turns are set to 0. Turns can go negative if they were less than full when the TT was issued. TTs are generally issued for serious decalogue infractions, or when a player has ignored a warning. A successfully appealed timetwister can be canceled but only in the first hours after it is issued.

Things that may receive a timetwister:

• Offensive or harassing language that is used to insult or attack another player. Example: "You stupid b***h, I'm going to kill you!"
• Illegal coordination within a mage chain as per the policy on mage alliance chains.
• Illegal coordination between ND and guilded mages.
• Revealing in-game information to non-allies.
• Minor milking.

Frozen Hell (locking of mage) - Frozen Hell removes access of a player to the game: you can no longer log into your mage. Mages that have a counter may attack frozen mages. After 6 days your mage will die unless the Frozen status is removed by a game admin. During this period you may either appeal the game admin's decision, or accept the punishment and suicide your mage. Frozen Hell is usually given out for repeated violations (after a warning and/or a TT has been issued and ignored), and for blatent cheating.

Things that may receive a Frozen Hell:

• Multimaging.
• Account trading or inheriting.
• Milking that has an impact on a mage.
• Repeated use of disposable mages.
• Use of scripts/bots to run a mage.
• Attacking/disbanding on mages with a NAP

Banishment (removal of mage) - Banishment is the ultimate punishment a mage can receive. Banishment ends the life of a mage and consigns it to hell. It kills instantanous and the punishment is irreversible. The cemetry displays Fury of God as the cause of death. Once a mage is banished a player may only reincarnate a new mage.

Things that may receive a Banishment:

• Cheating/bug exploiting with direct impact on other mages
• Repeated violation of the decalogue.
• Offensive name.

Server Ban - A server ban is the ultimate punishment that a player can receive. Being banned from the server means that you will not be able to play on that server until a game admin removes the ban.

Things that may receive a server ban:

• Repeated violation of the decalogue.

Decalogue Violations - Reporting and Appealing

Each server has its own set of game admins who police the game to ensure fair play. Game admins have powerful tools to detect cheating as well as expansive logs beyond what players have in order to investigate and punish those that violate the decalogue.

The Reincarnation has thousands of players and it impossible to keep track of what every player is doing every second of the day. Because of this the game admins rely on players to report decalogue violations, suspicious actions, and inappropriate behavior of others. It is every player's obligation to play within the rules, and their responsibility to report when other players do not; even if it is a member of their own guild!

When a report is made the game admins will investigate it. During the course of their investigation a game admin may speak via E-mail or in-game archmails to a player involved in order to make a decision. Player's are expected to be truthful and forthcoming with the game admins during investigations.

If a player feels that a punishment was unjustified, or that a report was not handled correctly, they may appeal the decision to the game admins and, after that, to the game admin coordinator.


Reporting a Decalogue Violation

All players should report any decalogue violations that they witness, suspicious activities, or the inappropriate behavior of others.

To make a report:

1. Include your mage name and ID. Reports sent without this information may not be reviewed.
2. Include the mage name and ID of the mage(s) you are reporting.
3. Include a description of the violation that you are reporting. Explain what you want the game admins to look for.
4. Include log files, war arrows, arch mails, IRC logs, etc. Anything that you have that you believe will support your report. Note: IRC logs are not deemed reliable information, but will be taken into consideration if provided.
5. Send the report to the game admins of the proper server. (ie., make sure that you send a report for guild server to the guild server game admins)

Game admins should reply to your report, if necessary, within 24-48 hours. If a report is sent on a weekend or holiday then additional time may be required.


Appeals process for Decalogue Violations

Appealing a decision by a game admin (either for a punishment that you received, or for lack of action on a report you submitted) must be done by the mage in question. Ie., if your guild-mate is fogged then they must be the one to appeal the decision.

To appeal a decision by a game admin you *must* do the following:

1. First contact the game admin in question and attempt to resolve it with them. Game admins are willing to discuss the punishment with players.

2. If after contacting the game admin no resolution is reached, you may contact the game admin coordinator at coordinator@the-reincarnation.com. If you contact the game admin coordinator include the following in your e-mail:

• A copy of the initial report.
• A copy of all emails to and from the game admin.
• A summary of how you would like for the situation to be resolved.

The game admin coordinator will respond to your appeal within 24-48 hours, or within 72 hours if sent on a weekend.

The game admin coordinator allows for a "second look" at game admin decisions, and decisions by the game admin coordinator will be final.


Reporting Problems with a Game Admin

The Reincarnation strives to maintain an even-handed and fair environment when dealing with decalogue violations, and requires that its game admins conduct themselves in a professional manner.

If a player has a complaint about a game admin, beyond a decision that was not favorable to them, they should report it to the game admin coordinator at coordinator@the-reincarnation.com. The game admin coordinator will review the report and take whatever action he feels is necessary.

[troubles]

as a one who recieved unjustified TT,
it seems more logical to me to prevent player from getting turns for the nex200 turns rather than decreasing the turns by 200 going into negative.

TT can hurt real bad as you can lose all your land if it comes in bad timing..

it also isn't fair that its irreversible, as admins make mistakes sometimes.

[ebenezzum]

well, everyone makes mistakes, I made one once.
and TT is SUPPOSED to hurt bad. it's a punishment.
not sure if I understand this part.

"it seems more logical to me to prevent player from getting turns for the nex200 turns rather than decreasing the turns by 200 going into negative."

are you saying that if you had 150 - 200 turns you should be allowed to use those turns before the TT goes into effect? sounds like that would reduce the effectiveness of the the punishment to almost nil.
It would make it more like a planned day away from the game. ( Well, won't be able to play tomorrow, better mana charge, summon up a strong defence,(if on app, err.. arch, oversummon like crazy) and go to the movies, bar, or whatever).

[Caatius]

I understood it this way: You don't get NEW turns for 1000 minutes (16.67 hours, counted by 1 turn per 5 minutes times 200 turns).

[Groentje]

1. TT is supposed to subtract one full amount of turns. If you receive it at full turns - it sets to 0. If you receive it at 0 turns, it sets you very negative - the example above would be on beta, not on our main servers guild, arch, solo.
2. Admins and developers in the past have discussed the opportunity to have some form of "unTT". Who knows, Azroen in his new function may pick up this issue again!
(UnTT for example would turn 'TT: you lost full turns' into 'you did not accumulate turns in the time between TT and unTT' )

[Azroen]

Punishment section above has been updated to reflect a new admin tool: Muting.

Also, timetwister is now removable if an appeal to the admin is successful. This reversal must be done within a turn cycle of the punishment, and turns restored may never exceed the max turns allowed. Ie., if a person was timetwistered while they had full turns, their turns would be set to 0 (removed 1 full turn cycle). If this decision is reversed 3 hours later by the admin, they are given a full turn cycle back. Since turns may not exceed the maximum storage amount the mage would end up losing 3 hours worth of turns.