Game Rules

Game Rules

Account Ownership

• One person may not ever use more than one account.
• Players may not train another player’s account.
• Swapping accounts with another player is not allowed.
• Once you have created an account on HoboWars, that account becomes the only account that you can play on, and no one else can ever play on that account.
• When a player has been found to own or play on multiple accounts, the following punishments will ensue:

The main account (to be decided by the HoboWars Staff) will be jailed for 5 days or more, depending on the situation.

All of the other accounts will be jailed for 365/366 days, a.k.a. permanently jailed. These accounts will eventually be deleted.

Illegal Transfers

• In the past, shared ip's could have no interaction whatsoever. This rule has now been relaxed. Push accounts and multi's are still not allowed obviously. But legitimate friends and family can now interact with each other. If you are concerned about the appearance of your account, you can feel free to contact upper staff, before you interact, to try to limit any misunderstandings.
• The rule still stands, one account per person, and you may not fully fund another account, as that is a push account. But when in doubt, it is best to check with a VM or Minister.

Push Accounts

• Creating accounts for the sole benefit of another Player or keeping inactive accounts active for that purpose are not allowed.
• Accounts that are used only to benefit other Players will be jailed, along with the Player gaining the benefits.

Community

• HoboWars is for players ages 13 and older.
• Pornographic content and prejudiced content are both prohibited.
• Due to the fact that there are players under the age of 18 who play HoboWars, pornographic content is prohibited. What is considered pornographic is ultimately subjective; however, with that being said, any content that contains nudity and/or strong sexual themes is obviously pornographic in nature. Even content that just slightly displays nudity can be considered pornographic. Keep in mind that things like sex toys, poop, excessively violent imagery, and materials from shock sites also fall under the category of pornographic due to their offensive nature. When in doubt, leave it out.
• Additionally, prejudice comments are not welcome on Hobowars. Prejudice includes, but is not limited to: racism used in a derogatory fashion toward any person or group. If you have opinions that could be regarded by Staff to be prejudices, please keep them to yourself while interacting with others in the game.

This rule has been edited. The N-word in any form will NOT be allowed in any way within Hobowars PER ANDY.

• Accounts that are found to be owned by someone under the age of 13 will be jailed until the owner reaches the age of 13.
• Players who are found to feature pornographic or prejudiced content will be punished with jail time, with the length decided by the HoboWars Staff, based on the severity of the offense.

Scams and Impersonation

• Scamming other players is not allowed. If you say you will do something, you best be prepared to do it.
• Impersonating HoboWars Staff members or other players is not allowed. Impersonation also includes telling other players that you are a HoboWars staff member.

• The above offenses are punishable by jail time. The length will be decided by the HoboWars Staff, based on the severity of the offense.

• If you donate something to a gang, it belongs to the gang owner. If you decide to leave the gang, or are kicked out of the gang, it will not be considered scamming. Please use your best judgment before donating to anyone.

Selling Property

• In-game property may not be sold for real life money or funds in another game. This includes selling money, points, DPs, accounts, or anything else that is transferable in HoboWars. Additionally, you may not pay for items transferred in another game with HoboWars funds.
• You may not sell your HoboWars account for real life money.

Any violation of this rule is punishable with jail time. The length will be decided by the HoboWars Staff, based on the severity of the offense.

Affiliate Links

• Players may not make posts that offer to pay other players for clicking a link to any other site, or going to another site and performing some action. Players may still advertise other games or websites on the Fun and Games Board, but only without offers of compensation.
• Any violation of this rule is punishable with a Message Board ban or Jail. The length will be decided by the HoboWars Staff, based on the severity of the offense.

Glitch & Bug Abusing

• Exploiting a glitch or a bug intentionally for ones own profit or for the profit of others is strictly forbidden.
• If you run across any bugs or glitches, please report them to HoboWars Staff immediately.
• Any player found exploiting a game glitch or a bug will be punished with jail time.

Macros/Refreshers

• A macro is a program that plays part or all of the game for you.
• A refresher is a program (most often an add-in to your web browser) that reloads a web page at set intervals.
• A script is a list of commands that are executed by a certain program or scripting engine without user interaction.
• HoboWars rewards players for their time spent on the game. Use of these programs gives players an unfair advantage and is strictly forbidden on all levels.
• The Anti-Macro Protection Page is designed to prevent players from using a macro. If you fail to follow the directions on the page, you will be jailed by the System for two days.
• Players caught using a refresher or a script will be jailed. The length will be decided by the HoboWars Staff, based on the severity of the offense.

Quitting

• A player who decides to quit HoboWars is permitted to give away their in-game items (money, points, tokens, DPs, etc.) to other players but if they return at a later date, those assets will not be refunded.
• A player who wishes to quit playing HoboWars should simply log out of their account. The HoboWars Staff will NOT permanently jail or delete accounts upon request.
• A player who wishes to start over on a new account must first notify a Vice Minister or a Minister of their intent to start over. Next, that player must log out of their current account and remain logged out of it for at least a year (365 days). After that account reaches one year of inactivity, that player may create a new account to play on. After logging in on that new account, that player must immediately contact a Vice Minister or a Minister to let them know that they have successfully started over. The contacted staff member will then permanently jail that player's previous account, with nothing from that account being transferred to the new account. 366'd accounts are not allowed to start over.

Copycat Game Advertising

• Anyone advertising (or mentioning in any attempt to gain attention for) any of the copycat games anywhere on HoboWars will be jailed indefinitely. This includes mention of Z-dwars and and Cripple-Wars and games created by their owners which are STRICTLY PROHIBITED. "Anywhere" has the widest meaning possible including all of the public message boards, gang boards, HoboMail messages, signatures, journal entries, hobo names, etc.

Message Board Rules

Prohibited Actions

• Double-posting/triple-posting/quadruple-posting/etc.

If you have more to add to a thread, then edit your previous post. If you happen to double- or triple-post by accident, then quickly delete the multiple posts.

• Bumping dead threads.

A dead thread is a thread that has been dormant for at least 5 days and is usually on the second page of the Message Board.

Threads may be bumped if the new post is on-topic to the discussion.

• Ghost-bumping dead threads.

Ghost-bumping is when someone bumps a thread and then deletes their thread-bumping post.

• Pyramid quoting.

Pyramid quoting is when a string of posts have quoted the previous post, which quoted the previous post, and so on. After 5 successive posts, the page starts to stretch, and bans start getting handed out.

• Posting something that a banned or jailed player asked you to post.

Dont post for banned or jailed players, for it defeats the purpose of their punishment.

• Posting threads on the wrong Message Board.

Do not post a thread on the General Discussion Board just because more people are likely to read it. Threads that are posted on the wrong Message Board will be moved by a moderator.

• Going off-topic within a thread.

Threads that go off topic will get locked.

• Going off-topic in stickied threads.

Stick to the stickied threads topic. If you derail a stickied thread expect to be Message Board banned.

• Creating a thread announcing a need that is already addressed in a stickied thread.

Use the appropriate stickied thread instead. Failure to notice the appropriate stickied thread cannot be used as an excuse to break this rule.

• Recreating locked or deleted threads.

Recreating a locked or deleted thread defeats the purpose of the moderators action.

• Creating multiple threads on the same topic, or even on variations of said topic.

Keep it in one thread please.

• Rickrolling, in any form.
• Please note that the use of the n-word, in any form, will not be tolerated anywhere on HoboWars, per Andy.

Prohibited Behaviors

• Backseat Moderating

It is up to the HoboWars Staff to decide when a thread should be locked, moved, or deleted, or when a player should be banned or jailed. Using phrases like inb4lock or banplz can be considered as backseat moderating and will be treated as such. If you have a complaint or an issue with a thread or a post, please notify a HoboWars staff member on the Staff Contact Board or through HoboMail.

• Trolling (Extreme Cases)

Trolling is the act of deliberately, cleverly, and subtly antagonizing other players, and is usually done to elicit some sort of emotional response from the player being trolled. Due to the fact that clever trolling is oftentimes humorous and entertaining, it is allowed to a certain extent. However, trolling that has been considered to go too far by the HoboWars Staff will first be met with a warning, and, if the trolling doesnt end there, a Message Board ban or jailing will be issued.

• Flaming (Extreme Cases)

Flaming is the act of insulting someone just for the hell of it. It is often more slanderous in nature than trolling, and as such is not always viewed as being entertaining or funny. Due to the fact that players have the ability to Ignore other players on the Message Boards, light and moderate flaming is usually not met with a punishment or a warning, even if a complaint is filed. On the other hand, flaming that is considered to be far too excessive or completely unnecessary by the HoboWars Staff will either be met with a warning or a Message Board ban, and in some cases jailing depending on the nature of the act.

• Spamming

Spamming is posting the same thing over and over and over again. Due to the fact that most spam posts are useless and annoying in nature, they are not tolerated, and, thus, are usually directly met with a Message Board ban or in some cases, jail.

• Begging for Game Funds

Begging/asking for in-game funds, tokens, points, weapons, or other assets is not tolerated nor appreciated on the Message Boards, in chat, or by mail. Work for your own money.

• Autoplaying

From now on, any player who posts an autoplaying YouTube video in any public area of the game will receive a message board ban. The length of the ban will be up to the discretion of staff. Id say that a message board ban of 3 to 7 days would be an appropriate punishment for breaking this rule.

Prohibited Content

• Posts that contain all or majority upper case text.

Reading upper case text is hard on the eyes.

• Posts that only consist of quotes from other players posts are not allowed.

If you do not have anything to add, simply don't post.

• Posts that contain referral links or advertise other online games.

The Message Boards are not the place to put up your referral links to other games, nor is it the place to advertise them. Use your journals instead. Advertising copycat games is prohibited; doing so will get you permanently jailed.

• Posts that advertise rapes/sluts.

The rape/slut business is not supported by the HoboWars Staff. If you wish to advertise rapes/sluts, please do so in your hobo name or in one of your journals.

• Posts that advertise any type of sale, i.e. point sales and DP sales.

The SGHM is the place to put up those items for sale, not the Message Boards. This includes bulk sales of weapons from gangs.

• Posts that only serve to add another post to your post count. These +1 posts usually only contain common Internet acronyms, smilies and emoticons, pictures irrelevant to the threads topic, and/or complete gibberish.

This rule mainly pertains to those who habitually spam the Message Boards with +1 posts. It is ultimately up to the HoboWars Staff to determine what is or is not a +1 post. If a player receives a warning to stop posting +1 posts, but does not heed that warning, punitive action will quickly result.

Board Specific Rules

Information Desk

• The Information Desk Board is a safe place for all players to ask silly and common questions. Therefore, all replies to any thread posted on the Information Desk Board must be polite, helpful, and relevant to the question. If a question does not seem clear, kindly ask for clarification. Flaming other players and purposely posting incorrect information on the Information Desk Board will not be tolerated and will usually result in a Message Board ban.

Staff Contact & Jail Board

• The HoboWars Staff will never delete your posts from these boards; however, sometimes, if the boards are busy, your thread might get bumped to the second page. If you believe that the HoboWars Staff might have missed your thread, then feel free to bump it back to the first page.
• There are board-specific rules on both Staff Contact and the Jail Board. Pleas read the sticky thread before posting.
• The Staff Contact Board is accessible to all players

Non-HoboWars Talk Board

• Players may create multiple threads on this board, however, if threads are considered to be spam they will be deleted. Anyone caught doing this will also receive a ban.

City Planning

• The City Planning board is designed to deliver information regarding updates to the community. The CP board is a flame-free zone. Any player found to be flaming/trolling will receive a message board ban.
• Constructive feedback is encouraged.

Message Board Bans

• Message Board bans can be progressive if deemed necessary. If you frequently get Message Board banned, do not be surprised if you see the durations of your subsequent bans increase. Continuing infractions can cause you to be jailed.

Mailing Staff

• The staff members of Hobowars are volunteers that deserve to be treated with respect while carrying out their responsibilities, and staff will treat you with respect in return. If you are jailed, banned or received a warning and you wish to discuss or appeal such a decision, you must do so in a respectful manner.

This applies to postings on all message boards (including staff contact and the jail board) as well as in mails. If you are rude, disrespectful or decide to escalate the situation, you will be banned and/or jailed, or have your current ban and/or jail sentence extended.

If you have a problem with a staff member, you should first speak with that staff member to resolve the situation. If you have a complaint with staff, you should either post on the staff contact board or mail a staff member senior to that person. For example, if you have a concern with a Secretary, you should mail a Vice Minister and if you have a concern with a Vice Minister, you should mail a Minister.

Staff do not permanently mail block players, but may temporary mail block a player that is being disrespectful. Staff will remove the mail block within 48 hours. If you continue to be mail blocked by staff, please either post on staff contact or mail the Minister

Chat Rules

The usage of Chat is a privilege, not a necessary part of gameplay; therefore, people that break Chats rules will receive a lengthy ban at Staff discretion. Please also remember that Chat Bans can be given retrospectively from screenshots if no Chat moderators are present at the time of the offense.

Appearance

• Messages must be easily readable.

Invisible text is not allowed. If it needs to be highlighted to be properly read, it is against the rules.

• Messages cannot strain the eyes.

Brightly-colored text is not allowed. If it needs to be highlighted to be properly read, it is against the rules.

All-capitalized text is not allowed.

Behavior

• Messages cannot be strongly discriminatory in nature.

Racism is forbidden.

• Messages cannot be disruptive in nature.

Spamming is forbidden.

Nuking is forbidden.

• Messages cannot be unnecessarily derogatory or rude in nature.

Excessive swearing, cussing, or cursing is not allowed.

Excessive flaming is not allowed.

• Messages cannot be personally inquisitive in nature.

Asking other players for their personal information is not allowed.

• Messages cannot be repetitive, annoying, or pestering in nature.

Begging for money, tokens, points, and Donator Packs is not allowed.

Constantly repeating something that has already been said is not allowed.

Content

• Messages must be in English.

Sending messages in languages other than English is not allowed.

• Messages cannot contain links to web sites with suggestive or offensive content.

Linking to pornographic, racist, dangerous, or shock sites is forbidden.

• Messages cannot advertise websites or personal, in-game services.

Referral links to other online games or websites are not allowed.

Advertising rapes, sluts, or other in-game sales is not allowed.

Advertising real-life products and services is not allowed.

Other Guidelines

Hobo Names

• Hobo names are primarily used to identify players. They are also frequently used to advertise in-game services, requests, and events.

• However, there are two important rules surrounding them:

They must be two or more characters long.

They must be searchable.

They must consist of characters that can be easily clicked since they are usually links to a players profile.

• Players that have hobo names that do not follow these rules will first be asked to change their hobo name, and, if the hobo name is not changed, a jailing of the player and a forceful change to the hobo name will result.

Signatures

• Message Board signatures cannot be more than 140 pixels. The HoboWars Staff has the ability to easily check signature length. Also, please keep in mind that not all players use the same monitor resolution when making signatures. Additionally, please do not make any single line of your signature so long that it stretches the page.

• Players who violate these guidelines will be mailed and asked to change their signature. If that player refuses to do so, then that player will be Message Board banned until the signature is changed.

HoboMail

• Any manipulation of the mail system will be considered exploiting a glitch and will result in your account being jailed. The length of the sentence will be determined by the HoboWars Staff.

• Regarding Mail Spam Jailings:

If you mention certain copycat games, such as ZedWars or Cripple-Wars, in HoboMails, either by name or in hyperlink form, you will get jailed for 365/366 days by the System.

This is a jailing by that Andy himself put into place. Whether or not you agree with this is irrelevant, you will still be jailed.

Your sentence may be reduced, at the discretion of the HoboWars Staff.

In addition, if you are continually promoting the game in mails, but using ways to get around the System jailing, dont be surprised if you suddenly find yourself jailed.

Spamming

• The spamming of players journal entries, Living Area news, profile comments, picture comments, and mailbox will not be tolerated.
• The spamming of Friend Requests will not be tolerated. A rejection is reason enough not to request again.

Arena Pass

• Do not post the location of the Arena Pass outside your Gang Board.

Lotto Advertising

• Effective immediately, Staff will be now be cracking down on players who intentionally make spam threads, spam chat and mass mail players asking them to check it out, join etc. This will be done on a case to case basis once its either brought to our attention or we see it firsthand.

• 1st offense - 3 day MB ban/Chat ban or 3 days in jail
• 2nd offense - 7 day MB ban/Chat ban or 7 days in jail
• 3rd offense - 30 days in jail.

Advertising in Poker Chat

• Very similar to lotto advertising, poker chat advertising will be handled in the following fashion.

• 1st offense - 3 days in jail
• 2nd offense - 7 days in jail
• 3rd offense - 30 days in jail.

• Now what is allowed...you may mail your gang mates and the people on your friends lists. If anyone from your friends list complains, then they should probably remove themselves from the friends list.

• There will also be a stickied Lotto thread on the Fun and Games Board where you can post advertising your lotto. Abuse it and you will lose it.

Loans

• If you would like help from staff when you are entering into loan agreements for gang purchases etc...the following rules apply:

• You must make a journal entry for the contract, outlining the terms and conditions and the hobos involved written as [hoboname=<HOBO ID>]. All parties involved must post in the journal stating that they agree to the conditions.

• Please keep the journal public and unedited until it has been signed by a Minister or Vice Minister. We will then copy/paste the original journal entry into our message. You will then be able to edit the journal entry to make it private, if you wish.

(If you are not friends with the person(s) and/or staff member...friend request them so they can sign. I don’t care if you de-friend them straight after.)

• If there are any changes to be made to the original contract you will need to make another post within the same journal, outlining the amendment... and again, all parties must sign in agreement.

• If the original journal is edited or is any different to what the admin has signed off on and copy pasted... DO NOT expect any help from us if things go wrong.

• We advise you to save all important mails and archive them if you fear they'll be deleted. Example: if one of the parties is being bought out of the loan, we would expect you to be able to provide evidence of this by hobomails or journal entries. Please note that MSN conversations are useless and will not be used as evidence.

• Please be smart. Don't enter into deals with people you don't trust!!

• In the event of a breach of contract, unrealistic timescales/interest/penalties will be at staff's discretion to resolve in the way we believe is fair.

• If you have a current contract going and would like peace of mind that things will continue run smoothly, we suggest you contact the people involved and follow the directions as stated above.

• TL;DR?

Step 1. Write up a contract in your journal.

Step 2. Ask all parties involved to sign (post in) the journal that they agree to the contract.

Step 3. Ask either the Minister or Vice Minister to sign (post in) the journal. We will copy/paste the original unedited journal entry into our post.

• If you care about your belongings...this may just save your ass one day!

Personal Information

• If a player chooses to have their personal information displayed on HoboWars, that is up to the individual and what staff will consider to be fair game. If a player has posted something on a Gang Board, this is also considered fair game. Basically, if you post it, prepare to be mocked about it.

• Circulating another player’s personal information that has been obtained privately, or in another non-public, non-HoboWars area is strictly prohibited, and the offender will be jailed accordingly.

• Examples of private information include, but are not limited to:

Photographs

Videos

First and last names

Addresses

Phone numbers

Work places

IP Addresses

Email Addresses

User names from MSN/Yahoo/Skype/Facebook/Myspace/Twitter.

• Posting private information about a player’s family members and children is particularly forbidden. Expect nothing less than a 366 jail sentence if you choose to break this rule.

• If you are found to be responsible for passing on a player’s personal information, expect to be punished. An example of this, would be copying personal photographs etc from someone on your Facebook friend list, and passing it onto another player to display on HoboWars, or passing on information that a player has trusted you with in the past.

• If you notice your private information being displayed, please report it to staff immediately. Please remember that staff cannot do anything about it unless you tell us.

• These rules should be considered broad guidelines and any case will enforced based on what staff deem appropriate.

Notes

The information on this board is intended as a guide to help players understand how staff interpret Hobowars' Rules. Failure to adhere to these rules or any other behaviour deemed inappropriate or offensive will result in Message Board bans/chat bans or jail terms at Staff discretion. If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of a message you wish to post, please ask for clarification first on the Staff Contact board or by mailing a member of Staff.