MapleRoyals' Terms & Conditions and the flaws in it

Recently I've been suspended for blurting out racial slurs and it has resulted in this post. Whether anybody cares or not, this is what happened.

Every game has its codes and conducts that if were to be broken, would result in consequences ranging from the severity of the matter. It has been brought to my attention after taking a closer look at our Games Terms & Conditions, that our current system does not function the way it's suppose to. The sole purpose of implementing rules is to prevent players from misbehaving and exploiting the game. Similar to how a prison is suppose to help rehabilitate prisoners, our server's codes and conducts should be no different. But the way our current system works, it punishes players for actions that aren't clear and are questionable. This is due to one glaring flaw: the lack of communication between the GMs and the players. Like how most societies function, they don't adopt the zero tolerance rule because otherwise people would be put behind bars left and right. The laws in our countries are made knowing there are gray areas within the law that can't be given a yes or a no. Some matters are much more complicated rather than simply giving a jurisdiction and our server is no different.

I'm only going to go over the rules that I find is either unclear or questionable listed here. The ones that aren't mentioned below are either fine the way it is or aren't worth mentioning. The purpose of this thread is to help revise these rules and give more freedom to players playing this game, rather than forcing us to play with such delicacy.

To start things off, give players a warning of some sort whether that's through private messaging or whatever, don't just ban players expecting them to have read through the Games Terms & Conditions. I understand that this responsibility is completely in the hands of the players themselves but the fact of the matter is, hardly anybody reads them. As mentioned above, the purpose of having rules is to prevent people from causing mischief and giving them a warning beforehand will help prevent these mischief from happening AND it will minimize the frustration out of our end. Why do we have the no warning policy? What good does it serve other than catching people off guard? If you guys really want to stick to your guns then first offensive should be max 1 day ban for minor offenses. This does not include things such as hacking or exploiting the game of any sort. Now onto the real thing:

Don't use racial or homophobic slurs in all chat or smegas.
This also includes sexual languages, swearing and cursing. This reason for this is simple: we don't want to create a toxic community where people are blaring cusses at each other. That's completely the fine. However, saying racial and sexual slurs in itself is not offensive whatsoever ever without context and sometimes isn't even offensive in context. Take this person for example, he said over SMEGA the name of the person who had a racial slur in his name and got banned for it. He obviously did not mean any harm whatsoever, all he said was the name of the person. Why was he banned? Because our rule doesn't have a gray area in which we're allowed to play in. Think about why we even have rules against racism and homophobia; because we don't want to offend anyone. But the fact of the matter is, people get offended all the time by the stupidest things, should we also ban people who says "I think Twilight is a fantastic movie" just because it offends you? No. Gay people are offended by bigots? Fine, then gay people shouldn't associate with bigots. Bigots are offended by gay people? Fine, then bigots shouldn't associate with gay people. But once the bigots start saying "We need to pass some hate speech laws against gays and take away their privileges" that's when it becomes wrong. What's the difference with racial and homophobic slurs then? Are we all sensitive people where we need to be handled with delicate gloves? I'm not saying that racism and homophobia is okay, not at all, all I'm trying to say is, why are we so strict about it?

3. Use the game for any unlawful purpose or in any manner not intended by MapleRoyals.
What does this mean exactly? Does it mean to refer to all the rules below? If so why even have this, all it does it cause confusion.

5. Engage in rude, unlawful, harassing, vulgar, obscene, hateful, threatening, abusive or otherwise objectionable behavior, including, without limitation, looting, kill stealing, making sexual comments.
I full-heartedly agree that rude, unlawful, harassing... or otherwise objectionable behavior is not acceptable but things like looting and one that wasn't mentioned, mass defaming should not be punishable. We already have a system to prevent players from looting your drops where you need to wait a while before you can pick up someone else's loot, the fact that you are able to pick them up after that amount of time should be sufficient enough. Mass defaming is a silly reason to ban a player because it's an arbitrary number that holds no meaning other than representing someone's level of popularity, hence the term fame. And if that's the case, then mass defaming is a completely understandable action because you would only defame a player if you hold a personal hate or grudge towards them. Mass defaming is way to express how you don't like someone and if freedom of expression through an arbitrary number is considered overboard, then I don't even know what to say.

14. Engage in spamming or flooding,
The rule itself isn't wrong but not giving a warning for something as minor as spamming?

15. Link to any page of or content on the Site other than the URL located at http://www.royals.ms/
This rule is very unclear as to what websites are accepted and not accepted. I see people all the time mentioning videos on YouTube, referring to websites such as Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, imgur just to name a few. None of these websites are affiliated with MapleRoyals. Either get rid of this or make it more clear as to what sort of websites are not allowed such as pornographic websites.

16. Provide a link to any web sites that promote any product or any service.
Going back to rule #15, this is very unclear and unjustifiable. What if people want to know where to buy the best computer parts online? Are we not allowed to help them by providing websites that sell these merchandises? What's the big deal?

23. Engage in robot play (i.e., "botting") or any other behavior that allows you (or any character you are controlling) to automatically function or effect any action in a game with or without your presence.
This is a very controversial rule because there is no way to tell whether a player is using an assisted third party tool to bot or if they are player controlled. Take this person for example, he claims to have been banned because he was engaged in a robot play. All he did was put a heavy object on his keyboard to cast the same spell over and over again. There is no third party software being used. What's the difference between putting his thumb on the spell key as opposed to a heavy object when in both scenarios, he is paying full attention to the game? He is not effecting any action of the game without his presence because he clearly said he needed to go check on his character every 30 attacks or so. The reason third botting is bannable is because of 2 reasons:

• An illegitimate third party program being involved
• Providing an unfair advantage to everyone else

However with this person's case, this is something everybody can do. Everybody can put a heavy object on a key to cast the same spell over and over again. He is neither using an illegitimate third party program or is causing an unfair advantage to everyone else. If this isn't allowed then why is leeching allowed? Leeching is in fact worse than robot play because you're not even playing the game. You're paying for a service to gain an advantage (levels) over other players. Not everybody have the privilege to leech (mesos) and only the rich can benefit from leeching.

26. Sharing account information so that an individual other than the owner of the account may use the account. This includes the act of logging into or using an account owned by another person, with or without permission. Please note that if you use the same login details on another server and share your account information there, you are jeopardizing your account security here and will be expected to take responsibility for any consequences.
Another controversial rule with no real reason as to why you can't share accounts. The first reason I believe you guys imposed this rule is to protect our accounts by preventing us from sharing it with other players. But let's say I gave my account information to someone else to let them play, then obviously I'm accepting the fact that my account and every information that belongs in it is also being handed. If you're jeopardizing your own account security, why do the MapleRoyals admins care? After all, it is your account. The second reason I think is because you guys don't want our accounts being played by someone else, taking advantage of the fact that 2 people can be playing on it. This will create an unfair advantage to the person sharing the account because he could be at school while his friend can grind on it while he is at school. But going back to what I said earlier, isn't this the same as leeching since leeching, you're literally AFK while someone else does all the work for you?

30. Transmitting Smegas in a language other than English.
This is in a way a discrimination and a hindrance to foreign players because you are forcing them to not speak because they don't know how to speak English. MapleRoyals is one of the very few private servers that's in version 0.62. So people who want to play in a nostalgic setting, have no real option other than this server. Sure there may be other servers in similar versions but it's unarguable that MapleRoyals is the best out of all of them. By limiting the languages allowed to be said over SMEGAS to just English, all you're doing is alienating other players that don't speak English.

Thanks for taking your time to read through this looooong post. I hope this helps revise our rules for the better, and by better I mean less strict and more lenient!

TLDR - I'm salty because I got suspended for a stupid reason.

 

Such a wall of text is it so hard to understand common sense, i did not read the ToS but i don't get banned cause i have common sense.
So does the majority of people playing here since they aren't banned.

The rest of that was probably one of the more stupid things i read in a while.

Blame your parents for not raising you well.

 

I guess it's safe to assume that you've never said the word gay before then.

 

You should have just stopped there and let it go.

 

I have, and even insulted people using various terms, not something i'm proud of, but not even I am so stupid to think it's a good thing.

Sure some of your points made sense where the ToS is not perfect, but you have to realise the server is handled by people who play this game
and i don't see the need for a foolproof airtight contract.
If you start linking sites that are out of line with the MapleRoyal ToS (which is easy to understand
what is ok and what is not) you will get banned, i never seen anyone get banned for linking to their favorite song on youtube.

Again common sense, do you really need someone to hold your hand, why are you so sensitive?

You really see it as okey to go around insulting people

Just cause you don't mind being called names, if physical abuse was allowed would you like it if MMA professionals got to your home and
did whatever they want would you still feel everyone is sensitive? this is nothing but stupid.

Assuming your opinion is right just cause you don't get offended or it don't hurt you. Do you really think this way or is it just some stupid reason
cause you got banned. Only people i heard talking like you are extremists or very self centered people

 

And? Even if hardly anyone reads the T&C, the fact still stands that you are supposed to read it. The T&C isn't that long either; it takes at most 3 minutes to read it. Not knowing the rules of the server is a consequence they must bear for not reading it.

Just because it isn't offensive to you, doesn't mean it's not offensive to others. Take a moment and understand by saying racial and sexual slurs, you are not just offending one person, you are offending a group of people. Saying Twilight is a fantastic movie or a bad movie, does not offend much people, for they know there will always be haters and lovers for everything. Whereas racial and sexual slurs offend way more people than that. They may not be offensive among friends, but when talking to a complete stranger, do you really want to say such words? You don't know their background; they may have been raped before, etc.

It's not just an arbitrary number. If that's the case, then why do so many people trade fame, buy fame, and even go out of their way to do fame quests?
I personally view fame as a status, to see how respectable you are in Royals. Just because you feel that it's an arbitrary number, doesn't mean that it's an arbitrary number to others. Defaming someone without permission is akin to saying words like 'F*** you', because all in all they're expressing hate and resentment towards that person, and allowing mass defaming will create huge rifts in the Royals community.

It's disruptive to others who are trying to socialize in the FM. There was actually a thread a long time ago, which discussed whether spamming should be allowed in the FM. After a long debate, the eventual consensus was that spamming should not be allowed in the FM. You don't even need to spam to get your message across, there's not much active players in FM anyway (most are AFK)

I'll type in more later when I feel like it, but I personally feel most amused about this statement.

 

Please read everything over twice before complaining. It clearly says WITH or WITHOUT your presence meaning it includes botting where the player is present as well. It is not controversal at all. If the player fails to stop attacking after being confronted for a long time, or warped, obviously botting.

The guy was attacking without direct user input, he was botting.

 

The fact that people don't read it in a problem in itself. Because what's the point in having rules if nobody knows about them? My problem isn't that we have rules but the lack of communication between the GMs and the community. The no warning policy makes absolutely no sense. Is there a reason why GMs don't want to hand out warning prior to bans? Are they just lazy or is there a legitimate reason for this?

Let me get this straight, you're saying it's fine to make fun a minority group than an entire ethnic group because there are less people being victimized in the minority? How is that any fair? Are the group of people that enjoy Twilight not entitled to the same rights as say African Americans? If calling people the N is not allowed then saying Twilight sucks should equally not be allowed because they're both inflicting the same harm but to different groups of people. What if I said "I think people who wear underwear are all stupid?" Would I get banned for that because everybody in the world wears an underwear and I'm offending them? No. There is a serious difference between calling someone the N word as opposed to saying "Man, all N are dumb and stupid, why do they exist? and proceeding to take physical actions against their will. Racism was a huge concern in the past because black people were vividly being discriminated against, not because they were being called a derogatory term. Another thing is the N word in itself is not offensive, it was derived from the word negro (might be censored) and has changed into our current 6 letter N word. In recent day, the term has been altered into a term of endearment of sorts. Some black people have taken a hurtful word and turned it into something they can use to lessen it's original meaning. Also, what does their background have to do with anything with what you call them? We all say things in our daily lives that offend people, some people choose to display it and some don't. It's silly to think someone can get in trouble for calling them a word with no real intentions of hurting them.

It is an arbitrary number; it's an arbitrary number that people view as respect. If we were to use respect as an example, then defaming someone is another way of showing disrespect. Defaming people means you dislike that person and mass defaming is a greater show of dislike. And what's the problem in that? If mass faming is allowed then mass defaming shouldn't be allowed as well. Let's take YouTube for example, everybody wants their videos to have as much likes as possible and have positive comments written over them. That doesn't mean you can't dislike the video and post hateful comments. Also when did you have to ask for permission to defame someone? I've never heard this once in my life. If defaming truly wasn't allowed, then we wouldn't even have the option to defame. At the end of the day it's just fame, why is there a rule implemented based around an arbitrary number who's meaning is solely dependent on the user to interpret?

I didn't say spamming is fine, I'm saying an offence as minor as spamming lines shouldn't result in a 3 day ban on your first offence without a warning. A simply mute or warning is enough. You don't see people serving life sentences for committed an unarmed robbery.

Funny you say that because GMS clearly found leeching as a problem, that's why they got rid of it.

 

The difference between calling names and physically hurting someone is one is committing a real crime and the other isn't. I have no idea what your second sentence even means.

Wrong because Maplestory already has a built in system to prevent botting. If you cast the same spell over and over without moving, your spells will miss. There is no real difference between casting a spell by holding the key down with your thumb and putting a heavy object on it because in both scenarios, you will have to check your character every other minute. If putting a heavy object on your spell key is an offence, then people could just say "Oh, I had my hand on it the entire time and was talking to someone, sorry I couldn't reply in time but I'm not botting" and get away with it. The GMs can't possibly tell if that person was using his hand to grind or using an object. Ever heard of the presumption of innocence? The burden of proof is on he who declares, not on he who denies meaning, innocent until proven guilty.

 

hahaha please go read a law book.

 

I've called cops a moron in real life and nothing has happened. If I were to punch a cop in real life I'm sure something would happen. Please show me this law book you are referring to.

 

This is where the person contradicts himself; normally GMs don't ban people for botting right off the bat. They will ask questions such as 'Are you there' 'Please respond' etc. And if he still is walking in a robotic manner after 2 minutes or so, then it is clear that the person is botting. And if he really is talking to his friend, he would be ready to respond to the GM. 2 minutes is more than sufficient.

This is Royals though, this isn't GMS. You can't copy-paste certain information from GMS to Royals, because they're 2 completely different communities. If there was something wrong with leeching, it would have been brought up a long time ago. If my memory does not fail me, this is the first complaint about leeching.

And so? It still is better than botting, because you actually lose something from doing so ($$). And actually everyone can have the privilege to leech. Leech only gets good 75+, and by that time you should have plenty of money from NPCing equips, Gach, etc.

Because this will create the mentality that committing such offences is ok for the first time, and it also is a hassle for the GMs as they have to see whether this was his/her first time committing the offence. Mind you, the GMs aren't paid to do this, they are volunteers. We should count our blessings that we even have Royals, tbh.

 

Not necessarily true. I grind while watching a show on my other monitor and I want to say I pay less than 20% attention to the actual game. Because I have auto pot on and with the chat minimized, most of the time I just don't know what's happening in my surroundings. The GM bans me because he/she believes I was botting. Fine. But then I make an appeal like the other gentlemen I linked above explaining to them that I was in fact not botting but they don't believe me. Now we have ourselves a dilemma. How would the GM prove to me that I was in fact botting? Neither parties can truly prove to each other who's right.

I didn't mean to say that leeching was a problem in itself, I simply said that leeching is similar to botting, as in both cases the actual player itself may not be there while his/her character is gaining experience. Using an illegitimate third party program to bot is no doubt worse than leeching but saying everyone has the same privilege to leech but not the same access to using an object to grind is wrong. Everyone has the same access of using an object to hold down a key just as they are to purchase leech. But the fact that GMS removed leeching indicates that there is indeed a problem with leeching do you not agree?

Having a warning does not mean committing an offence the first time is okay. Where did you get that impression from? The word warning itself means: a statement or event that indicates a possible or impending danger, problem, or other unpleasant situation.

 

Please tell me you are joking, you seriously say that you are allowed to say
anything you want and it's not a crime.

I'm not even Canadian and apparently i know more about the law than you.
The Canadian Human Rights Act[1] is a statutepassed by the Parliament of Canada in 1977 with the express goal of extending the law to ensure equal opportunity to individuals who may be victims of discriminatory practices based on a set of prohibited grounds such as sex, disability, or religion.
(wikipedia)

Are you like 12 years old? you know MapleRoyals has a age limit,
you called someone a moron what do you think would happen death row?
your "life experience" don't work in this situation cause you clearly lack it.

tbh i'm pretty amused, but a bit sad i'm really just hoping you are trolling me.

 

Yes we are allowed to say whatever we want as long as we don't infringe on people's rights and privacy. It's called freedom of speech.

Do you know what the word discrimination and equal opportunity means? Discrimination, I quote, means: "the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex." How is calling someone the N word a form of discrimination? If I refused to sell my Deputy Star to a black person because of his skin color or refused to invite a person to my guild because of his skin color, that is called discrimination and a violation to equal opportunity. But calling someone the N word is not a form of discrimination nor violating equal opportunity rights.

MapleRoyals has an age limit just as entering an online pornography website has an minimum age requirement. Ever visited a website where it asks you for your date of birth and if you input an age lower than 18 you would not be allowed in? How many kids do you think blatantly lie about their age on these websites and have been caught? Little to none. I can vouch for just about 100% of the people I've met all been on pornography sites before the age of 18 and none of them have been in trouble. This is what I mean by gray areas. If the laws were laid out black and white, then we might as well put everyone here behind bars.

 

Zahahah you just contradicted yourself.

 

Why do i have to teach you about the law in your own country the same way you want the Gm here to let you act like you want.
The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on various grounds, and forbids the posting of hateful or contemptuous messages on the Internet.

To me it's pretty clear you get banned both here and in real life if you think you can say whatever you want. Good luck in life, read a book, go to school, eat your vegetables.

 

Illegitimate third party program =/= robot play
Illegitimate third party program = botting
Holding down a skill either with your own physical body or object = robot play

 

I don't remember ever posting hateful or contemptuous messages on the internet. Also posting hateful or contemptuous messages on the internet is allowed.

Freedom of speech includes the right:

• To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
  Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).