Appendix II: Proposed update of the current game rules

[GreekIdiot]

This is the proposed update of the current game rules, here, based on their scan and review, here.

Please see the proposal's discussion thread first, here.

[GreekIdiot]

If you're a new player, before you get started, maybe you'd like to take a look at the introductory guide, here!

Sitemap

- General, where you can talk and plan with other players in an OOC (out of character) manner
- Information, a place with very important threads to consider for the game
- Feedback, where you can offer your 2 cents on any aspect of the game
- Requests, where you can ask things from the Moderation Team

Moderation Team

Lead Advisor: Louis
Advisors: Zdanov/Drax, Nick/Nicolo, Pragma, Bradley/Autokrator, James
Operators: N / A
Admins: Wouter Lievens (Game Creator), GreekIdiot

Table of Contents

Section 1 - Moderation Team
Section 2 - Code of Conduct, things you mustn't do ever, anywhere
Section 3 - Game Rules, things you shouldn't do in gameplay/roleplay
Section 4 - Requests

[GreekIdiot]

v2.0

Section 1 - Moderation Team
The Moderation Team consists of Advisors, Operators and Admins.

01. The Code of Conduct and the Game Rules are enforced on the game, the forums, the game's wiki and the game's Discord Server.
02. Advisors and Operators who violate the Code of Conduct will be permanently banned by Admins.
03. Advisors and Operators can suggest updates to the Code of Conduct and Game Rules to the Admins, at any time.
04. Advisors and Operators must always consider making relevant announcements, here.
05. Disputes on the decisions of Advisors are handled by Operators and vice versa.

1 - Advisors
Advisors are players who like to enable gameplay/roleplay by guiding, helping and directly assisting players.

01. Advisors consist of 5 members and need a 2/3 majority to make decisions. If they can't reach a consensus, they delegate to Operators.
02. Advisors are led by a Lead Advisor, who is appointed by the Admins. They can be removed by the Advisors with a 2/3 majority.
03. Advisors rotate every year by community voting, here, which lasts a minimum of 14 days. The voting is initiated and the final decision on the appointments is made by the Lead Advisor. Players who wish to be considered can submit their applications, here.
04. Advisors can replace their members, at any time, with a 1/2 majority.
05. Advisors are responsible for:

a) Proposing updates to the game's resources (i.e. population sizes), here, for community feedback for a minimum of 7 days before implementing
b) Appointing and removing Operators - players who wish to be considered can submit their applications, here
c) Helping players on gameplay/roleplay and coordinating, organising and generating roleplay (i.e. assuming the role of a King or insurgents in a nation with the permission of players, assuming control of FBCs, managing a supranational organisation in the interim, incl. the World Congress)
d) Handling requests with the [A] indication, here, specifically:

- Cultural Protocols (CPs)
- Character Transfers & Religious Organisations
- Forum Based Countries (FBCs)
06. Advisors can delegate these responsibilities (excl. the appointments of Operators) to other players, with the permission of the Lead Advisor

2 - Operators
Operators are players who like to encourage gameplay/roleplay by keeping this community safe, supportive and fun for players.

01. Operators consist of a minimum of 2 members and require a 2/3 majority to make decisions. If they can't reach a consensus, they delegate to Admins on issues pertaining to players and to Advisors on all other issues.
02. Operators should rotate every year.
03. Operators are responsible for:

a) Enforcing the Code of Conduct and the Game Rules (and by extension warning and banning players)
b) Maintaining and improving the forums and the Discord Server
c) Handling requests with the [O] indication, here
d) Taking care of administrative tasks, including but not limited to:

- Routinely inactivating accounts that have not been logged in for 4 days
- Scanning for and inactivating unauthorised multiple accounts
- Inactivating accounts/parties and forum accounts subject to players having received 30-day or permanent bans
- Removing players from the Discord Server, in a similar manner
- Invalidating gameplay/roleplay that has violated the Game Rules
- Maintaining a private log of warnings/bans
e) Assisting Advisors with their responsibilities (excl. the appointments of Operators), with the permission of the Lead Advisor

3 - Admins

01. Admins are responsible for ensuring that Advisors and Operators do not enforce a Code of Conduct, Game Rules and any kind of gameplay/roleplay based on their own opinions, conflicts of interest, bias, playing styles and personal preferences as players.
02. Admins must approve bans of players, updates to the Code of Conduct and Game Rules and any major overhauls to the forums and Discord Server.
03. Admins can appoint/remove Operators and Advisors at any time.

--
Players can reach out directly to Admins if they have any concerns with the behaviour of Advisors and Operators, at any time. They can also reach out to Operators on the behaviour of other players. Their reports and input will always remain anonymous.

v2.1

Section 1 - Introduction
Game Rules are enforced by Moderators on the game, the forums, the game's wiki and the game's Discord Server.

1 - RP Committee (RPC)

01. The RPC consists of 5 members, with 1 member appointed by Admins as the Lead RPC, who guides the team. The other 4 members may rotate every year by community voting, here, which lasts a minimum of 14 days, with the final decision left up to the Lead RPC. Players can submit applications, here.
02. The RPC can replace its members, at any time.
03. The RPC is responsible for:

a) Proposing updates to the game's resources (with community feedback for a minimum of 7 days)
b) Advising Moderators on requests with the [RPC] indication, here
c) Appointing and removing Moderators
d) Coordinating roleplay

2 - Moderators

01. Moderators consist of 3 members and are appointed by the RPC. They may rotate every year. Players can submit applications, here.
02. Moderators are responsible for:

a) Maintaining and improving the forums and the Discord Server
b) Handling requests
c) Routinely inactivating accounts that have not been logged in for 4 days
d) Scanning for and inactivating unauthorised multiple accounts
e) Inactivating accounts/parties and forum accounts subject to players having received 30-day or permanent bans
f) Removing players from the Discord Server, in a similar manner
g) Invalidating gameplay/roleplay that has violated the Game Rules
h) Maintaining a private log of warnings/bans
i) Assisting the RPC, with the permission of the Lead RPC
j) Removing members of the RPC who violate the Game Rules

3 - Admins

01. Admins are directly appointed by the game's creator, Wouter Lievens.
02. Admins are responsible for:

a) Updating the Game Rules and approving/performing any major overhauls to the forums and the Discord Server
b) Removing Moderators who violate the Game Rules (and issuing warnings/bans accordingly)
c) Approving warnings/bans of players and invalidations of gameplay/roleplay (temporarily until the Game Rules are synced)
d) Appointing the Lead RPC

4 - General

01. Both Moderators and the RPC need a 2/3 majority to make decisions.
02. Disputes in the RPC are handled by Moderators; disputes with Moderators are handled by Admins.
03. Both Moderators and the RPC need to make relevant announcements, here.

--
Players can reach out directly to Admins if they have any concerns with the behaviour of the RPC and Moderators, at any time. They can also reach out to Moderators on the behaviour of other players. Their reports and input will always remain anonymous.

[GreekIdiot]

v2.0

Section 2 - Code of Conduct
The Code of Conduct is about what players mustn't do under any circumstances.

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).

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Players violating the Code of Conduct will be given a 30-day ban and then a permanent ban.

v2.1

Section 2 - 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 these rules will be given a 30-day ban and then a permanent ban by Moderators. Decisions can be appealed to Admins. This section takes precedence over any other exact or similar points found in the rest of the Game Rules.

Any other rules are subject to 2 warnings meant to be used in a guiding manner, then a 30-day ban and then a permanent ban.

[GreekIdiot]

Section 3 - Game Rules
The Game Rules are about what players shouldn't do when they engage in gameplay/roleplay.

1 - General

01. Don't post IC (in character) messages outside of the game and the forum section, here. All other messages are considered OOC (out of character) and are subject to the Code of Conduct. Use the OOC (out of character) distinction in IC parts when needed.
02. Don't communicate publicly in a language that's not English.
03. Don't use non-English names ICly without their Latin-script transliterations (i.e. party name in Malay).
04. Don't use swearing, slurring, discriminatory or otherwise negative language ICly excessively.
05. Don't use real-life events that have caused great pain and anxiety.
06. Don't use real-life entities ICly, as this is a game of fiction.
07. Don't copy real-life work and post it as original (plagiarism).
08. Don't use AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) tools and services to generate roleplay (excl. images).
09. Don't engage in roleplay/gameplay with science fiction or fantasy, as this is a politics simulation game loosely based in real life.
10. Don't engage in roleplay/gameplay between your accounts/parties and nations (incl. FBCs).

2 - Gameplay
Gameplay refers to actions in-game, or otherwise known as "game mechanics".

01. Don't create bills as an inactive party in a nation without the permission of active parties.
02. Don't directly change the image source of a flag, instead of passing a bill to update the flag.
03. Don't lock the legislation of nations with treaties, otherwise your bill and treaty will be deleted.
04. Don't call for early elections more than 5 times in 5 in-game year.
05. Don't lock a cabinet by assigning the power to propose one to a hereditary Head of State, otherwise your account/party will be inactivated.
06. Don't raid nations (raiding means activating parties in a single nation to disrupt the gameplay/roleplay of other players, alter its culture, change its direction or otherwise leverage multiple parties to purposefully achieve a goal), otherwise your account/party will be inactivated.
07. Don't mix different types of proposals in one bill (i.e. cabinet proposal with taxation, budget and laws).
08. Don't disregard gameplay (i.e. bills and seats in-game) in your roleplay (i.e. posts on a national news thread).
09. Don't maintain more than 1 active account/party without permission (you can directly reach out to an Operator if you have a conflict due to a shared network, i.e. same household, university campus), otherwise your accounts/parties will be inactivated.
10. Don't use proxies or VPN services, otherwise your account/party will be inactivated.
11. Don't share passwords or transfer accounts/parties with other players.

3 - Roleplay

01. Don't roleplay with other players and nations without the consent of impacted players.
02. Don't engage with roleplay you don't consent to, otherwise you are automatically consenting to it.
03. Don't go back (retcon) on roleplay without the consent of impacted players, unless instructed to by the Moderation Team.
04. Don't pass RP Laws (RP Laws are bills that extend gameplay with roleplay) that grant extraordinary powers to specific accounts/parties, enforce one-party states, call for the inactivation of accounts/parties instead of a spirit of roleplay cooperation, are not based on extensive roleplay made by multiple players, or otherwise grant powers that override gameplay.
05. Don't disregard RP Laws that are available in the debate section of a nation and have been passed by a 2/3 majority and created by an account/party that is active or have not been repealed by a 1/2 majority.
06. Don't roleplay with other characters and entities without the consent of players who own them.
07. Don't roleplay with empty nations in a significant way.
08. Don't roleplay with an inactive account/party without permission from players with active accounts/parties in that nation.
09. Don't engage in roleplay of re-colonisation or other means of direct assumption of power of Forum Based Countries (FBCs).

4 - Cultural Protocols (CPs)
Cultural Protocol(s) define the ethnic, religious and linguistic makeup of a nation. Nations are either Culturally Protected - meaning a CP created by players is enforced by the Moderation Team as part of the Game Rules - or Culturally Open.

01. Don't disregard the CP of your nation as defined, here.
02. Don't pass and propose CPs that don't reflect the established roleplay or attempt to significantly alter the makeup of a nation without substantial roleplay that justifies radical changes or directly contradict long-standing and historic norms, as they are meant to enhance a nation's cultural background.

5 - Forum Based Countries (FBCs)
Forum Based Countries are nations that are part of the in-game map but are not available in-game. FBCs are intended for players looking to engage in more immersive roleplay that may otherwise be disrupted or subject to the consent of other players and the gameplay of in-game nations.

01. Don't disregard the culture and context provided, here.
02. Don't engage in roleplay of re-colonisation or other means of direct assumption of power by in-game nations.
03. Don't disregard the established roleplay of previous players.

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Players violating the Game Rules will be given a 1st warning, then a 2nd warning, then a 30-day ban and finally a permanent ban. Warnings are meant as a tool to advise, guide and assist players who are most likely unaware and/or have made a mistake and must definitely not be given in a harsh manner.

Game resources not mentioned in the Game Rules are essentially not enforceable; players are generally encouraged to keep them in mind and use them to engage in gameplay/roleplay with other players more efficiently.

[GreekIdiot]

Section 4 - Requests
Players can make various requests, reports and inquiries, here.

1 - General

- Archive or deletion of a bill
Requests will be denied if the bills are important (i.e. active RP Laws, Cultural Protocols).
- Deletion of a treaty
- Deletion of a party organisation
Requests will be denied if they are newer than 50 in-game years or have at least 1 active member or are historically significant based on previous gameplay/roleplay.
- Inactivation of an account/party
Requests will be approved if the account/party has not logged in for 2 days and has not updated its description or name or colour and have not voted on any bills or they are either party sitting (they just log in without voting on bills for more than 4 days) or are dodging inactivation (they just log in every 4 days).
- Reactivation of your account/party
Requests will be denied if the account has the login bug (unrecorded activity) or the account is subject to a player under a 30-day or permanent ban or elections are going to be held within the next 2 in-game months.
- Renaming of nations, regions and cities by submitting a 2/3 majority passed bill
Requests will be denied if the proposal does not conform with either the renaming guide, here, or the country's Cultural Protocol, here.
- Leadership of a party organisation
Requests will be denied if there are other active parties in leadership.
- Early elections
Requests will be denied if there are active parties with seats.
- Other
- Transfer of characters and entities (i.e. a noble house or corporation) & religious organisations
Requests will be denied if no consent was given by impacted players who are active or no comprehensive synopsis was provided if it impacts inactive players.
- Suspicion of unauthorised multiple accounts/parties
- Report of inappropriate or real-life names
- Suspicion of plagiarism
- Forum organisation

2 - Permission for a 2nd in-game account/party
Players can request permission to maintain a 2nd account/party in-game, here.

Requests need to be made as follows:

- Create the account/party with the same email address and immediately self-inactivate
- Provide a comprehensive synopsis with your intentions on your planned gameplay/roleplay
- Use the following template to make your request (url should link to your account/party)

Code: Select all

[b]Primary:[/b] [url=]nation[/url]
[b]Secondary:[/b] [url=]nation[/url]
[b]Plan:[/b] ...

Requests will be denied if:

- The secondary account/party is in the same nation or continent
- The secondary account/party was not created with the same email as the primary account/party
- The player has not maintained an account in the forums for more than 30 days
- The player has not displayed a capacity for maintaining gameplay/roleplay with the primary account/party
- The player has received a warning or temporary ban in the past
- The player risks disrupting gameplay/roleplay or has not provided a clear plan with the request

Upon approval and before reactivation, the Moderation Team must update the index, here.

3 - Control of a Forum Based Country (FBC)
Players can request or let go of control of FBCs, here.

Requests need to be made as follows:

- Provide a comprehensive synopsis with your intentions on your planned roleplay
- Use the following template to make your request

Code: Select all

[b]Nation:[/b] ...
[b]Plan:[/b] ...

Requests will be denied if:

- The player has not maintained an account in the forums for more than 30 days
- The player has received a warning or temporary ban in the past
- The player risks disrupting roleplay or has not provided a clear plan with the request
- The player requests control of an FBC that is already controlled by an active player

Upon approval, the Moderation Team must update the index, here.

4 - Update of a Cultural Protocol (CP) or cultural status of a nation
Players can request updates to CPs or changes to the cultural status of nations, here.

Requests to update a CP need to be made as follows:

- Pass a "CP: Cultural Protocols of NATION - DATE" bill with a 2/3 majority
- Provide a clear format which includes real-life equivalents and short descriptions for the ethnic groups, languages and religions contained in them to offer sufficient context and information for other players (i.e. Dundorfian = German)

Requests to open the cultural status of a nation:

- Pass a bill with the proposal/plan with a 2/3 majority
- Provide a brief synopsis on your plan/proposal

Requests will be denied if:

- The proposed change is not properly formatted or sufficient to provide solid context for players
- The proposed change does not sufficiently consider cultural continuity of past roleplay, established history or impacted nations
- The player has not been active in the nation for more than 7 consecutive days
- The player has not maintained an account in the forums for more than 30 days
- The player has received a warning or temporary ban in the past

Once posted, other players have 2 days to object to the proposal.

Once approved, the player is required to leave a copy of the bill in the "Bills under debate" section of their nation which includes a link to the approval received from the Moderation Team and a link to the copy of the passed bill.

Upon approval, the Moderation Team must update the index, here.

5 - Configure the newsfeed on the Discord Server

TBD