Code of Conduct:
These forums have been created to give the Age of Empires community a centralized outlet for discussing Age of Empires-related topics.
As the guidelines from the Code of Conduct and Xbox Community Standards state, you are required to maintain appropriate forum etiquette for participation. All content moderation policies are applied diligently, objectively, and proportionally. Our platform services respect the fundamental rights of all parties involved, including your freedom of expression. Here are a few basic dos and donāts:
DOā¦
- Treat all forum members with courtesy and respect.
- Make friends and welcome newcomers.
- Start discussions, but remember to do so in a respectful manner.
- Use subject lines that are descriptive of your post.
- Post only in the supported forum language (English). While we understand many peopleās desire to speak in their native tongues, we cannot currently support all possible languages.
- Feel free to ask questions and offer strategy tips.
- Answer questions if you know the answer or point users to resources.
- HAVE FUN!
DONāTā¦
- Flame or attack fellow forum members. Discussion and heated debated are fine; name calling, personal attacks, and trolling (to name just a few) are not.
- Post offensive and derogatory comments, hate speech, or personal attacks based on othersā race, religion, nationality, orientation, gender identity, personal beliefs, or any other personal characteristics. This includes usernames, signature lines, titles, and avatars.
- Discuss controversial topics, such as religion or politics in a way that is not directly related to the Age of Empires games and their historical context.
- Bypass the profanity filter.
- Discuss or post links to inappropriate content such as animal cruelty, racism, or sexism and images of extreme violence. This includes all forms of media such as websites, pictures, videos, magazine scans, and leaked content, real or fake.
- Post links to pages advertising paid services.
- Post links to malicious websites.
- Post content that could be considered bumping, advertising, spam, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation.
- Change thread titles. Doing so can lead to a ban.
- Try to obtain or post someone elseās personal contact information. Examples are home phone numbers, home addresses, and any unpublished email addresses.
- Promote cheating, griefing, or exploits.
- Discuss moderator actions in the forums. Should you have a specific concern, please contact Support at Age of Empires Support.
- Create a petition. Petitions are not allowed and will be instantly deleted.
- Create posts to specific members of the staff. The moderators and developers read all the posts and reply accordingly.
- Discuss illegally modifying, hacking, or pirating content.
- Discuss things unrelated to Age of Empires outside of the Off-Topic forum.
- Impersonate others with your posts, profile, or username. This includes but is not limited to administrators, developers, or staff.
- Engage users who are trolling.
- Call out other players in threads. If you have an issue, contact support directly at Age of Empires Support.
- Create new accounts (alt accounts) to avoid the consequences of a ban, aka āban dodgingā.
- Call out cash prizes for community-organized tournaments in the forums.
Rememberā¦
- Your actions on the forums can affect your in-game account. If you break any of the rules here on the forums, your in-game account can be actioned, and vice versa. Follow the Rules!
ABOUT MODERATORS
Site Staff and Moderators reserve the right to edit any post or site content and to remove your ability to modify them in the future.
Please note that attacking moderators will result in a warning point.
Moderators have to follow rules, too. If you have a problem with a moderator or feel you are being treated unfairly, please contact us at Age of Empires Support.
REPORT
Report posts that do not abide by one or more of the above guidelines. To do this use the Flag option which can be found in the show more icon under every post. This will bring up a menu with options on why you would like to notify staff about the content of the post.
SEVERITY SYSTEM
Weāve implemented a severity system with our new forums. The model is as follows:
Minor violation ā a mistake or misunderstanding by the user.
Examples include the following:
- Attempting to bump a topic by responding to it.
- Double-posting a threadās topic in a single forum or cross-posting in multiple forums.
- Posting personal information which could be considered a security risk to anyone, including the person posting.
- Questioning moderator action in a public forum.
- Posting content which is off-topic or unrelated to the existing thread or forum it is posted.
- Promoting a product for sale, like an app or game.
- Posting links to store fronts or other commercial websites.
Moderate violation ā a violation taken with forethought and knowledge of the guidelines or continued minor violations that defy previous warnings.
Examples include the following:
- Posting divisive content meant to start heated arguments.
- Posting content which is harsh, argumentative or insulting.
- Posting content which is potentially unethical (i.e., violent imagery or sexual innuendo)
- Soliciting reward codes or game codes from other users.
- Repeatedly questioning moderator actions in a public forum.
- Posting content or links to content promoting modifications of the software or otherwise explaining methods that would violate the Terms of Use.
- Excessive use of profanity or vulgar wording.
Severe violations ā a violation done specifically in defiance of the forum guidelines or with the sole purpose of disrupting the forum and creating havoc.
Examples include the following:
- Attempting to usurp moderator and administrator authority
- Posting any content which is unquestionably unethical
- Posting links to external sites promoting illegal activity (i.e., code generator sites)
- āPhishingā or otherwise soliciting personal information from other users
- Trolling the forum by flooding it with insubordinate posts.
- Creating alternate accounts or aliasing in an effort to subvert a previous ban (i.e., ban-dodging) or to avoid a ban on a primary account
- Unlawful infringement of any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual or proprietary right of any party
- Fraudulently posing as a Microsoft employee
- Lengthy spam posts with several links, usually posted by a new account
BAN DURATIONS
MINOR VIOLATIONS: A user will only be banned for Minor Violations when they have repeatedly committed a Minor Violation after multiple warnings and the violation is then upgraded to a Moderate Violation, since they are acting in insubordination to previous moderator instruction.
MODERATE VIOLATIONS: The following is a breakdown of the successive punitive steps when a user commits Moderate Violations:
| Duration | Description |
|---|---|
| 3 DAYS | If the user has committed, in recent succession, the same Moderate Violation three times, they will be banned for THREE DAYS. |
| 7 DAYS | If the user returns from this previous ban and commits the same or similar violations, they will be banned for SEVEN DAYS. |
| 30 DAYS | If the user returns from this previous ban and commits the same or similar violations, they will be banned for THIRTY DAYS. |
| PERMANENT | If the user returns from this previous ban and commits the same or similar violations, they will be PERMANENTLY BANNED. |
MAJOR VIOLATIONS: When committing a Major Violation, a user will be immediately banned for SEVEN DAYS at minimum. During this interim, the moderators and administrators will discuss whether the ban should remain at seven days or if the user should be PERMANENTLY BANNED.
Any violation involving violence or illegal activity (i.e., death threats against another user) will result in the user being PERMANENTLY BANNED without question or recourse, in addition to the violation forwarded to the Age of Empires Policy and Enforcement Team for further action.
The team reserves the right to deviate from this model, depending on the severity of the offense.
APPEALS
Please contact our Support team for more information on a ban and to appeal the decision. Each appeal is individually reviewed to ensure it was consistent with this Code of Conduct.