Age of Empires Forum Code of Conduct and Terms of Service

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 donā€™ts:

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 peopleā€™s 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!

DONā€™Tā€¦

  • 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 elseā€™s 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 Examples are home phone numbers, home addresses, and any unpublished email addresses.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 ā€˜ban 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

Weā€™ve 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 threadā€™s 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)
  • ā€œPhishingā€ 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.

Contact Support

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In addition to the LIVE services Terms of Use and Code of Conduct, the following is the Terms of Service for the Age of Empires Forums.

Terms of Use:

Microsoft Studios provide the Age of Empires Community Forums (or ā€œForumsā€ for the purpose of this document) as a centralized community site for all Age of Empires fans to connect and discuss all manner of Age-related information. The Forums are here for the benefit and enjoyment of all members, and are accessible to anyone who agrees to the following guidelines for access and participation to the Forums.

By participating in the Forums you agree to the Usage Guidelines (outlined below) and the Microsoft Services Agreement which can be found here.

Please adhere to the following Usage Guidelines:

BE APPROPRIATE

When communicating on the Forums, itā€™s important to stay on topic. These Forums have been created to provide a channel of communication across the entire spectrum of Age of Empireā€™s fan base, specifically for the discussion of Age of Empires. Please refrain from discussing personal matters, verbally abusing any company, product or individual, or from posting content which may be deemed inappropriate or irrelevant for the Age of Empires community.

Posts created to ā€œbumpā€ existing discussions, posts created to bypass or workaround the word filter or posts created to duplicate existing discussions are expressly prohibited. Posts created to inform or discuss how to violate the policies found within the Code of Conduct and Xbox Community Standards are also prohibited.

BE COURTEOUS

The Forums are intended to provide a positive experience for all members. Please make sure that you are not detracting from the community experience for any user. Your opinions are welcome, but refrain from personal attacks and harassment of other members, and from posting content which could be viewed as unlawful, threatening, ############# harmful, indecent, lewd, abusive and inflammatory.

All content posted on the Forums should maintain a helpful and courteous tone, and not be intended to provoke or flame other community members.

BE SPAM-FREE

Additionally, the Forums are not to be used for the promotion of third-party services, products, websites and/or organizations. Please refrain from posting content that could be considered advertising, junk mail, spam, chain letters, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation.

Remember that any advice or recommendations offered on the Forums are those of the individual members, and they are not specifically endorsed by Microsoft Games Studios. It is each individual forum membersā€™ responsibility to follow or not follow any advice or recommendation given by another user.

You should not post your or anyone elseā€™s personal information on these Forums including but not limited to name, physical or email address, age, phone number, credit card or sensitive log-in information. Furthermore, if any user asks you for personal information, such as the information detailed above, do not provide it.

BEWARE

While the Forums may be reviewed by a moderator staff, the content therein is not guaranteed to be moderated or endorsed by Microsoft Game Studios. Microsoft Game Studios is not responsible for any failure or delay in removing objectionable content or any content that is in violation of the aforementioned guidelines.

While the moderator staff does not generally edit conversations posted by members, they do retain the right to use judgment to determine if any conversations violate Code of Conduct and Xbox Community Standards. If conversations are deemed to be in violation of the aforementioned guidelines, the moderator staff can edit the content of the Forums in whatever way they see fit to protect the integrity of the Forums.

Additionally, the responsible party for such violations can be temporarily suspended from posting or permanently banned (their Forums privileges permanently revoked), once the moderator staff has reviewed the conversations suspected to be in violation of the guidelines.

BE A LEADER

Part of your participation requires adherence to the guidelines as outlined above, but also requires that all users perform in an exemplary and commendable manner. Please make full use of the Report Abuse functionality of the Forums, which notifies moderators to objectionable content or any conversations which appear to be in violation of guidelines as outlined above.

From time to time, the moderator staff may designate certain members with leadership roles. This designation does not imply that Microsoft Game Studios endorse this personā€™s posts or comments. The designation only allows the community to know when a member has performed in an exemplary and commendable fashion, and may, on occasion, assist with monitoring the Forums to ensure its integrity is maintained.

UNSOLICITED IDEA SUBMISSION POLICY

Microsoft or any of its employees do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, including ideas for new advertising campaigns, new promotions, new products or technologies, processes, materials, marketing plans or new product names. Please do not send any original creative artwork, samples, demos, or other works. The sole purpose of this policy is to avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes when Microsoftā€™s products or marketing strategies might seem similar to ideas submitted to Microsoft. So, please do not send your unsolicited ideas to Microsoft or anyone at Microsoft. If, despite our request that you not send us your ideas and materials, you still send them, please understand the Microsoft makes no assurances that your ideas and materials will be treated as confidential or proprietary.

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