Rules of Conduct

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE BASIC RULES OF CONDUCT THAT GOVERN PLAYER INTERACTION AND ACTIVITY WITHIN VENDETTA ONLINE AND IN THE OFFICIAL FORUMS. FAILURE TO ACT RESPONSIBLY AND COMPLY WITH THESE RULES WITHIN VENDETTA ONLINE AND THE OFFICIAL VENDETTA ONLINE FORUMS MAY RESULT IN THE TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT WITHOUT ANY REFUND OF ANY KIND.

  1. You may not harass or threaten other players.
  2. You may not use any sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language.
  3. You may not impersonate any Guild Software Inc employee, past or present, including any Customer Support personnel.
  4. You may not violate any local, state, national or international law or regulation.
  5. You may not modify any part of the Vendetta Online Client, Server or any part of the Vendetta Online Web Page located at https://www.vendetta-online.com.
  6. You may not arrange for the exchange or transfer of any pirated or illegal software while on Vendetta Online or the official Web site.
  7. You will follow the instructions of authorized personnel while in Vendetta Online or on the Official Forums.
  8. You may not organize nor be a member of any guilds or groups within Vendetta Online that are based on, or espouse, any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other hate-mongering philosophy.
  9. You may not give false information or intentionally hide any information when registering for your Vendetta Online account.
  10. You will not upload or transmit on Vendetta Online, or on the official Web Site any copyrighted content that you do not own all rights to, unless you have the express written permission of the author or copyright holder.
  11. You will not attempt to interfere with, hack into, or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running Vendetta Online.
  12. You will not exploit any bug in Vendetta Online and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits in game), either directly or through public posting, to any other user of Vendetta Online. You will promptly report any such bug via the bug report form at https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/bugreport.
  13. You will not attempt to play Vendetta Online on any server that is not controlled or authorized by Guild Software Inc, or its designees.
  14. You will not create, use or provide any server emulator or other site where Vendetta Online may be played, and you will not post or distribute any utilities, emulators or other software tools related to Vendetta Online without the express written permission of Guild Software Inc.

1.1 Play Nice Policies - Activity within Vendetta Online

In addition to the general guidelines listed in section 1.0, players are also subject to these supplementary rules while playing Vendetta Online. While by no means an all-inclusive list of the do's and don'ts in Vendetta Online, it provides a suitable foundation by which the player can determine what activities are appropriate:

  1. Foul language is not permitted, in any language.

    Excessive use of foul language in an inappropriate context, including swear words, real-world racial slurs, and other language that is not consistent with the science fiction environment and designed to hurt, will be considered a disruption. The existence of the filter (game options) is not a license to be profane.

  2. You may not harass others.

    Harassment is defined as specifically targeting another player or group of players to harm or inconvenience them. As harassment can take many forms, the Guide involved will make a determination as to whether or not a "reasonable person" would feel harassed and act accordingly.

  3. You may not disrupt the normal playability of a sector or area.

    Sector/Area Disruption is defined as any activity designed to harm or inconvenience a number of groups rather than a specific player or group of players. This includes making excessive and inappropriate use of public channels of communications.

  4. You may not defraud other players.

    Fraud is defined as falsely representing one's intentions to make a gain at another's expense. Examples of this activity include, but are not limited to, using deception to deprive another player of items, slandering another player or impersonating them with the intention of causing harm to that player's reputation, or falsely representing one's identity in order to gain access to another player's account or account information.

    Fraud in all transactions between players may result in disciplinary action when confirmed by a Guide.

  5. You may not abuse other players or Guides.

    The following actions would be considered abuse:

    • Hate Mongering - participation in or propagation of Hate literature, behavior, or propaganda related to real-world characteristics.
    • Sexual Abuse or Harassment - untoward and/or unwelcome advances of a graphic and sexual nature. This includes, but is not limited to, virtual rape, overt sexual overtures, and stalking of a sexual nature.
    • Attempting to Defraud a Guide - Requesting Guide action with false information with the intent of receiving benefits as a result. This includes reporting bug deaths, experience or item loss, or accusing other players of wrongdoing without basis for it.
    • Impersonating a Guide - falsely representing yourself to another player as a Guide or a Guild Software employee.
    • Guide Abuse - This includes, but is not limited to, sending excessive messages to a Guide, making physical threats, or using abusive language against a Guide or Guild Software Employee.
    • Implying Favoritism by Guides - Stating that employees of Guild Software or members of the Guide program will show favor towards one or more parties involved in any given situation. This includes, but is not limited to, using threats of retribution or inferring that you will not be held accountable for your actions due to special consideration.
    Note: This list is not all-inclusive. Other actions may be determined as abuse at the discretion of the Guide.

  6. "Role-playing" does not grant license to violate these rules.

    Though Vendetta Online is a Role-playing game, the claim of "Role-play" will not be accepted in defense of any of the anti-social behaviors mentioned above. We strongly encourage role-playing, but cannot allow it to be done at the expense of others.

  7. You may not operate a guild that habitually violates these rules.

    Disciplinary issues involving guilds may be addressed with the entire guild. Guilds whose members habitually violate these rules may be issued guild warnings, and can even be permanently disbanded.

    Guild Leaders and/or officers may be held accountable for any actions of their guild members, in addition to any other actions that may be taken. It is therefore the responsibility of the guild leadership to ensure that all guild members abide by these rules.

1.2 Message Board Conduct

As the Official Vendetta Online Forums are associated with the game, posting to these forums is bound by the Terms of Service that can be found in their entirety here. In addition to these terms of service, we have a few supplemental rules that apply to the Vendetta Online Forums.

In general, you may post any material, written in a courteous and maturemanner, providing that it is on-topic for the forum to which you are posting. This includes material that disagrees with the way that we, the developers, operate the game. We will not interfere with the communication of thoughts and ideas as long as the presentation is appropriate for all those capable of reading the forum.

You may not, however, post any material that:

  • Attacks or insults others on the board. Feel free to debate the idea, but do not turn your disagreement into an attack upon the poster.
  • Engages in name-calling, harassment, or threats. See above.
  • Contains obscenity, vulgarity, or profanity.
  • Disparages any religion, race, nation, gender, or sexual orientation.
  • Is considered inappropriate for children 13 or over as governed by general standards of decency in the United States.
  • Infringes on anyone's privacy rights.

Furthermore, you may not:

  • Make multiple posts on the same subject for the purpose of getting attention paid to your issue.
  • Post off-topic comments in threads for the purpose of drawing attention to another thread on a different subject.
  • Monopolize the front page of any forum by "bumping" threads of the same or similar content to the front. We may intervene by locking threads any time that this occurs.
  • Use the official forums as a staging-ground for creating general unrest within the game (e.g. Sit-ins).
  • Use the official forums as a place to advertise the sale of Vendetta Online characters or items in exchange for real-world money.
  • Advertise web-sites with content that violates these rules, the Vendetta Online EULA, or Terms of Service.
  • Advertise products or websites that are not related to Vendetta Online or other Guild Software products.

Action that we might take in regards to a post in violation of these rules on the Official Forums will vary depending upon the transgression. It could include any number of the following:

  • Editing of the post.
  • Deletion of the post/thread.
  • Locking of the thread.
  • Suspension (results in user being unable to play Vendetta Online for the duration of the suspension).
  • Banishment (results in the user's station account being canceled. User will no longer be able to access Vendetta Online, or any Official Forum).
  • Legal Action (I.e. Contacting law enforcement personnel in regard to a threat.)

People who violate the rules of the boards may or may not receive any warning before any action is taken. In the event that a warning is given, the warning will be recorded upon the game account and may result in further action should the player show a pattern of engaging in prohibited conduct. Philosophically and administratively, there is no difference between conduct in game, and conduct in the Official Vendetta Online Forums.