Syrnia Rules Act (2009) Last edited 3 December 2011


Section 1 - Introduction

These rules apply to all players. It is strongly recommended that you read the rules regularly to keep yourself familiar with current updates.

We reserve the right to add/edit the rules as necessary. These changes will be announced. All registered players using the Syrnia gaming environment automatically accept any changes to the rules.

If you do not understand a rule, contact the game staff for help.

Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse to break the rules.


Section 2 - Joining

1. Syrnia is available to anyone over 13 years of age or older. If you are under the age of 13, unfortunately you will not be able to register to use Syrnia.
2. If you are at least 13 but under 18, please also ask a parent or guardian to read and agree to the terms and conditions of this site. Parents and Guardians of users under 18 will be responsible for their minor's use of the site. They agree to the terms of use on behalf of themselves and any minor 13 or older.
3. In consideration of our making Syrnia accessible to you, you agree to provide accurate current and complete information about yourself as requested in the registration form. If you provide registration information which is inaccurate or untrue, we reserve the right to not allow you to access Syrnia.
4. We also reserve the right to communicate with you at the email address provided with regard to updates to the Syrnia site, changes of policies and your use of the site. This does not limit your right to opt out of receiving communications from Syrnia or other companies of a marketing nature.

Section 3 - Player Accounts

1. Players are permitted only ONE account per person to access the game. Violation of this rule will result in all accounts being frozen.

2. No one (whether registered as a player with their own account or not) is permitted to access another person's account for any reason whatsoever even if it is a family member or friend. Violation of this rule will result in heavy punishments and/or being frozen.

3. Players are responsible for anything said or done on their account with or without their permission. This includes intervention by family members or friends.

4. Should family members or friends who are on the same network or shared computer wish to join the game, players must contact game staff first. In such cases, the following will apply:

a. If accounts will share a computer, only one account can be active and playing at any one time. Log out first before another player logs in using the same computer.

b. Players are required to inform staff of the username of all the accounts which will be under such conditions.

c. Do not play or login for each other. Entering bot checks for each other is considered cheating.

5. Any usernames deemed inappropriate, offensive, spam-like or aimed to impersonate staff will result in the account being frozen.

6. Name changes can only be done once. Take this into account when creating your character. Contact the Cheats/Multi department for a one time only name change.

7. Account trading of any form is not permitted in Syrnia. Do not use game chats, forum, in game messages, other online games or online auction sites to:

a. Trade Syrnian goods or game accounts.
b. Trade accounts from any other online game.
c. Donate for others in exchange for Syrnia gp or benefits.
d. Trade items from one game for items in Syrnia.


Section 4 - English Only

Players are only permitted to use the English language on the public forum and chat.


Section 5 - Hacking

1. Do not attempt to hack into the game or another player's account. Anyone found attempting this will have their account frozen.

2. If you suspect hacking is taking place, report it to the Cheats/Exploits/ Multis department immediately.


Section 6 - Bots and/or Scripts

1. The use of bots to control your character is not permitted. Anyone found using them risks having their account frozen.

2. User scripts (for example, greasemonkey) are not permitted in Syrnia regardless of their function.


Section 7 - Game Bugs

1. If you find a fault with the game, report it to staff immediately.

2. If one of these bugs allows you to gain an unfair advantage over other players, do not exploit it. Exploitation of these problems will result in loss of any experience and/or items along with being jailed or frozen.

3. Any player deaths caused as a result of "lag" will not be compensated. This is because there are many possible reasons for this, both on the player's part and on Syrnia's part.


Section 8 - Player Punishment

1. If you break any section of the Syrnia Rules Act, you risk punishment. All punishments are determined at the discretion of staff members and will be based on the severity of the current offence and any previous offences.

2. The staff is not required to warn players before punishing them. The Syrnia Rules Act is the warning for all players.

3. Repeated violation of the rules will result in extended punishments, permanent withdrawal of chat and/or forum privileges or your account being frozen.

4. Player punishment is between the player and the staff. Third party intervention is not permitted. The staff has the right to ignore any questions from third parties and punish them for interference.

5. Posting in the chats or forum on behalf of those who are punished is not acceptable. Anyone taking these actions will face punishment themselves.

6. If you have a question about your punishment, you may consult the appropriate department for a clarification and the reasoning behind it. Remember though, that abusive or unpleasant language towards staff will not be tolerated.

7. You may choose to further question the punishment in which case another moderator will review it, reply and finalize the ticket. Please be aware that this decision is final. Continual disputes after a final decision will result in an increased punishment.

8. This is the typical sequence of questioning a punishment.

a. A mod informs you of a punishment for your actions.
b. You send a ticket questioning the punishment.
c. A mod clarifies why you received the punishment.
d. You question the punishment again providing more information and clarification of your position.
e. Another mod reviews your ticket sending you the final decision.
f. You have now received 3 communications on this one topic and it is closed.
g. Asking or demanding that a senior mod replies to you is not an option.
h. There will be times when a ticket will require more than 3 responses from the Moderation staff. This is solely at the discretion of the Moderator(s) handling the ticket.

9. On the rare occasion where staff believes that the behavior of a player has reached a point where further action could result in a player account being frozen, the player will receive a Final Warning. Should the behavior continue after this warning the player risks having their account temporarily or permanently frozen.

10. The rules are designed to make this a positive gaming experience for all. Every attempt has been made to cover all the known problem areas. However, if something new comes up that adversely effects the game play or the Syrnia community the staff will address it with warnings and or punishments.

11. Please remember the spirit of the rules is far more important than the literal wording as players who actively seek loopholes to engage in questionable acts will be penalized.


Section 9 - Player Harassment

1. Harassing behavior towards players is unacceptable. Players found doing so will be punished. Harassing behavior includes but is not limited to:

a. Comments against someone in chats or forum threads.
b. Sending unwanted or offensive messages.
c. Sending unwanted or offensive whispers.
d. Sending sexual messages or communications.
e. Soliciting or engaging in sexual conduct, consensual or otherwise.

2. If you feel you are being harassed by another player, ask them to stop and or use the Ignore Player option. If harassment continues send evidence to Registration/Game Information Department.

3. If a player asks you to stop contacting them, you are to stop doing so. Failure to comply can result in punishment.

4. a. The staff can check whisper or message content between two players to ensure that no fake records were submitted. They can also ensure that one party has not attempted to antagonize the other.

b. If the staff finds that you were also responsible for the incident or were found to have been trolling in some way, you will be punished as well.

5. You cannot solicit or engage in sexual conduct in this game, consensual or otherwise.

6. If we get credible evidence, that violate these rules, particularly if these acts involve minors, you will be banned from the game.

7. Note that thieving is NOT classed as harassing behavior.


Section 10 - Moderation

1. The staff are here to keep the game safe and provide an enjoyable gaming experience for all.

2. The Syrnia staff is any person that assists in the creation and maintenance of Syrnia. This includes the administrator and creator of Syrnia, and all moderators, both public and private.

3. The staff has the right to perform their duties without being harassed or insulted.

4. Abusive language and inappropriate conduct against staff will not be tolerated and punishment will be issued.

5. Players are forbidden to provoke the moderators against them in a deliberate way. Posts made for the purpose of creating a personal conflict between players and staff will be deleted and their authors punished.

6. Players who disrupt the community will be denied access to the chats or forum.

7. Impersonation of staff is a serious offence and will result in heavy punishments.

8. If you suspect any form of rule breaking, report it to the staff. Do not go after other players that you perceive are breaking the rules.


Section 11 - Tickets and Reports

Tickets and Reports are the method for players to communicate with the staff.

Syrnia rules apply to tickets and reports. The following are guidelines for submission.

1. Be civil when addressing an issue. If the staff believes that you are harassing them it will result in a punishment.

2. Inappropriate language or repeatedly sending in a ticket on an already resolved issue is unacceptable. The staff reserves the right to refuse to deal with inappropriate tickets.

3. Address one issue per ticket. Open a new ticket for different topics to avoid confusion on either side.

4. When filing a report/ticket, please include the relevant lines from the chat history, message(s) or the forum path with a description of what happened.

5. Do not post tickets or their content in the forum or chats.

6. Please note senior mods review communication from players and will intervene as necessary. It is not appropriate to ask for a senior mod to communicate with you if you disagree with other mods.

7. In some cases the staff will send a ticket asking for information or an explanation. These tickets are time sensitive and require an immediate reply.

8. Please do not close tickets after you send a response. Closed tickets cannot be seen in the incoming section.

9. Posting player punishment, tickets or ticket contents in the forum or chat is not allowed. Players who have done so in the past omit or embelish facts to present themselves as innocent of rule breaking or as martyrs.

Section 12 - Inappropriate Language or Topics

1. The use of inappropriate language or topics are not permitted in Syrnia. This includes special characters, innuendos, acronyms, phonetic comments, slang terms or any other method of including disallowed language and topics.

2. Inappropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

a. Profanity
b. Racist language.
c. Sexual innuendo or comments.
d. Drug related references.
e. Violence related references.
f. Illegal software downloads references.
g. Animal cruelty.
h. Graphic/gruesome images or descriptions.


3. Spamming includes but is not limited to:

a. Excessive messages.
b. Excessive use of capital letters, characters, punctuation or symbols. Three is the acceptable limit.
c. Repetition of certain phrases that are deemed disruptive. This includes song titles, lyrics, singers and or bands and theft attempts/successes. These are limited to once an hour.

4. Flaming includes insults or criticism directed to a chatter/poster or topic aimed to incite anger.

5. Trolling includes but is not limited to posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic replies that add nothing to the topic. Also included is taking the thread off topic, stirring up trouble or causing disruption.

6. Non Syrnia links are not permitted. In order to be an acceptable link, the site has to have a significant portion of its content being relevant to Syrnia. If in doubt, consult staff. Pornographic or offensive links will result in mute and jail. The exception to this is that non referral game links are allowed on one thread in the off topic section of the forum.

7. Do not give out personal information in the public chats/forum. This includes but is not limited to:

a. E-mail addresses,
b. Instant Messenger addresses,
c. Phone numbers etc.


Section 13 - Chat Rules

1. Help chat (Channel 5) is only for gameplay assistance.

a. It is not for clan recruitment. Use Region, World or Pirate.
b. It is not for general conversations. Use Region, World or Pirate.
c. It is not for price checks. Use Trade Chat.
d. It is not for sending/announcing messages. Use appropriate chat.
e. It is not for trade ads. Use Trade chat.

2. Trade chat (Channel 4) is solely for business purposes and not for conversations.

a. One line per post.
b. Buying/selling advertisements are limited to once every 15 minutes
c. Shop, forum market and Cave of Trades advertisements are limited to once an hour.
d. Different items can be advertised but each item must follow the above rule in length and frequency.
e. Do not hold auctions in trade chat. Use the Market Forum for this.

3. World (Channel 2), Region chat (Channel 1) and Pirate (Channel 6) are used for general discussion including

a. Clan recruitment limited to once an hour.
b. Theft attempts or successes limited to once an hour
c. Non market forum reference is limited to once an hour.

4. Any player requesting staff to mute them or any player intentionally causing problems risks heavy mute and jail times. Players requesting staff to punish others are also at risk.

5. Note that the staff reserves the right to terminate any and all discussions on a particular topic if they believe it is out of control.

6. Religious and/or political debates are permitted, however staff have the right to terminate the discussion if deemed offensive or inappropriate.

7. This chat room is open to all age groups. It includes people with disabilities and those who have suffered intolerable cruelties. Therefore, some people may take offence or be easily disturbed with some comments/criticism. Staff has the right to terminate any discussion deemed offensive and inappropriate.


Section 14 - Forum Rules

1. Excessive use of capitals or spamming of a forum topic is not permitted. Do not use caps or symbols to make your post stand out. Any inappropriate forum posts will be deleted and result in a forum ban.

2. Use the correct section for your forum post. Any posts in the wrong place will be locked and/or deleted.

3. Any posts that are deemed or are suspected to have been "bumped" will be locked and/or deleted without warning. Methods of post bumping include but are not limited to:

a. Deleting and reposting of a thread just to put it to the top of the list.
b. Adding an otherwise pointless or unnecessary reply.
c. Making unnecessary posts when a post edit would suffice. Editing a post does not constitute being 'bumped'.
d. Deleting and reposting a thread for what you consider flaming and or trolling. Report the replies to the game staff.

4. Flooding the forum by creating multiple threads or posting to multiple threads is grounds for a forum ban. Try to limit responses to threads in an effort to avoid flooding the forum.

5. Clan recruitment posts must be in the correct section and may only be posted by a member of the clan. Also, you are only permitted one recruitment thread per clan. Any more shall result in new threads being locked and/or deleted.

6. Do not reply to all posts in your thread as this is another form of bumping. This includes other clan members.

7. Game referral links in the forums are not permitted. Any found on the forums will be deleted. If you wish to advertise another game, there is a thread for that purpose. Only a link to the game's homepage will be permitted. This includes URL's in your forum signature. Do not post any links to pornographic sites this will result in punishment.

8. Posting any invasion information is not permitted. These posts will be deleted and penalties issued.

9. All un-replied posts will automatically be deleted after 14 days. Do not bump a thread just to keep it in that time frame. That will be automatic grounds for deletion.

10. Forum avatars and signature must be suitable for an all ages game. Use of any unsuitable avatar or signature is not permitted. Using a player's name other than your own or making reference to another player is only allowed with that player's permission. If we deem it unsuitable we will ask you to change it and or remove the avatar or signature ourselves.

11. If you know that your thread was deleted by staff, do not post it again.


Section 15 - In Game Messages and Whispers

1. Abusive and/or inappropriate messages to other players are not acceptable.

2. The Syrnia message system is not for advertising other websites. For example, sending out referral links is not an acceptable use. When necessary, messaging rights will be removed.

3. Do not post whisper or private messages in the forum/chat.


Section 16 - Clans

1. The staff does not usually get involved in clan chat or clan forum issues, however any serious breaches of the rules identified within these areas will be dealt with accordingly. We handle reports that are sent about the clan chat channel.

2. Any clan tags or clan names that are deemed offensive or which imitate staff members are unacceptable. Players will be warned, and failure to change will result in heavy punishments until it has been changed.


Section 17 - Shops

Any shop names or descriptions which contain spamming, caps and/or inappropriate language are unacceptable. They are to be changed, or will be changed for you.


Section 18 - Premium points (previously "Donations")

1. All Syrnia premium points purchases should be done at your own free will. Players should never be forced to spend money on the game. If this happens, consult staff immediately.

2. Syrnia premium point purchases are to be made using your own money. The use of someone else's money can only be done with their permission. Any purchases made without permission can be tracked and legal action can be taken.

3. Premium point purchases cannot be made in trade for in-game items. This means that a player cannot and will not offer any resource in trade for another buying premium points for them.

4. All premium points purchases are considered final and there will be no refunds.


Section 19 - Health Risks

1. You play this game at your own risk. The staff are not responsible for any health problems or medical conditions which have been brought about as a result of playing this game.

2. Watch your own health and do not play for too long if you feel ill.

Glossary of Terms

Chat Room: Includes any of the available chat channels (Region, World, Trade, Pirate, Help and so on). Syrnia rules cover all chats.

Forum ban: The player loses the right to use the game forums for a period of time.

Frozen: The player's account is locked and as such, becomes inaccessible.

Guides: Players who have been selected by the Syrnia Staff to assist new players with how to play the game. Guides do not possess disciplinary powers.

IP Banned: The IP of the account will be blacklisted and any account on that IP is unable to access Syrnia.

Jailed: The player loses the right to play the game for a period of time and will be locked up in a jail cell.

Lag: A period of time when the game runs slowly for various reasons. These could be the result of problems with the game or with the players own computer and or connection.

Muted: The player loses the right to use all chat rooms for a period of time.