Terms and Conditions

Introduction

This document sets forth the conditions under which you are allowed to access the Ragnarök MUD game, the associated website, and any or all other resources offered by us in connection with the Ragnarök MUD game. You are required to agree to these terms and conditions, as well as the guidelines in our Privacy Policy (included herein by reference), in order to use these resources in any way. If you do not abide by these terms, your rights to access and/or use these resources will be terminated.

Definition of Terms

Admins: Game administrators. The upper tier of Wizards who have a primarily supervisory function, overseeing the actions of other Wizards and Players, as well as maintaining the core game functionality.
Associated Services: There are a number of services offered as part of the overall game system: MUD Game Server, Web Server, Web Services to Clients, E-mail Services, Source Code Repository, etc. (q.v.)
Banishment: (Also called “banning.”) A decision by game administration personnel that a Character is forbidden to continue playing in the game, either for a specific period of time, or an indefinite period, or permanently.
Character: The fictional persona You create when becoming a Player. This is the role you play within the game world.
Client: A software application residing on Your computer which allows you to connect to the Game Server and other Associated Services.
E-mail Services: Any Ragnarök Game related service to receive or send Electronic mail over the Internet.
Player: A person connecting to the MUD Server to create a Character, and and play the game with that Character. The role of Player specifically indicates that the game is being played (as opposed to the role of Wizard which is for maintaining, administrating, and extending the game system for players to enjoy), although a single individual human being may be both a Player and a Wizard, if they have one or more Characters in each category. For the purposes of our rules, terms and conditions, this includes all categories of Players, including Heroes and Superheroes, etc.
Ragnarök MUD: (Also spelled “Ragnarok MUD,” “Ragnarok,” “Ragnarök,” “Rag,” or similar variations.) The game system being described in this document.
MUD: Multi-User Dungeon. A game which simulates a fantasy role-playing environment, similar to classic computer games such as Zork and Adventure, but allows multiple players to join the game at the same time and interact with each other.
MUD Game Server: The game “proper,” which appears to the outside world as a TCP port (e.g., rag.com port 2222) to which a player may connect using a client program (e.g., telnet). The game server will receive the player's commands and send information necessary for game play.
MUD Mail: The Post Office inside the MUD game itself, which allows Players to post messages to each other. Includes various bulletin boards located around the game environment.
Source Code Repository: The collection of code which defines the game environment and associated services, which may be managed and available to authorized users by a source code management system.
Us: The owners of the Ragnarök MUD Game system.
Web Server: The web server at www.rag.com which supplies documents of interest to the Players and Wizards of Ragnarök.
Web Services to Clients: Supporting data channels and servers which give additional information to the Player's client in addition to the main channel of data from the Game Server. Examples include, but are not limited to, image or multimedia content and the in-game map display.
Wizards: (Also called “Immortals,” “Implementors,” or “Imps.”) Former Players who switch from playing the game to creating more of the game for other Players to enjoy. These are, effectively, the programming staff of the game environment.
You: You, the human being wishing to use Our MUD game services in any way, (e.g., as a Player and/or Wizard).

System Access

This system is provided to operate a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) game. This service is on TCP port 2222 of the system rag.com. In addition, other associated services exist to allow downloads (from our system to yours) of game-related information. Players of the Ragnarök MUD are welcome to use these services to facilitate the playing of the MUD game. It is not intended as a means to store or transmit any other information or communications between individuals, and such use is expressly forbidden by these terms and conditions. (For example, you are not allowed to make use of our file storage or upload/download systems to store pirated software, pornography or whatever other files you want to hide someplace. Do it elsewhere. Or better, don't do it at all.) Wizards are also allowed to use various support services provided explicitly for their use as documented in the wizard documentation.

No other access to this system, or other systems on its network, is authorized without specific permission from the system owners. This includes, but is not limited to, telnet or “shell” access to the system itself (outside the MUD game).

No part of the system, including the MUD game, may be used for any illegal purposes whatsoever, including but not limited to transport or storage of stolen intellectual property or passwords.

Cost to Play and Compensation

Ragnarök is free to play. We do not charge for any aspect of game play. We do not accept payment in cash or in kind in exchange for any game attributes, equipment, advancement, or advantages of any kind. If you choose to donate in any way to the operation of the game, you do so as a freely-given gift to the game owners without restrictions and without expectation of receiving anything in exchange.

Items which you acquire in the game which have value (including but not limited to “gold coins,” equipment, experience points, various treasures, and character attribute advancement) only exist within the imaginary world of the game and have no value in the real world. No trading is allowed in any fashion between actual legal currency and in-game items of value.

If you lose in-game items of value, due to any reason, including without limitation, system crashes or software errors, you are not entitled to compensation in any fashion for that loss. Game administration may choose, on a case-by-case basis, to offer some level of in-game restoration of items lost or their equivalent value, but they are never obliged to do so.

Access by Minors

If you are under 18 years of age, you must obtain permission from your parent or legal guardian to access Ragnarök. Proceeding to create a character and continuing to access the game system and/or associated services will be considered as a representation on your part that you have obtained this permission, and continue to use our game system with their continuing permission to do so.

(In plainer language, if you access the MUD game system you are making a solemn promise that you are either at least 18 years old, or your parent or legal guardian give you their permission to do so. Please do not lie about this or you may be banned from the game.)

We expect parents and guardians to actively supervise the on-line activities of their children to ensure they are acting appropriately and kept safe.

Further, Ragnarök is not intended for Players under 13 years of age. If you are not at least 13 years old, you must have your parent or guardian notify us in writing that they give consent for you to play, before you proceed to create a character and play our game. In this event, we will not collect any personal information from you such as your name or email address, and will only know you by your character name you make up when registering (unless your parent or guardian gave us more information on their own volition when writing to us). Because of this, Players under the age of 13 are generally barred from being Wizards if we don't already know you in real life, because we cannot legally collect the identifying information about you required for Wizard-level access to the game system.

If we have reason to believe that you are accessing the system in violation of these age restrictions, we will suspend your character's access, and potentially banish you from the game. If you are a parent of a minor child accessing our system without your permission, contact us, and if we are satisfied that you are in fact the parent or guardian of the Player in question, we will take appropriate action on that information.

Age-Appropriateness of Content and Liability Issues

While we try our best to keep the public communications channels “clean” from language or dialogue which is considered offensive by those playing in the game, there is a basic assumption that those playing Ragnarök are adults of legal age. If we were to compare Ragnarök to an American film rated by the MPAA, we'd probably have a “PG-13” rating, with an occasional “R” moment here or there. Younger players are welcome to join us (in accordance with the policies set forth above), but we require parental permission and supervision while they are on-line. This advice is appropriate for any Internet activity for minors, and we can't really be an exception to that basic rule.

Examples of content which may be encountered include references to alcohol use, smoking, or the general “fantasy violence” of engaging in hand-to-hand and/or magical combat to defeat monsters. These elements are understood to be fictitious “fantasy” things, and we do not necessarily condone real-life participation in any of these activities, or others which may be portrayed in the game.

Explicit sexual references are prohibited in public forums, but we cannot control private conversations between individuals. In general, use great caution when discussing anything personal or private over the Internet. We do not guarantee that you will never encounter anything or anyone who says or does anything which you may find offensive. There may be suggestive references made in some game areas. Again, see the comment above about the game being PG-13 with the occasional R moment.

The administrators of the Ragnarök system cannot be held liable for the actions of others, and by accessing the game system you agree to defend, indemnify and hold blameless, the owners and operators of the Ragnarök MUD, for such actions which may occur. We merely provide a public forum, much as a common carrier such as the phone company provides an open communications line. It is the responsibility of each individual what use they make of that forum.

Monitoring and Logging

This system is for use by authorized personnel only. Individuals using this computer system without authority, or in excess of their authority, are subject to having all of their activities on this system recorded and monitored by system administrative personnel.

In any event, keystroke and/or network logging may be in effect at any time. [We reserve the right to log keystrokes or other activities in the game; however we don't make a habit of looking through them unless we're investigating a complaint. We do reserve the right, however, to review the logs at any time we feel there is a need to do so, at our sole discretion.]

In the course of monitoring individuals suspected of improperly using the system, or in the course of routine system administration and maintenance, the activities of authorized users may also be monitored.

Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, system personnel may provide evidence of monitored activities to law enforcement officials.

Registration

In order to play the game and access Ragnarök's services, you must create a Character. You can do this by accessing the MUD Game Server (rag.com, port 2222), typing “new” when prompted for your character name, and proceeding to answer the questions it asks you.

The character name you choose will be the name by which other players and wizards will know you, and will become an important aspect of your in-game identity. You should pick a name you are willing to live with. You may not choose a name which causes confusion with game system messages, confuses you with other players or wizards, or which we judge to be obscene, offensive, threatening, harassing, racist, or in any way inappropriate for use in Ragnarök. If you choose a name which we believe to be unacceptable, we will banish that character and ask you to create a new character if you wish to continue playing.

You may be given the option of entering your e-mail address as part of the registration process. This is intended for your convenience to receive game-related announcements or receive game-related content. You do not need to give us your e-mail address (until such time as you decide to become a wizard). If you are under 13 years of age, you must not register your e-mail address or other personally identifiable information. See the section above regarding minors who wish to access the game system.

You will also be asked to create a password for your character. This helps protect your character from being used by anyone other than you. It is your responsibility to protect your character from use by unauthorized parties (i.e., anyone other than you, yourself) by choosing a strong password and protecting it from being discovered by anyone else. You agree that you are responsible for the activities of anyone accessing Ragnarök via your character's credentials (e.g., character name and password).

Various associated services (including without limitation web pages, client information sources, and source code repositories) may require separate passwords for your access to them. The same responsibilities as mentioned above with respect to your character's password apply to them as well.

Password Recovery

You understand that protecting the security of your password is your responsibility, as is remembering what it is. If you forget your password, you can contact the game admin team to get it reset for you. It may not be possible to tell you what your password was, in which case a new one will be set for you. However, in order to validate that we are resetting your password for you, and not on behalf of an impostor attempting to gain access to your account through social engineering, we need you to register on file some kind of security question we can ask you. Choose something that someone who knows you wouldn't be able to guess.

If we don't have a security question on file for you, we may need to use a less reliable method to identify you (and by not supplying the question you agree to this), or if we do not feel confident enough in your identity, we may decline the request to reset your password.

Rules of Conduct

You agree to be bound by, and adhere to, the current revision of our posted Rules of Conduct (linked to here, or may be obtained from http://www.rag.com/rules/player_rules.html), which are hereby included by reference into these Terms and Conditions, as well as any lawful instructions by administrative staff members.

Additionally, Wizards are held to a high standard of ethical behavior as set forth in the Wizard Rules of Conduct document (available in the wizard's documentation section of this website, at http://www.rag.com/tech/WizardRules).

Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright

Ragnarök is the the result of the contributed efforts of many wizards since 1992. Each wizard's realm represents their own creative work, to which they maintain ownership and copyright. You may not infringe upon their rights by using their work in whole or in part without their permission.

By contributing any materials of any kind to the game (including but not limited to realm code, core system code, documentation, any creative writing or other materials in game communication channels, website postings, or any other means), you grant to us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty-free license to use, modify, and continue to use at our discretion, your contributions as part of the Ragnarök game. By making a contribution of your material, you agree to waive any moral rights to the extent permitted by applicable law and that you will not delete the material or otherwise withdraw it from our system, and that you will not charge us for its initial or continued use. This license shall survive any termination of this agreement and/or your participation in Ragnarök.

Each player or wizard is responsible to see that their contribution does not infringe upon any third party's intellectual property rights, including depictions of characters, settings, and other story lines. We believe any references to other stories or situations to be within the guidelines of “fair use” for incidental references, and/or for purposes of satire or parody. It is our intention to work in good faith to comply with the wishes of any copyright holder of such works referenced to the extent required by applicable law.

Enforcement of These Rules

If we believe you have breached these Terms and Conditions by violating our Rules of Conduct or by any action (or inaction) in contradiction to these terms, or if for any reason we believe you have acted in any way which poses a threat to the stability and reliability of our game system, threatens harm or harassment to another player or other third party, or that your actions are in violation of any applicable laws or statues, or for any reason we find or reasonably believe you have acted in a manner unacceptable within the game system, we reserve the right to restrict or terminate your access to the game system.

System Availability

We do our best to keep our systems running and available to you to enjoy our game. However, we cannot and do not guarantee any specific uptime standard. The game may be down for maintenance, emergency repair, or suffering the effects of system failures, network outages, or other problems, at any time, with or without notice to you. You agree that this is part of the reality of using Internet resources and that we are not responsible to you for any suspension of or interruption to your ability to access Ragnarök, or any in-game or out-of-game consequences resulting from such interruptions.

We cannot guarantee that Ragnarök will be compatible with your specific computer, software, or network connection. You use Ragnarök at your own risk.

Limitation of Liability

These services are provided to you free of charge for entertainment purposes only, ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE GAME SYSTEM SOFTWARE, PLAYING EXPERIENCE, ALL ASSOCIATED SERVICES, MATERIALS, AND ANYTHING ELSE RELATING TO, CONSTITUTING, OR SUPPORTING, YOUR EXPERIENCE IN ACCESSING THE GAME, IS WITH YOU. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EXEPT AS SPECIFICALLY REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WILL WE BE CONSIDERED LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT DAMAGES OR CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM YOUR USE, OR FAILURE OR INABILITY TO USE, OUR GAME SYSTEM AND/OR RELATED MATERIALS OR SERVERS.

YOU WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE WE SUFFER ARISING FROM YOUR BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT OR MISUSE OF OUR SOFTWARE, SERVICES, OR ACCESS.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with Ragnarök or your experience while playing the game, contact a member of the administration staff or write to us as outlined below.

Severability and Termination

Any portion of these Terms and Conditions and/or the Rules of Conduct and Privacy Policy included by reference herein, which is deemed by a court of law to be unenforceable or otherwise invalid will not affect the validity or enforceability of any other portion.

We may terminate your rights to access our services at any time at our sole discretion. You may also terminate your participation in the game at any time by simply ceasing to connect and play the game. You can notify us in writing if you wish to have your character banished so it may not be used again.

If we choose not to enforce our rights in any specific instance, that will not preclude us from enforcing the same, or any other, provision of this agreement in the future.

Such termination shall not end ongoing obligations not obviously severed by the essential nature of that termination, including without limitation our license to continue using your contributed material to the game, if any.

Changes to These Terms

We may change these Terms and Conditions, including without limitation any of the referenced Player and/or Wizard Rules, at any time and at our sole discretion, to remain in accordance with applicable law or which will, in our judgement, foster a more playable, stable, and safer playing environment for all our Players and Wizards.

While we generally try to announce these changes in game announcements or on the website, it is your responsibility to check the terms and conditions whenever you access Ragnarök to be sure you are aware of the current revisions to them. Your continuing access of our services indicates your agreement with, and acceptance of, these terms as amended at that time.

Contact Information

The game administrators may be reached by posting a note in the MUD game's central post office, addressed to “#admin”, or by regular e-mail to the address “admin@rag.com”.

Effective 26 April 2010; Edited 30 April–01 May 2010 (trivial typographical/spelling corrections only).