Royals have great rules that strive to maintain the server free from cheaters and toxic players. I appreciate all the effort Staff put in to establish those rules. However, royals can be seen somewhat strict when it comes down to breaking T&C. As a matter of fact, large amount of population are reduced through bans not just by those who quit. T&C was provided to everyone, even highlighted to be read when we registered our first accounts in royals. But, how many of us actually read the long, seemingly-never-ending wall of text that contains 3938 words? I do not mean to discriminate Michael who self wrote those lines or other staff who contributed, but it is by human nature (or gamer's) to run away when they confront intimidating wall of text. (Reading all the T&C might take longer than lvling 1st character to 2nd job) I personally didn't read the T&C when I registered my first account. I assumed it would contain boring, obvious statements like "don't hack, don't swear, don't post pornographic content, etc.". I must say I was extremely LUCKY because from early days, I found interest in dramatic ban appeals and report abuse section which enlightened me of actual rules which I never read before. If I had not visited those 2 sections of forum in daily basis, I would have broken one or two rules without realizing it. I feel like present veteran players are "survivors" in a way, if not ban evaders who weren't as lucky in their 1st attempt. I'm curious to find out how many actually read the T&C before they witnessed punishment of rule-breakers in ban appeals. Yes, it is my and everyone else's responsibility to read the T&C that's provided upon registration. However, there are ignorant yet innocent new players who had no intention to harm the server or other players in the server when they illiterately broke the less offending rules such as: Account sharing, racial slur toward friend in public, joke on RWT because they saw others doing it and getting away, Vote abuse (partially if they thought everyone else is doing it too). Hackers, RWTers, macro botters are out of discussion because they are fully aware of casualties and consequences of their action. I do not wish to propose to give past offenders a 2nd chance but to enhance the current system so new players can be more educated of the server rules before they make hasty judgement. Currently, T&C is only "available" for reading if a registering person is willing to make the initiative to click on its link. Staff could "force" the new players to acquire the rules by devising a quiz, that hopefully take less time and effort than GM event, which comprise of the most prevalently broken rules that result in bans: namely account sharing, vote abuse, racial slur, jokes on RWT, Hacking, Botting (keyboard macro, heavy object). This quiz can be made around 10 questions for argument's sake and one can only complete registration if one received 100% for the quiz. If any answer is wrong, the wrong answer(s) can be viewed for correction and reattempt. This will nail the key concepts of T&C into new players' heads and prevent lots of casualties in future. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ For e.g Question 1. Which of the following are considered a major infraction of the T&C and can result in a permanent ban upon 1st offence? a) Not reporting a glitch/bug b) Typing in foreign languages c) Scamming other players d) Account sharing with family member e) Consistently defaming other players or GM ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This isn't the best example but something in similar context to force the new player to THINK and refer to actual T&C so they can REMEMBER what they had to think through before creating an account. One could complain that it gets too tedious when older players are creating 2nd, 3rd or multiple accounts but once you played enough to create multiple accounts, you would be aware of the T&C and it would take less than a minute to complete the quiz.
I personally read the whole thing when I still played here and when I started. It was a first for me, cause with online games I never tend to do that. However annoying it may seem to a lot of people, a quiz sounds like a good idea. But not for the reason that it would be less tedious, but as a mere reminder that there are rules. When it comes to rule breaking, those typical excuses like ''I didn't know'' are extremely stupid in my opinion. Like I mentioned earlier, I usually don't read them for an online game, but whenever I don't, I'm obviously aware of the consequences of course. Cause, hypothetically speaking, if I broke a rule then afterwards, an excuse like ''I'm sorry, I didn't know'' should have no effect on the penalties that follow. And it shouldn't be different for anyone else. The rules should pop up when registrating or something to that effect, in a noticeable way. In this case they would technically be aware, that they skipped the reading and in case of rule breaking, there would be no excuse. The motto should be: ''You break the rules, you will take responsability for your actions''.
I doubt it'll help. The rules on voting are on the voting page itself and there still are a load of people unaware of the rules on that. The first thing that'll probably happen is someone making a guide with the correct answers...
Voting rules are there to be read but ppl can vote without reading it, the same way people can register now without reading the T&C. It'd take few minutes for any average player to make an answer book for the quiz if they wanted to. Even if a memoramdum is made and gets posted on a random royals-advertising website, it'd raise awareness to commonly ignored rules like account sharing to those reading it for sake of quick registration. They'd start talking to them selves while matching the right answer like "answer for no.5 is acc sharing acc sharing acc sharing ah, found it" Such people are more likely to know something is up with those answers in the quiz and make extra effort in future to avoid them compared to those who are completely unaware of the rule's existence.
A T&C is an agreement; essentially, an informal contract. By checking the box, a new player enters into an agreement with Matt (and the staff, his executors) that they read and understood the terms and conditions, will play according to them, and realize and accept that they'll be penalized and/or terminated if they don't. If they didn't actually read or understand the T&C, that's on them for lying. There's absolutely no reason to pamper or cater to (potential) rulebreakers; it's not like greater society, where we're born into it without our consent, and expected to follow laws we never agreed to. I actually re-read the rules periodically, just to make sure I didn't gloss over or forget something. I once joined an invertebrate discussion forum and got tempbanned after my first post, because I failed to absorb the rule about obscenity.
I like the idea of a quest related to the terms and conditions that you must finish before entering maple island. Similiar to one of the couple of quests already available based on maple content.
If this is the case I'd recommend it apply to all the maple royals accounts not just the new players.
