GM Cerberus

Human Male

Not affiliated with an Alliance

Trivia Tuesday Rules:

Spelling only counts if it's 5 or less letters, if I specify, or if it's not even close, in the end I have the final call on disqualifying someone over spelling. Only the first answer will be accepted unless it is to correct spelling.  The second closest answer that gets in before the correct answer is called earns a bonus of 4 prestige. At times it may seem that your answer appeared before someone elses, this is because of latency, it only matters what appears on my screen. When giving a proper name, it should be the full name and not just the last name (I.e Neil Armstrong instead of Armstrong).  15 prestige is awarded for the correct first answer. 3 correct answers and you cap out and are not allowed to answer any more questions.  Extra prestige is awarded in ranked order to the first 6 players to cap.  Medal points are awarded to the first 4 players to cap.  These points calculate a monthly leaderboard to earn trivia medals.

Handy Links

 

 Announcements Forum 
(for recent changes)

 

 Handy Videos 
(official tutorial vids and interviews)

 

Terms and Conditions
(please read this before posting on the forums)

 

Suggestions 
(we want to hear your ideas however if you have any questions, contact Illyriad Games Community and Public Relations Manager community@illyriad.co.uk)

 

Tips and Trinks
(Advice and information collected by all)

 

 

 

Code of Conduct

In order to create a positive and respectful environment for both the Illyriad players and staff, the following are strictly prohibited both in game and on the forums:


 

• Players who are under 13 years of age
• Obscene, racist, homophobic or sexist language and imagery
• Posts of a sexually explicit, inflammatory or violently threatening nature
• Abuse, harassment and name-calling
• Posts with the intent to provoke or disrupt other players aka "trolling"
• Profanity is forbidden in game and strongly discouraged on the forums
• Impersonating fellow players or Illyriad staff
• Discussions and debates of a real world religious or political nature
• Spamming, for example: repeating information or posts of a nonsensical nature
• Posting personal information such as address, phone number, real name or other identifying information
• Use of copyright protected material without express consent of the owner
• Discussion of illegal activities
• Violation of local, state, national or international laws or regulations
• Posting of advertisements
• Discussion of interactions between players and staff (ie: no sharing of private information)

        Do not break these, or any, official rules.
 

Language:
At this time, English is the only language supported on the Illyriad forums and in game. Please refrain from posting in other languages.

Failure to comply with the Illyriad Code of Conduct and Rules may result in warnings followed by either a temporary or permanent suspension of your game and/or forum account per the discretion of the Illyriad staff. These rules are subject to change at any time. Discussion of moderation and disciplinary action is to be kept private.

Any questions about the Illyriad Code of Conduct and Rules can be directed to GM Rikoo via private message on the Forums or email at community@illyriad.co.uk.
 

1. We have a legal duty to remove players under the age of 13 from the game
 2. We have no way of telling how old a player is, and nor do we wish to become responsible for validating people's ages because:

• 2.a We're not set up to handle sensitive information like driving licences, credit cards etc
• 2.b We're not willing to become a clearing house for faxed parental forms about consents, so

3. Anyone making a public statement (true, false, joking, stirring etc) which says "I am under 13" will have their account removed from the game.

 
4. Removal from the game means account deletion, and the system will automatically refuse re-entry to the game by the mechanisms it normally uses to refuse spammers, botters and otherwise banned people.
 

 

I'd like to take this opportunity to explain what COPPA is, and why it is the reason we do not (and cannot) permit people under the age of 13 to play Illyriad.

 

We don't actually have a choice, except to remove from the game any player who identifies themselves as being under the age of 13.  Whilst we are a UK company, the servers now reside in the USA, and are therefore subject to a law passed by the US Congress, called COPPA - the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

 

We don't ask players for their age in game - in fact, we ask players for zero private information except an optional, non-verified email address they can be contacted at to retrieve a lost password.  This is precisely because we do not want to deliberately assume legal responsibilities for protecting personal data, and/or enforcing laws such as COPPA.

 

COPPA makes it abundantly clear precisely how we have to behave in *exactly* these circumstances, in http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/0493-Complying-with-COPPA-Frequently-Asked-Questions under the sections entitled:

 

"(b)  What happens if a child posts in a forum and announces her age?

If no one in your organization is aware of the post, then you may not have the requisite actual knowledge under the Rule.  However, you may be considered to have actual knowledge where a child announces her age under certain circumstances, for example, if you monitor your posts, if a responsible member of your organization sees the post, or if someone alerts you to the post "

 

... (for forum you can also read "chatroom").  The legal responsibility falls on us to either seek parental consent from the child's parents (a procedure that we're not willing to do as it introduces an extreme burden of overhead on a very small team.  I'm not aware of any games company out there who does this.  Our only other option is to delete all the person's information (ie their username, account and data), and prohibit them from further accessing the website.

 

The law is very specific on this, and it doesn't matter whether you yourself are a US citizen or not.

 

Regarding the "but you would never have known had a particular player not volunteered the information themselves" argument.  This is indeed true, but is not a defence we are permitted to make. According to Section 12:

 

"I know the COPPA Rule is triggered by the collection of personal information from children, but the information I collect at my site or service is voluntary, not mandatory.  Does COPPA still apply?

Yes.  The Rule governs the online collection of personal information from children by a covered operator, even if children volunteer the information or are not required by the operator to input the information to participate on the website or service. "

So once someone volunteers the information that they are under the age of 13, we are held to "know" this, and must, legally, act on it by removing them from the game.

 

Regarding the faintly ridiculous "But I was only joking" argument... it might surprise you to know that the FTC actually has a section on the measures that website operators such as us should take if someone identifies themselves as under the age of 13 and then later tries to amend their age if, for example, they suddenly find themselves unable to use the website.  

 

The FTC website even has a section entitled "Am I responsible if children lie about their age during the registration process on my general audience website?"  to which the answer is "yes" - once we are aware that the person claims that they are under the age of 13: "operators will be held to have acquired actual knowledge of having collected personal information from a child where, for example, they later learn of a child’s age"

 

I am, of course, sad to see anyone leave the game - but I think many players are assuming that removing players from the game under the COPPA law is something we actually have a choice about, like it's a decision that we've made or that we're choosing to apply rules in a particularly Draconian way.  Whatever you or I may personally think about the law is moot... we don't have a choice.  It's not optional for us, when someone identifies themselves as being under the age of 13 - then that's it - and if they're lying/joking then that's too bad too.

 

If you don't like this law and you are a US citizen, then please do write to your congressman.  If you don't like this law and are not a US citizen, it may surprise or shock you to know that the FTC have applied it (far outside their jurisdiction, in my opinion) to actually say "The law’s definition of “operator” includes foreign-based websites and online services that are involved in commerce in the United States or its territories.".  So, basically any website in the world that can be accessed from the USA should technically comply with COPPA though I do wonder how the FTC intends to enforce this.  We, however, have to comply, as our gameservers are located in the USA. 

 

I hope that helps explain a little bit more about the legislation and why we don't have any choice in whether we apply it or not.

 

Chat Specific

System / GM Silences and Private Chat

Being silenced by the system or by a GM in Global Chat will also silence your Private Chat, and will make you unable to reply to or initiate Private Chat requests.  You can still send and receive ingame messages and speak in Alliance Chat, as before.

This Private 1-to-1 channel, like Alliance Chat, is not profanity or spam checked for content; however it is does have spam throttle protection to prevent fast automated spamming (like global) and if you are trigger-happy in Private Chat then system will automatically silence you for an hour, as before.  This silence will also apply to Global Chat.
 

 

Moderation of Private Chat

Private chat is not monitored by the GM team.

However...while your first point of call is to "Block in Chat", we will investigate petitions about serious breaches  of the Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct - and we will hand out lengthy silences and/or permabans for serious breaches if we receive a valid petition. Examples of the kind of things that continue to remain an absolute no-no in *ANY* Illyriad- based communication channel (public chat, private chat, IGM, forum etc that is provided to you by Illyriad Games) are things like:
 

• Communications which are threatening or abusive and are intended to harass, alarm, or distress someone on the basis of colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, or sexual orientation
• Identifying yourself as under the age of 13
• Threats of violence or harm out-of-game
• Sharing account passwords and login credentials

For more details please re-familiarise yourself with the Terms & Conditions and the Code of Conduct.
 

Forum Specific:

• Do not post the same topic in multiple areas of the forum. Please familiarize yourself with the different sections of the forums and choose the one most appropriate for your topic.
• "Bumping" forum posts by making a short response with the intent of moving the topic further up the list or adding to post count is prohibited.
• Please stay on topic and do not attempt to derail forum threads. Create a new topic if needed to continue or expand on a discussion.
• When posting game feedback and suggestions, please be constructive and specific. Negative feedback is welcome as long as it adheres to the Illyriad Code of Conduct as listed above.
• Public posting of private messages between fellow players or players and Illyriad staff is prohibited. This includes discussions of warnings and suspensions of both game and forum accounts.

In Game Specific:

• Character, commander, army, alliance and city names must adhere to the Illyriad Code of Conduct and not be l33tspeak.
• All in game player content including player profile and alliance profile must adhere to the Illyriad Code of Conduct.
• Each person may have access to only 2 Illyriad accounts. Any account you log in to directly (not using the account sitting feature) counts against this.
• Sharing accounts and passwords is strictly forbidden.
• Serial creation and abandonment of secondary accounts in order to exploit the "buddy referral" prestige bonus is an exploit and bannable offense.
• Automated procedures or "bots" used to either capture data or perform actions in game are prohibited. More information regarding use of third party tools in Illyriad can be found here.
• Prestige is non-refundable under any circumstances.
• Repeated or bothersome begging for resources in Global Chat is discouraged.
• Public posting of private messages between fellow players or players and Illyriad staff is prohibited. This includes discussions of warnings and suspensions of both game and forum accounts.

Reporting

If you experience a bug or need technical support in game please first file a petition via the Support & Petitions page. If you are unable to do so for any reason, you may then post about your issue in the appropriate section of the forums. If a player is violating the Code of Conduct while in Global Chat in game you have the option of blocking them by clicking on their name and choosing "block in chat." You may also file a support petition to report the player in game if necessary. If a player is violating the Code of Conduct on the forums, you can report the thread by contacting GM Cerberus via private message with a link to the thread. Outcomes with relation to reports of Code of Conduct violations will not be discussed with the person who filed the report.