In response to this suggestion, I'm writing up a clarification of the rules as a goodbye gift to the LC community. I intend to list all the locations of where which rule can be found and (if applicable) how to interpret them. I strongly recommend everyone to read them in whole, as the following examples are only a small portion of what you have agreed to and are only meant as a clarification of the most commonly questioned rules. All sets of rules mentioned here have a clause in them one way or another that expresses Aeria's right to modify them without further notice. Be aware that this does not require them to inform you about this and that this post may be outdated at some point in time.

I take full responsibilities for any explanations provided by me. Any future edits by a mod or GM should be marked as edits and are the responsibility of the editor. After this post gets locked, I will not be able to edit it anymore due to limited forum permissions.

This thread is not meant to discuss the rules. Therefore I will request this to be locked by a mod or GM immediately after posting it. Discussions about the rules can be held in another place.


ToS
Terms of Service

The first thing you agree on upon creating an account is the ToS (Terms of Service). In these, you'll find the rules on the following subjects (amongst others):

Age limitation for making accounts ToS wrote: Accounts are available only to individuals 13 years of age or older. If you are over 13 years of age but are still considered a minor, we ask that you review these terms with your parents or guardian to ensure they understand them and agree to them. By accepting the terms of use in the Agreement, you represent that you are 13 years of age or older.   The reasoning for this rule can be found in legal responsibilities that Aeria has towards children under the age of 13. This age restriction is also mentioned in the Privacy Policy and Forum Rules. Account sharing ToS wrote: Only one person may use an Account. You are liable for all activities conducted through your Account.   This rule nullifies the "little brother" argument. There's no use in blaming anyone but yourself for getting banned. Modifying client software ToS wrote: You may not (a) sublicense, rent, lease, loan, sell or otherwise transfer the Software or the Services (or any part thereof) (b) modify, adapt, reverse engineer or decompile the Software, or otherwise attempt to derive source code from the Software;   'Shouting' (all caps) and spamming in the shoutbox ToS wrote: You agree not to take any of the following actions: [...] (l) Impede the flow of chat in game, in forums, or in chat rooms with vulgar language, abusiveness, use of excessive shouting (ALL CAPS) "spamming" or any other disruptive or detrimental methods in an attempt to disturb other users or AGE employees;   Botting ToS wrote: You agree not to use any hardware or software, including but not limited to third party tools, or any other method of support which may in any way influence or give you an advantage in the use of the Services which is not authorized by AGE, including but not limited to the use of ‘bots’ and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input.   Account selling ToS wrote: You may not sell or auction any game accounts, characters, items, coin or copyrighted material, nor may you assist others in doing so.   Aeria Points (ap) refunding ToS wrote: Certain areas of the Website may charge fees to access and acquire certain game items or participate in game activities on the Website. ANY APPLICABLE FEES AND OTHER CHARGES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.   Liability of Aeria for downtime ToS wrote: (a) AGE reserves the right to interrupt the Services from time to time on a regularly scheduled basis or otherwise with or without prior notice in order to perform maintenance. You agree that AGE will not be liable for any interruption of the Services, delay or failure to perform resulting from any causes whatsoever. (b) You acknowledge that the Services may be interrupted for reasons beyond the control of AGE, and AGE cannot guarantee that you will be able to access the Services or your Account whenever you may wish to do so. AGE shall not be liable for any interruption of the Services, delay or failure to perform resulting from any causes whatsoever. [...] (d) AGE is not be obligated to refund all or any portion of any Account fee (if any), by reason of any interruption of the Services by reason of any of the circumstances described in paragraph (a) or (b).   This rule makes it so that Aeria is not obliged to refund lost irisses, pots and other items because of server downtime. Bans and other disciplinary actions ToS wrote: AGE MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE ANY ACCOUNT AT ANY TIME WITH OR WITHOUT REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.   This rule (and what follows in the original ToS) means that Aeria can ban you, take your items or discipline you in any other way for any reason they see fit. You do not have any rights to your account or the items on it. Trading at own risk ToS wrote: (e) You may not hold AGE responsible for any loss resulting from in- game trading activitities. [...] You may not hold AGE responsible for any in-game feature or item loss.   This rule says that Aeria is not responsible for giving you back anything lost as a result of being scammed, hacked or anything else.

Fair Play Rules

Another important set of rules you agree on upon creating your account are the Fair Play Rules. These overlap the ToS on a number of points and include the rules on the following subjects (amongst others):

Impersonating a GM Fair Play Rules wrote: 5. You may not impersonate any Aeria Games & Entertainment employee, past or present, including any Customer Support personnel.   Offensive guild names Fair Play Rules wrote: 11. You may not organize nor be a member of any clans or groups within the Game that are based on, or espouse, any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, or other hate-mongering philosophy.   Modifying client software Fair Play Rules wrote: 13. You may not modify any part of the Game Client, Server or any part of the Game.   Exploiting Fair Play Rules wrote: 15. You will not exploit any bug in the Game and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug or "hack"(bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits in game), either directly or indirectly, to any other Game player. You will promptly report any such bug via official and prescribed channels to Aeria Games & Entertainment.   The way to report bugs is by posting in the Bugs/Glitches section of the forums or (preferably) by using the Contact Us form. Use the appointed Bug Report Format in either case. Trade at own risk Fair Play Rules wrote: 19. You may not hold Aeria Games & Entertainment responsible for any loss resulting from In Game Trading. Aeria Games & Entertainment will not be held responsible for any resulting consequence from In Game trading   Account sharing/selling/trading Fair Play Rules wrote: 23. All in game items, and accounts are the property of Aeria Games. No sale/exchange of said items is allowed accept as authorized by Aeria Games.   Offensive language Fair Play Rules wrote: 1. You may not use any language that is offensive, of racist nature, obscene or otherwise inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, all manners of swearing, threats, blackmail, discussion of recreational drugs, sexually explicit language and racism or anything prejudice. As offensive language can interpreted in many forms, it will be the mandate of Aeria Games & Entertainment to make a determination as to whether or not a “reasonable person” would feel offended and act accordingly.   You may feel offended by comments made by someone and decide to report it under this rule, but that does not mean that Aeria will agree with you and take disciplinary actions against the person that made the comment(s). Harassment Fair Play Rules wrote: 2. You may not harass other players. Harassment is defined as specifically targeting another player, or group of players, to harm or inconvenience them. As harassment can take many forms, it will be the mandate of Aeria Games & Entertainment to make a determination as to whether or not a “reasonable person” would feel harassed and act accordingly.   You may feel like you're being harassed by someone and decide to report them under this rule, but that does not mean Aeria will agree with you and take disciplinary actions against the person that is accused of harassing you. In my experience and opinion, Aeria's GMs have a reasonable and realistic grasp of what this game is about and do not judge lightly upon accusations of harassment. My advice to people that feel like they're being genuinely harassed is to build a file over time, containing (uneditted) screenshots, video evidence and/or links to offensive posts in the forums, then submitting their harassment claim and it's supporting evidence through the Contact Us form to be reviewed by the GMs. In general, being pk'd (even under a KoS (Kill on Sight)), ks'd or lured on, does not constitute harassment. More about this can be read in this guide. Sharing of account information Fair Play Rules wrote: 6. You may not exchange account information. You may neither give, receive, nor ask about account information (to include passwords, email address, or any other information not available in the public profile).

EULA
End User License Agreement

The EULA deals mainly with the software that you download to play the game, also referred to as the 'game client', and states many rules that are also covered by the ToS and Fair Play Rules, but goes into more detail about them. An important one to mention is the following rule:

Monitoring your computer for third party software EULA wrote: 7. Consent to Monitor. The Software may communicate your computer's information including but not limited to hardware capacity, patches and modification information, and any unauthorized third-party program running with the Software back to Licensor in order to assist users' uninterrupted game play. An unauthorized third-party program as used herein shall be defined as any third party software, including without limitation any addon,mod,hack,trainer,cheat,that in Licensors sole determination (i) enable or facilitates cheating of any type, (ii) allows users to modify or hack the game interface, environment, and/or experience in any way not expressly authorized by Licensor, (iii) intercepts, mines,or otherwise collects information from or through the Software. In the event that the Software detects an unauthorized third-party program, (a) the Software may (a) communicate information back to Licensor, including information on the User ID and account, details about the unauthorized third-party program and the time and date it was detected and/or (b) Licensor may exercise any or all rights under this Agreement, without any notice to the user.   This basically says that the game client can and will detect any hacking software installed on your computer, which is clearly against the rules and will result in a permanent ban on your account.

Privacy Policy

As part of the ToS, you also agree to the Privacy Policy. This deals with how Aeria will treat any information that you (either knowingly or unknowingly) transmit through the site or the game client. Examples of ways your personal information is stored and/or used are:

Cookies Privacy Policy wrote: We may use cookies to track general, non-personal information about our users (e.g., user name, pages viewed, time spent our Site, and the websites visited just before and just after our Site) for statistical and market research purposes. The information is collected on an aggregated and anonymous basis. We use cookies to gather information about our Site users’ browser activities in order to constantly improve our Site and better serve our customers. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in a most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our Site to better meet the needs of our customers, prospective customers, and visitors.   IP and activity logs Privacy Policy wrote: Like most Internet services, we may also use log files on the server side. The data held in log files includes your IP (Internet Protocol) address, browser type, e-mail application, Internet service provider, referring/exit Web pages, computer platform type, date/time stamp, and user activity (e.g., feature usage, user rankings, game statistics). AGE may use server log data to analyze trends, administer the services offered through the Site. IP addresses are not tied to any personally identifiable information.   Additional logs Privacy Policy wrote: In addition, the software enabling the Site may have associated log and temporary files that are stored on AGE’s servers. These files store your account information, preference settings, system notifications as well as other data necessary to enable you to participate on the Site. Your information may also exist within regularly performed server backups. The foregoing information is collected on an aggregated and anonymous basis.   Game client version Privacy Policy wrote: When any game is updated or "patched", our patch routine may check your computer to see that you have the most recent version of game-specific files.   Forums are a public place Privacy Policy wrote: You may choose to disclose personal information in our online community features, blogs, in-game chats or other public forums, directly to other users while using the Site service. Please be aware that such information is public information and you should not expect privacy or confidentiality under these circumstances. AGE shall not be liable in any way for such disclosure of personal information.

Known Abuse List

The Known Abuse List is specific to Last Chaos and is meant as a guideline to explain in more detail how Aeria deals with the enforcement of the rules listed above. Some examples:

AP selling Known Abuse List wrote: Fraud of any type. This includes, but is not limited to: [...] Saying you will buy/sell Aeria Points. There is no way to transfer these, so saying that you will is clearly fraud. Saying you will trade an Item Mall item for in-game gold, and keeping the gold without giving the item in return. If you want an Item Mall item, the only way we can assure you will not get scammed, is if you purchase AP through the proper methods.   In other words: you may advertise to sell item mall items, but not to sell ap. When you choose to buy item mall items from someone advertising to sell them (or someone advertising to "WTS ap"), you make yourself vulnerable to being scammed. As you can read in the rules above, Aeria is in no way responsible for refunding you your gold and/or items after being scammed, as they maintain a "trade at own risk" policy. Wall hugging Known Abuse List wrote: You will not use any known bug for benefit. Examples of this are: Using terrain features to prevent mobs from pathing to you. Using terrain to prevent other players from attacking you.   This rule was further explained on the forums by Superman0X and later by GMOgreKing. Their explanations are listed in this post. Note that GMOgreKing specifically mentions providing video evidence to back up a wall hugging report. Castle Siege rules Known Abuse List wrote: You will not use any known bug for benefit. Examples of this are: [...] Using a Recall during DCS, in the DCS area. [...] Using a character L15 or below to interfere with a Castle Siege Using Dash or any other skill to bypass the barriers at DCS Using a mount within the castle grounds of MCS   There is much to do about these particular rules, as much is at stake for players competing in Castle Sieges. Remember at all times that the rules are written, reviewed and enforced by Aeria's GMs and that under the above mentioned policies, it's at their sole discretion to take disciplinary action against those that break them. In other words; you may find that someone is breaking them and report them under this rule, but that does not mean Aeria agrees with you and/or will ban the person that has been reported. Implying favoratism Known Abuse List wrote: Implying Favoritism by Aeria Games & Entertainment - Stating that employees of Aeria Games & Entertainment or members of Aeria Games & Entertainment will show favor towards one or more parties involved in any given situation. This includes, but is not limited to, using threats of retribution or inferring that you will not be held accountable for your actions due to special consideration.   This means that comments such as "pft i wont be banned, im close to xxxx" or "i will have you banned, i have friends in high places" to intimidate others are not allowed.

Forum Rules

Anything posted on the forums and/or your forum profile is subject to the Forum Rules. They also contain links to most of the policies and rules listed above. The most commonly broken rules are:

Signature and avatar size restrictions Forum Rules wrote: 6. Signatures will not exceed a height of 200 pixels, a width of 700 pixels and a file size of 120 Kb. 7. Avatars are not to exceed a height/width of 200 pixels, or a file size of 60 Kb.   I have posted a reminder of this in the Fan Art section of the forums, including an example of a signature that meets the requirements for signatures. Karma links Forum Rules wrote: 11. Signatures may not directly link to an automatic karma rating.

Castle Siege Rules

As part of the page that explains how Castle Sieges work, there is a small set of rules mentioned:

Castle Chat Castle Siege Rules wrote: 1) The owners of the Castle may not use the castle announcement to speak of things related outside of Castle siege. No profanity, vulgarity or sexual innuendo will be tolerated.   Castle Chat is a powerful tool that is available to be used by the guild master of the guild that controls either Dratan or Merac castle (ie: the tomb or Kandant Castle). It goes server wide on the first subserver and should therefor be used responsibly. People have been and will be banned for breaking this rule, but remember that enforcing it and judging reports made to claim a person breaking this rule is at the sole discretion of the GMs, who may or may not agree with your opinion. Spawn Camping Castle Siege Rules wrote: 3) Spawn Camping is not encouraged. Players should fight outside of the spawn points. This allows for a fair competition between defenders and would be attackers.   Note that spawn camping is not prohibited and thus will not result in a ban of the person(s) doing it.

Other Rules

There are certain specific rules that are not mentioned in any of the rule sets listed above, but do apply to punishable behaviour inside the game environment. I have searched the forums and will list the ones I was able to find.

Spawning monsters near town Although it is no longer possible to use monster spawn books inside the town gates, part of this post still applies to the use of the following item mall items: Summon Baal Summon Death Knight of Iris Monster Summon 1 Summon Monster 2 Official screenshot policy After a recent uproar caused by a (former) GM claiming that screenshots are not considered proof, GMAracton posted this thread to inform people of the policy regarding screenshots. Language policy After several reports about offensive language, GMAracton posted this thread to explain in more detail how these reports will be judged. Mobbing and/or Training After reports made against people that 'mob' or 'train' a lot of monsters in an area, slickx posted this thread to explain how this is not a punishable offence, based on quotes made by a GM and a GS. This is closely related to complaints about KSing (Kill Stealing).

This is a very well-written, involved post. Obviously you have spent a lot of time on it, and I would like to congratulate you on your efforts.