Player Policy

Here are the Rules of Conduct, or what we expect from players. Following these guidelines will greatly enhance your gaming experience. As with all guidelines, these are general recommendations, and common sense should be exercised when evaluating situations/names that fall between or on the borderline of categories and descriptions. Applying the Rules of Conduct and all other efforts made to provide players with the best possible gaming environment is a job undertaken by the developers, the advisors, the forum moderators and the Game Masters. Disciplinary action appropriate to the gravity of the offence may be taken against any player found breaching these rules.

Roleplay

The game is about roleplay, so many of the rules aim to encourage or "enforce" it as smoothly as possible. Hence, many of the guidelines here concern and affect roleplay, including our policy on character names and the content of in-game dialogue and activities. In these areas, the freedom of every player is to be respected as long as it doesn't impinge on someone else's. Offensive behaviour will be dealt with, including in such areas as language and content, spamming, harassment and privacy.

• Dialogue

All dialogue in Main chat should be spoken as your character, except when dealing with GMs in direct /tell or petitions or with other players in the Gossip, help, guild, alliance or group channels. The main language of Yliakum is Common, which is like contemporary English without slang terms or texting abbreviations. When out of character, players may use other languages in private messages like /tell, or in guild chat.

In Character vs. Out Of Character

In Character (IC) means to act, speak and behave like your character would, not as you the player would. Knowing and maintaining this separation is crucial to roleplay. (See also Roleplay in the Player Guide.

An example of IC speech would be: "Hello traveller, have you heard any news about Hydlaa in recent days?" Out Of Character (OOC) is when you the player are discussing any real life events/matters. For example: "GM, my client is acting strangely, is there a patch to fix it?"

Remember to act in-character as much as possible when talking to others! We are all working towards a roleplay atmosphere in PlaneShift. OOC should be used only in /tell, in the Gossip, help, guild, alliance or group channels or in petitions to a GM. All communications in Main chat must be IC. In Main chat, OOC (Out-Of-Character) text should be within square brackets or parentheses [ ]. Remember that your character knows nothing about computers, video games, the Internet, or Picasso. Read about the Land of the Azure Sun for official information about the world your character belongs to. While your character can certainly come from another plane outside of Yliakum, don't do something outrageous like try to bring in RP guns. Keep with the medieval fantasy atmosphere as much as you can.

Respect

• Language and Content

You may not use in PlaneShift, post or link on the official website, any offensive or sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, unlawful, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language, offensive imagery or content. You may not organize nor be a member of any pledges or groups within PlaneShift that are based on or espouse any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other hatemongering philosophies.

• Spamming

When communicating in PlaneShift using the Chat, you may not spam, flood, or make duplicate messages.

• Harassment

You may not defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. Any player receiving such harassment may type the command /report [player-name], which automatically logs the player's dialogue about 5 minutes on either side of the issuing of the command, so that a GM may investigate the complaint.

• Privacy

You may not post or communicate in game or on the PlaneShift website the personal information of any player or do anything that may hurt the privacy of other players.

Naming Rules

The Naming Policy applies to the following naming options in PlaneShift:

• First Names
• Surnames
• Guild Names
• Pet Names
• Any naming options that may be implemented in future expansions or updates

A valid name is: An original and unique name which when used and read by any player from any culture should be understood to refer to your character in the PlaneShift world and to nothing else, thus preserving your immersion into the virtual world and that of your fellow players.

Generic terms and conditions:

1. Character names must begin with a capitalized letter.
2. Character names cannot include numbers or special characters
3. No names should contain more than 2 of the same letter repeated and grouped together.
4. Names must make sense in a Medieval Fantasy setting.
5. Names must be in concordance with the setting of PlaneShift.

The following name types are not allowed:

1. Offensive or vulgar names or combinations of words that produce an offensive result. (Swear words, insults, etc. e.g. Fartface)
2. Names that are swear words in other languages.
3. Vile, profane, rude, or racist names including common swear words, anatomical references, racial slurs, and homonyms of these words.
4. Names containing titles within them, such as, but not limited to: The, Lord, Lady, Master, King, Knight, Sir, Father, and names that contain adjectives (words describing something) or verbs (action words).
5. Word combinations, especially those resulting in phrases or sentences (either in one name alone or first and last names combined. (e.g. Evilmastermind, The Fortuneteller, Fatebender, Incre Dible.)
6. Names of religious, occult, or significant historic origin or names from mythology. (e.g. Jesus, Allah, Satan, Asmodan, Bael, Stalin, Leviathan, Dragon).
7. Trademarked names of products, services, or concepts (e.g. , Linux, Sony, Ubuntu).
8. Fantasy or non-fantasy oriented names from popular media, books, other games or from the music industry. These names can be either fictional (e.g. Spiderman, Wolverine, Merlin, Gandalf, Lancelot) or non-fictional (e.g. George Bush, Sylvester Stallone, Korn, Janis Joplin).
9. Common words and phrases that are not found in the environment or time setting of the game (e.g. Chainsaw, Killermachine, Cyborg, Laser, Dishwasher).
10. Names that represent objects of any kind, chemical substances, chemical elements, species or subspecies of animals, plants or insects, food products, anatomy parts, senses, feelings, physical and metaphysical concepts, etc. (e.g. Stick, Alcohol, Sulphur, Horse, Flower, Spider, Pie, Nose, Touch, Love, Solid, Fate).
11. Names representing real places, cities, or countries. (e.g. Mount Fuji, Berlin, Albania)
12. Names chosen with the intent or possessed with the effect of harming the reputation of or used to impersonate any person or entity.
13. Any kind of names taken from slang, phonetics, obvious reversed words, Internet culture or leet language. (e.g. Typo, Leet, Pwnzor, Pwner, Noob)
14. Any type of misspellings and alternative spellings that will result in the same pronunciation or translations in other languages for one of the aforementioned invalid names. (e.g. Stewpid, Reetard, Leggolas, Rumbo, Phatcat)

Exceptions:
1. Surnames: For surnames, certain word combinations are allowed. However these must also respect the rules stated under Generic terms and conditions. Examples of allowed surnames: Stronghand, Daggerblade, Forgehammer.
2. Guild names: For guild names, the paragraphs 4, 5, 9 do not apply, but certain moderation should be considered. For example, guild names like Knights, Warrior knights, Defenders, Protectors, Angels of Chaos, Demonic Warriors, Felines, etc.
3. Pet names: The rules for naming your pets are the same as those for your character, with two exceptions:

• Some titles are allowed. (for example, "Sir Beaky," "Lord Goldfeather").
  
• Some adjectives or verbs are allowed (for example, "Little Destroyer," "Flight Fear").
  
• There is also more leniency towards silly names such as "Fluffy" or "Cutie," but pet names should not form OOC phrases, have non-medieval fantasy references, be used as signs, or be used as objects.
  
• Under no circumstances may a pet name use the name of an existing PlaneShift character, guild or NPC!
  
  

Remember that during char creation you can randomly generate your name. You can also find some useful fantasy name generators here. Be aware, however, that you must still check a generated name against the guidelines as they are not perfect and may not be automatically acceptable.

• http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php
  
• http://rinkworks.com/namegen/
  
  

The Game Master (GM) team reserves the right to change any name that could be considered unsuitable, even if it doesn’t violate any of the aforementioned terms. Final arbitration of the interpretation of the aforementioned terms will rest with the GM team, in the interest of stable settings, consistent naming, and fair treatment of players.
Characters dating from old PlaneShift releases are to be compliant with these policies. Please contact us if your character was created before this policy -- we will jointly find a solution.

System

• Impersonation

You may not impersonate any member of the development team or GM or game representative.

• Hacking

You may not enter into gameplay practices that cause disruption of gameplay for other players, or adversely affect game performance.
You will not attempt to interfere with, hack into, or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running PlaneShift.
You may not create "bots" or automation programs with the purpose of profiteering or advancing unattended.

• Exploit

You will not exploit any bug in PlaneShift and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits) either directly or through public posting, to any other user of PlaneShift.
Bugs should be promptly reported to Game Masters using the Bugtracker.

• Personal Nature of Accounts

Use of the account is strictly personal. The account should not, even temporarily, be shared with or otherwise extended to another person, nor may it be used in any way that is extraneous to the proper normal use of the game. All users are fully responsible for the use of their account, and for the use made of their account by their under-aged child or by any other person who has access to it.

"Killstealing"

• Nobody owns a spawn, and nobody owns any attackable NPC unless they are already fighting it
• Taking an NPC from someone when they have already started an attack is considered kill stealing and will be punishable by GMs through warnings, and then further actions if the player continues.
• There is no need to ask players around a spawn whether you can "join" - everyone has a right to hunt or attack NPCs, and no one can refuse to share with you, since there is no ownership. However, being polite and asking to share beforehand is considered common courtesy and people will be much friendlier to you if you do.

Dropping Items

• Players are not allowed to drop items to decorate the world map! This puts stress on many clients and increases lag.
• If you need to drop items for roleplay, clean up after yourself - and don't expect the items to remain if you don't.
• Items for short-term decoration or roleplay are dropped at your own risk. GMs cannot get items back for you, as once something is on the ground, you lose ownership rights.

Miscellaneous

External Laws

You may not violate any local, state, national, or international laws or regulations.

Don't spoil the fun of others

By publishing quest solutions on the web you are lowering the realism of the game and you are spoiling the fun of other people. We are not against players teaming up and giving hints to each other, but we think that this should be done in game, with role-playing. Having a web page that simply lists what to do to achieve more money and experience in less time should be considered something against the role-playing aspect of the game. Instead, you are encouraged to join a Guild or Group and share information with other members, possibly depending on their rank. You may also accept in your own guild players that have at least completed a certain number of quests to prove their dedication to the game. Alternatively, you can use quest completion as a benchmark for promoting players within your own guild.