Game Rules

[GreekIdiot]

Team

Creator: Wouter Lievens
Admin(s): GreekIdiot
Moderator(s): Nick, Weimarska, Hexaus, Kubrick, Hyraemous, Lig, Journey

Table of Contents

Section 1 - Player Conduct and Out-of-Game Communications
Section 2 - Account Management
Section 3 - Language and Communication
Section 4 - Game Mechanic Procedures and Administration
Section 5 - Moderation Procedures and Administration
Section 6 - Role-Play Procedures, Guidelines and Administration
Section 7 - Cultural Protocols
-- Section 7a - Culturally Open Status
-- Section 7b - Cultural Protocol Violations
Section 8 - Role-Play Coordinators - DEPRECATED
-- Section 8a - Forum-Based Countries Coordinator - DEPRECATED
-- Section 8b - World Congress Coordinator - DEPRECATED
Section 9 - Forum-Based Countries
Section 10 - Second Account

Foreword
The Particracy Game Rules provide the bases for Wouter and Moderation and players management and operation of Particracy Classic. Moderation reserves the discretion to make exceptions in special circumstances, and also to make amendments to the rules as deemed appropriate. The ultimate authority on all matters is the game's creator, Wouter Lievens.

Section 0 - Player Conduct

01. Don't discuss warnings and bans on players publicly as it unnecessarily puts a target on them.
02. Don't search for, circulate, publicly identify, publish or otherwise share personal information on players (doxxing).
03. Don't impersonate anyone.
04. Don't share private messages without permission.
05. Don't discriminate against anyone on their use of English, understanding of other languages and use of Latin-script transliterations.
06. Don't harass anyone (harassing means swearing, insulting, attacking and discriminating against others on any basis, including but not limited to religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, creed, colour and nationality).
07. Don't spam (spamming means sending unsolicited messages to a large number of recipients, posting in a large number of places and posting in a high level of frequency).

--
Players violating the aforementioned will be given a 30-day and then a permanent ban. This section takes precedence over any other exact or similar points found in the rest of the Game Rules. All other rules are subject to 2 warnings meant to be used in a guiding manner, then a 30-day and then a permanent ban.

[Moderation]

Section 1 - Player Conduct and Out-of-Game Interactions
1. All players, moderators and players alike, should be treated with respect at all times and likewise should reciprocate that respect;

2. Players should be aware of IC (In-Character) and OOC (Out of character) distinctions and are advised to use such such tags when interacting if there are issues of communication;

3. The discussion of sanctions, warnings or other actions taken by a Moderation towards a player are forbidden throughout Particracy. All requests or questions regarding such actions are to be made in private to Moderation or Wouter, if absolutely necessary;

4. "Doxxing" or other breaches of user privacy are strictly forbidden, users caught breaking this rule or knowingly circulating information regarding another player will be permanently banned;

5. Users caught impersonating moderators, implying they are moderation or other Particracy staff or team members will have action taken against their account;

6. The sharing of in-game messages, forum personal messages, Discord messages related to Particracy and other discussions that are considered to have a reasonably expectation of privacy are prohibited from being shared;

7. Moderation generally uses the warn, final warn, inactivation and then banning as the hierarchy of sanctions on users; however they are not bound by chronological order of sanctions;

8. Moderation (and ultimately Wouter) reserves the right to determine sanctions, warnings or other actions necessary for rule or guideline violations.

[Moderation]

Section 2 - Account Management
1. It is forbidden to operate more than one active game account at a single time, this is commonly referred to as "multiing". Any player found to have more than one active accounts will have both inactivated, further "multiing" offenses may result in further sanctions against the overall player;
-- 1a. Due to complications with proxy and VPN networks, it is forbidden to log in using these type of networks and programs;
-- 1b. Any issues involving multiple persons per household (including college/university, other multi-person residences) playing the game, it is required that persons who have roommates, relatives or others playing within the same household (including college/university, other multi-person residences) contact Moderation and notify them of such a situation;

2. Users should never share passwords or other pertinent account information with other users (including Moderation) and should never allow someone else to access their account.
-- 2a. Moderation or other members assigned to positions WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD;
-- 2b. Account trading or handing over your account is forbidden. Accounts should only be used by the players who created them;

3. Registration for a Particracy in-game account requires a legitimate, working email address, if a player is found with an illegitimate (dummy, fake, etc.) email address they may be inactivated. This email account will not be shared but will be used for Particracy related emails and updates.

[Moderation]

Section 3 - Language and Communication
1. English is the official language of Particracy, as a result, all users should be able to communication to a reasonable standard in English. The Particracy community made up of dozens of different languages and we welcome the diversity;
-- 1a. All public communications such as bill descriptions, party descriptions, politicians must be written in English;
-- 1b. Party names, constitutional titles and other variables (excluding bill descriptions, party descriptions and politicians) may be in a non-English language appropriate to the nations culture however if the nations culture has a different alphabet that might be difficult to understand, the Latin-script transliteration is required (example languages: Russian, Arabic, Persian, etc.);
-- 1c. Users should not be discriminated against for poor English, in the event of a breakdown in communications Moderation should be notified to perhaps assist in communications;

2. Swearing and "bad language" is not necessarily forbidden in-character; players are advised to be very aware of the usage of swearing, discriminatory and otherwise negative language when operating in character. For out of character swearing, racial insults and other personal attacks will not be tolerated. Any discrimination and attacks on the basis of religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, creed, color or nationality is prohibited and will be dealt with with the utmost importance;

3. Any form of spamming (sending the same message via in-game mail, discord (public or private), messaging board in game, creating multiple bills with similar names/variables repeatedly, etc.) is forbidden in-game, on the forums and the official Particracy Discord server;

4. Moderation runs the official Particracy Community Discord server. The rules and procedures following the Discord server are as follows:
-- 4a. Becoming a member of the official Discord is not compulsory, players are free to come and go as they please. There is no requirement to be a member of the Discord community;
-- 4b. All rules of Section 1 and other game rules apply within the discord and will be followed;
-- 4c. Political and religious discourse is welcome, however all members of the Discord will be treated with respect and any breach of these rules will result in sanctions. The point of the Particracy Community Discord is for the discussion of Particracy as a whole, if political, religious, social, etc. discourse becomes disruptive or predatory in nature, Moderation and the Discord staff will act accordingly;

5. The referencing of real-life characters, figures, nations, places, religions, organizations, nationalities (examples: Hitler, Jesus, NATO, Somali, Islam, Christianity, etc.) is strictly forbidden unless mentioned in an Out-of-Character (OOC) nature to convey understanding or provide background. This applies to real-life fictional references as well (examples: Finland, Cindarella, World of Warcraft, etc). Players are encouraged to come up with in-game equivalents.

6. Role-play content must be original work and plagiarism of any kind is strictly banned. Players may quote or reference real-world material provided that this is limited and that they link to the original source in the text.

7. The utilization of AI (artificial intelligence) or ML (machine learning) tools to generate role-play content is strictly prohibited. The usage of AI/ML to generate images (that are safe for work and in accordance with other rules) is permitted for use.

[Moderation]

Section 4 - Game Mechanics Procedures and Administration (Bills, treaties, party organizations, etc.)
1. Bills (with variables and changes) can only be proposed by active parties within the nation. Players who operate inactive accounts may receive permission from active players in the nation to participate in RP with an inactive party. Players who receive this permission must clear it with Moderation and are only permitted to create non-variable (aka text only) bills;

2. Users active within a nation can request bills be archived (pushed to vote) or deleted (permanently deleted) from their nations "Bills under debate" section by posting links to the bills they wish to be archived/deleted on the Bill Clear Out Requests located at the previously mentioned link.
-- 2a. Users should do their best to avoid cluttering the "Bills under debate" section to avoid large clear out requests;
-- 2b. Bills are eligible for removal if they are over 10 in-game years old or the party which proposed them is currently inactive;
-- 2c. Active RP laws, cultural protocols and other important bills will not be cleared out. Moderation reserves the right to query, deny or approve all bill clear out requests;

3. If a constitutional bill changing the flag is passed it is forbidden to try to modify the image stored at the linked URL address;

4. Treaties will be eligible for deletion if they are more than 50 in-game years old and have no currently ratified members. These can be reported to Moderation at the following thread: Treaty Clear Out Requests;

5. "Treaty Locking" or ratifying treaties that completely or near completely forbid any proposals to be changed are forbidden and can result in action being taken against the treaty locking players account;

6. Party organizations are eligible for deletion if they are over 50 in-game years old, do not have at least 1 active member or are historically significant and possess historically significant information;

7. It is forbidden to repeatedly call ("spam") early elections. If a user calls more than 5 elections in 5 in-game years, they will be sanctioned;

8. It is forbidden to attempt to impose a "cabinet lock" which involves transferring the power to propose a cabinet to a hereditary head of state;

9. "Nation raiding" or a malevolent coordinated effort by a single user or group of users to interrupt the gameplay, significantly alter the culture or direction of a nation is strictly prohibited. Players interacting in nation raiding will be sanctioned.

10. It is forbidden to include law variables (proposals which impact a party's political positions) in cabinet votes, taxation, and budget proposals. The only exception is taxation and budget proposals which may include law variables that do not impact a party's political positions and are related to taxation and budget. These are: corporate tax increase/decrease, luxury tax increase/decrease, sales tax increase/decrease.

[Moderation]

Section 5 - Moderation Procedures and Administration
1. Users will have their party routinely in-activated if they have not logged in for 4 days;

2. Moderation reserves the right to inactivate players for breaches of the Particracy Game Rules or behavior that runs contrary to warnings or other sanctions that Moderation has provided (this includes issues related to the forums or the official Discord);

3. Users can request on-time or early inactivations of other parties HERE for the following reasons:
-- 3a. They have not logged in for 2 days (48 hours) and have not updated their party description or their party name or their party color or have not voted on any bills currently active for voting;
-- 3b. They are "Party Sitting" which means that they log on, do not vote on bills in order to avoid being activated by automatic sweeps or by reporting, inactivation will only happen when this behavior has been on-going for 4 or more days;
-- 3c. Similar to "Party Sitting" a player will be inactivated when logging in every 4 days and voting this is known as "Dodging inactivation";
-- 3d. Moderation reserves the right to inactivate players who are breaking the rules, contribute negatively to the gameplay of others, present a block to RP without reasonable objection or for any other reasonable cause.

4. Users can request re-activation of their party located HERE but might not be re-activated for the following reasons:
-- 4a. They have the "log in bug" which does not record log-in times;
-- 4b. Breached the rules in some manner and are subject to sanctions;
-- 4c. They have been inactivated 3 or more times for proxy, multing or party sitting violations. This rule is subject to Moderation discretion.
-- 4d. Elections are going to be held within the current or next game-tick and reactivation might provide the reactivating user with an unfair advantage due to the reactivation boost users get.

5. Players are permitted to change the name of their nation, cities and regions. In order to do this, they must pass a bill with a two-thirds majority and then post a request HERE. Renaming requests must be in a language appropriate to the nation, as determined by the Nation Renaming Guide. The short or common name of the country will be included in brackets after the formal name, e.g. "Cakaniye Cumhuriyeti (Jakania)";

6. Users can request leadership of a party organization if they are the only active member (in rare/exceptional circumstances a candidate can be made a leader). Requests are to be made HERE. Moderation reserves the right to query, deny or approve requests for leadership;
-- 6a. Party organizations will be eligible for deletion if it more than 30 in-game years old and does not have 1 minimum active member (meaning a member who has an active account, with either leadership or full member status).
-- 6b. The use of an inactive account with a leadership role in a party organization that is used to promote/demote others within the organization can request Moderation to determine the legitimacy of the changes.

7. Users can request early election requests HERE if there are no active parties in the nation that have seats;

8. Other requests can be posted HERE that do not have a specific forum request thread;

9. Moderation reserve the right to query, deny or approve any requests and are permitted to make exceptions to the rules.

[Moderation]

Section 6 - Role-Play Procedures, Guidelines and Administration
1. Role-play is a significant part of Particracy, it comes in many forms and ways but at its core, Particracy is a political simulator with certain mechanics. Generally, "game mechanics" come first though there are exceptions;

2. Large scale RP planning (such as wars, regional/continental conflicts, economic collapse, etc.) should be planned (as best as it can be) and should have consent of a majority of players involved. It is possible to RP smaller events without the consent of all players or others;
-- 2a. Players are required to pass a bill authorizing the RP which must be passed by a majority of players with seats within the nation (for major, large-scale roleplays such as civil wars, wars, significant economic or RP-related political reforms, etc.) Players are required to create an OOC RP planning bill or forum post discussing the general outline and discussion for planned RP; it needs to include a link to the passed RP authorization bill (for all players);
-- 2b. Players who engage with RP via newspaper posts, in-game messages or other forms of in-character communications are generally accepted to be consenting to the RP. In the event that consent or authorization comes into question, players who have engaged will be counted as voting for or authorizing the RP.

3. Players are reminded that Particracy is loosely based on the real world, RP must be kept with that in mind. RP must be realistic, grounded in real life and not in fantasy or "futuristic" technologies and other items;

4. Players are reminded that going back on established RP ("retcon", "retconning") is generally unaccepted and Moderation will be involved in the event of significant retcons/retconning, especially when there are OOC issues surrounding RP. Moderation reserve the right to approve or deny retcons/retconning as they see reasonable and realistic;

5. Role-play Laws "RP Laws" are permitted to be created as secondary laws to in-game law variables. RP Laws that require a party to vote or act in a specific way (exemptions are bills that set procedures for speaking within the legislature such as "Mr./Mrs. Speaker", etc) are prohibited and will not be enforced by Moderation;
-- 5a. RP laws follow the same passing rules as in-game variable laws. Laws that are not of a constitutional nature require a simple majority "Yes" vote from active parties currently holding seats. Laws that are of a constitutional nature require a 2/3 majority "Yes" vote from active parties currently holding seats;
-- 5b. RP laws passed must be listed within the "Bills Under Debate" section under a bill entitled: "RP Laws of COUNTRYNAME" and must include a brief synopsis of the RP law and a link to its original passage;
-- 5c. RP laws are generally prohibited from banning specific political parties and ideological groups; however with appropriate background RP and justification, a country may ban specific political parties and ideological groups. Nations that do this must follow the procedure for normally passing a constitutional law and then will have to have the RP law approved by posting it HERE alongside appropriate posts, justification and facts to support the banning. RP laws that create a one-party state follow similar rules to the ones stated above;
-- 5d. RP laws that grant extraordinary powers, ban specific parties or ideologies, create one-party states, grant or allow powers that might not be granted by normal game mechanics or otherwise authorize dictatorial or executive authority must be posted HERE for review by Moderation; these laws must include that they can be repealed by a simple majority vote within the bill. Please note that RP law approvals may take sometime and Moderation will respond as promptly as possible;
-- 5e. RP laws may be abolished a simple majority vote this applies to ANY RP law. Moderation reserves the right to declare RP laws invalid with reasonable and justifiable cause.

6. Characters are always owned by the player who originally used/created them. Users can transfer control of character via character transfers located HERE. Characters, noble houses/dynasties or bloodlines who have been inactive for 250 in-game years can be applied for using the aforementioned character transfer thread. Please note that any request for an "inactive" users characters, noble houses/dynasties or bloodlines must be accompanied by a brief synopsis on the requester plans for the character.
-- 6a. As an alternative, players are authorized to create cadet branches of the primary noble houses/dynasties or bloodlines. For example, the the House of Smith has not been used but we want a Smith monarch, so I create the House of Smith-Johnson, which is related to the main "House of Smith" but is a cadet branch and thus able to be used and possessed by me in place of a character transfer or waiting another 250 years to use the character.

7. Nations that are inactive (empty of players with seats) cannot be interacted with, via RP, in any significant or major way. Players can petition Moderation for interaction with an inactive nation in certain circumstances and the GRC will decide on the merits of the RP;

Last updated: 30 June 2020

[Moderation]

Section 7 - Cultural Protocols
Cultural Protocols provide a set cultural background for a respective nation within the game. There are two statuses that a nation may have: Culturally Protected (meaning a Cultural Protocol was approved by Moderation and the players within the respective nation) and Culturally Open (meaning that the nation has no defined culture). Cultural Protocols are enforced by Moderation and players are obligated to respect them when playing in Culturally Protected nations. These Cultural Protocols define in detail the ethnic, religious and linguistic makeup of the respective nation.

1. Cultural Protocols can be implemented or updated by passing a bill entitled "CP: Cultural Protocols of NATION - DATE" with the support of a two-thirds majority of players with seats, and then posting a link to the passed Cultural Protocol in the appropriate thread located HERE;

2. Cultural Protocols implemented or updated will be reviewed by Moderation and left open for 48 hours for any community member to raise objections to the proposed Cultural Protocol. Moderation will also review the proposed Cultural Protocol for accuracy and continuity;

3. Proposals for new Cultural Protocols in Culturally Open nations must have the support (voting "yes") of one party that has been continuously active (i.e. no inactivations) within the respective nation for 7 days;

4. Moderators will review the Cultural Protocol and provide answers to reasonable questions provided, Moderation will inform the players once approved. Once approved players are required to leave a copy of the Cultural Protocols in the "Bill under debate" section of their nation which includes a link to the Moderation approval and a link to the copy of the passed cultural protocol;

5. Cultural Protocols should generally be reflective of RP conducted within the nation and should not significantly alter or modify the ethnic, religious or linguistic composition without considerable and reasonable role-play or other justification;

6. Cultural Protocols cannot directly contravene long-standing or historically significant role-play or cultural groups within a nation. Cultural Protocols are meant to enhance the cultural and role-play experience within a nation;

7. Cultural Protocol bills must provide a real-life equivalent or short description for the ethnic groups, languages and religions contained in them, such that it would be easy for an unfamiliar player to understand (e.g. "Dundorfian = German");

8. Moderation reserves the right and discretion to approve or deny any submissions for Cultural Protocol approvals;

[Moderation]

Section 7a - Culturally Open Status
1. Players within any nation can request that an existing cultural protocol be overridden and the nation set to "Culturally Open" status. The thread for these requests is located HERE;

2. When players request for culturally open status they must provide a brief synopsis on what their plans are and provide the new proposed cultural protocols for the nation;

3. Requests for "Culturally Open" status must be passed by a 2/3 (two-thirds) majority of active players in the nation. Players requesting Culturally Open status must have been present in the nation for 7 days continuously active (no inactivations, etc.);

4. Culturally Open status requests must be reasonable and take in account any significant changes that would interrupt continuity of other nations connected or around the new potentially culturally open nation;

5. All culturally open requests are subject to Moderation approval. Moderation reserves the right to approve, deny or edit the proposed cultural protocols as necessary.

Section 7b - Cultural Protocol Violations
1. Players who violate cultural protocols are subject to a three-tier warning and punishment system to be carried out and enforced by Moderation;

2. Players can report cultural protocol violations HERE;

3. Players who violate cultural protocols for the first time within a respective nation are to be notified via in-game communication explaining the violation and linking the respective nations cultural protocols;

4. Players who violate cultural protocols for the second time within a respective nation are to be notified again via in-game communication explaining the violation, linking the respective nations cultural protocols and are issued a final warning that continued violations will result in account/party inactivation;

5. Players who violate cultural protocols for the third time within a respective nation are to be notified for a final time via in-game communication explaining the violation, linking the respective nations cultural protocols and will have their account/party inactivated;

6. Players who wish to reactivate may do so via the Reactivation Request thread; further violations of cultural protocols within the same nation may result in a permanent or temporary nation ban or continued action may result in a permanent ban from the game;

7. Players who repeatedly violate cultural protocols across numerous nations are subject to a final warning and inactivation, skipping the first warning at Moderation discretion;

8. Players who appear to defy Moderations warnings regarding Cultural Protocols are subject to inactivation or banning

9. Moderation will take every effort to warn and assist in rectifying Cultural Protocol violations as soon as possible, however Moderation will work following attempts to assist and rectify to inactivate as soon as reasonably possible, Moderation will allow reasonable time for the player to respond and correct their violation.

[Moderation]

Section 8 - Role-Play Coordinators - DEPRECATED

Moderation will endeavour to appoint players to coordinate role-play in two key areas of the game: the forum-based countries and the World Congress. The primary responsibility of these players is to oversee and advise about role-play in these areas of the game and to coordinate role-play between players.

Section 8a - Forum-Based Countries Coordinator - DEPRECATED

1. The primary role of the Forum-Based Countries Coordinator is to coordinate and promote role-play in the forum-based countries. As part of this role they are expected to provide players with advice and facilitate relationships between players to aid in the development of role-play.

2. While the ultimate decision to approve or deny control requests lies with Moderation, the Forum-Based Countries Coordinator should be consulted when considering applications and provide advice to Moderation about a request. In offering this advice they should consider the appropriateness of a player request as well as whether it conforms to the historically role-played background of the country.

3. The Forum-Based Countries Coordinator has the opportunity to produce role-play in uncontrolled forum-based countries. Where this power is exercised it should be done in a manner that is sensitive to the impacts of the role-play on neighbouring countries as well as the relationship to previous role-play in the country. If the Forum-Based Countries Coordinator wishes to engage in significant role-play in a country then they should still seek control in the ordinary manner.

4. Over time the Forum-Based Countries Coordinator should, using feedback from other players and their own judgement, offer advice and suggestions to Moderation about how the role-play experience in the forum-based countries can be improved.

Section 8b - World Congress Coordinator - DEPRECATED

1. The responsibility of the World Congress Coordinator is to promote and coordinate role-play related to the game's intergovernmental organisation: the World Congress. As part of this role they are expected to take the lead in World Congress discussions as well as provide players with advice and support for engaging with the organisation.

2. The World Congress Coordinator shall have control over the role-play characters associated with the World Congress bureaucracy, in particular the General-Secretary. Through these characters they are responsible for moderating debate and driving discussion in the World Congress chambers.

3. Although the task of overseeing and calculating Security Council election results shall lie with Moderation, the World Congress Coordinator is expected to make efforts to engage players with the process of election and encourage role-play related to the Security Council.