Last updated 31 March, 2010
PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS OF SERVICE GOVERNING ELEMENT 36 INTERACTIVE'S PROVISION OF WEBSITES AND SERVICES TO YOU. USE OF OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES CONSTITUES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS, CONDITIONS, AND OUR POLICIES AND NOTICES. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT, THEN YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO USE, CONTINUE TO USE, ACCESS, OR CONTINUE TO ACCESS OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES.
Welcome to the websites and services of the Element 36 Interactive Pte Ltd and its partners ("E36"). Our websites include element36.com, dawnofnations.com and other Internet sites on which these terms of service are posted. In addition, E36 owns other domain names that may redirect to one of our websites or their subsites. E36 and any and all entities that control, are controlled by, or are affiliated or under common control with E36 are collectively referred to herein as "we," "us" or "our". All software, products, websites, games and services made available through our websites or subsites are offered to you, the user, by E36 and its authorized service providers, licensors, and suppliers (our "Third Party Providers") and are subject to your acceptance without modification of these terms. Your use of our services and websites is subject to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, incorporated herein by reference, all of which you must accept before you can use any of our services or websites. Please print out a copy of these agreements for your records. It is your responsibility to periodically check our websites to determine if there have been changes to these agreements and to review such changes.
Our Terms of Service are applicable only to the services and websites as provided by us and not on other services or websites on the World Wide Web. Should you click on a link that refers you to another site not owned or operated by us, your activities are subject to the terms and conditions of that site and you should consult its legal documents before continued use.
When using our sites and services, and in order to gain access to our services such as games and other communication services offered by us, you will be requested to register an account. You agree to provide truthful and accurate information and update the information promptly when it changes. We have the right to refuse the user to change certain personal information if any information is fraudulent. Users will also be required to supply a unique username and password herein known as "login information". Users agree to not share their account and login information with anyone unless. Users below the age of 13 years are not allowed to access our sites or use our services. If you are between the ages of 13 and 18 years, please inform your parents before accessing our websites and using our services and ensure that they fully understand and agree to these Terms of Service. User accounts are necessary in order for us to better serve our users and track market trends. Your personally identifiable information is collected only when voluntarily provided by you, the user. For matters pertaining to privacy please review our Privacy Policy also located on our sites.
You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership over your account or any virtual characters and objects associated with the account. Also, you agree that you shall not own any virtual entities that embody your account or related virtual characters and objects in our services and websites. Users, as such, are only borrowing an account and virtual characters and objects from us and acknowledge that the users' accounts and other related characters and objects are on loan from us. As a consequence, E36, at any time, may delete or terminate without notice any accounts that are fraudulent or have breached this or other agreements governing the use of our websites and services.
As accounts, characters, and other related virtual objects are on loan from E36, users cannot sell, barter, or trade their accounts, characters, and other related objects for real currencies or virtual currencies whether real or conceived. Attempts by users to sell their accounts, characters, and any other related objects will evoke proper actions against such account including but not limited to account termination without notice or refund.
As accounts, characters, and other related virtual objects are on loan from E36, users are explicitly forbidden from sharing accounts with other users. If an account is shared between users, E36 reserves the right to terminate the account without notice or refund.
Within our games and services, E36 uses a virtual form of currency so users may purchase virtual items or services during their time of use. Also, any items or objects or currencies held within our games or services are collectively known as "virtual goods". These virtual goods are used by the users in our services and sites. Any virtual currencies purchased by you, the user, from our services, through legal means, are solely to be used for purchase of other virtual goods and services as offered by us. Users are warned and advised against purchasing virtual goods or virtual currencies from other individuals or companies that are not representative of, related to, or legally owned by E36 or our authorized Third Party Providers. All purchases of virtual goods are final, non-transferable, non-exchangeable and non-refundable.
You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership over any virtual goods or virtual currencies and that these items are on loan from E36. As a consequence, E36, at any time, may delete or remove any virtual goods obtained illegally, virtual goods that have an error in their coding, or virtual goods that are temporary items. Also, accounts that have been terminated may have all virtual goods removed from the account without refund.
As virtual goods and virtual currencies are on loan from E36, users cannot sell their virtual goods and virtual currencies for real currencies. Any users violating this term will have their accounts terminated without warning and all virtual items will be removed from our services, whether that item still remains in the seller's account or if the item has been transferred to the purchaser's account. If the item was purchased using real money, the purchaser does not legally own the virtual good or virtual currency and does not have legal right to ownership. As such E36 may remove the item from the purchaser's account without notice or refund.
Before using any of our services, websites or public communication services, please carefully read and review our policies concerning user generated content.
E36 offers, or may offer in the future, several services such as forums, profile pages, blogs, and in-game and out-of-game chat rooms (collectively known as "Public Communication Services"). We offer these services to allow us and our Third Party Providers to communicate with our users and also allow open communication between our users. You acknowledge that the use of our Public Communication Services is for public use and not private communications. Also, you acknowledge that you will not use these Public Communication Services to solicit, sell, or advertise any products, news, or services, unless expressly permitted in writing by E36.
When Public Communication Services we cannot guarantee the security of or privacy of any information or communications sent and received between users. It is the responsibility of the users to protect their personal information. We assume no responsibility for the leakage of any personal information when users choose to display their information using our Public Communication Services.
We are not responsible for, nor do we endorse, any information, opinions, technical tips, or other advice posted or transmitted by any users in any of our Public Communication services. We do not claim any liability connected with any submissions on Public Communication Services unless specifically written or posted by E36.
E36 and our Third Party Providers have no obligation to monitor or supervise any Public Communication Services. However, we reserve the right to monitor and supervise all services, websites, and Public Communication Services. E36 also has the right, in our sole discretion, to supervise, monitor, edit, screen, block, remove, and refuse to post or transmit any user generated content, in part or in whole.
The Rules and Code of Conduct apply to all of our services, websites, and Public Communication Services. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to understand and adhere to the Rules and Code of Conduct.
The terms listed below are not all-inclusive, and are subject to change without notice. Exceptions to these guidelines may be made on a case-by-case basis, depending on E36 determines to be in the best interest of its users as a whole.
1. Do not personally attack, insult or threaten another user. If you disagree with an opinion or idea, there is no reason to become hostile.
2. Posts containing vulgar, obscene, or otherwise generally unacceptable material will be removed and a warning will be issued. This includes any material that can be construed as racist or illegal, or includes pornography, copyright violations etc. In addition, no discussions on religion and politics and no direct links to such subjects will be allowed.
3. Do not discuss topics that are in direct violation of the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy. This also includes discussion in violation of any Non Disclosure Agreement ("NDA") a game title or player may be under.
4. Posts that do not provide any substance to the discussion, or the user community as a whole, will be removed. This includes, among others, advertising/spam, abuse of the color/size tags, excessive use of emoticons, abusing the quote function, posting without using the search function first, post irrelevant to the topic under discussion and messages consisting of posting in a manner that could be considered "baiting" of another poster.
5. Please keep posts related to the topic at hand. While some discussions will naturally morph into related topics, purposefully derailing a conversation will not be tolerated.
6. Users are strictly forbidden from disclosing via Public Communication Services any private correspondence or the outcomes of such correspondence, with any E36 representative or staff without the explicit permission of the E36 representative or staff. Should you have a comment, concern, question or issue, use the private message feature to contact a moderator or administrator. Furthermore, if you believe a post or thread to be in violation of these rules, either in whole or in part, immediately report the post or thread or contact an E36 representative privately. In addition, altering or editing a staff member's message in any way is forbidden.
7. Private messages shall be kept private unless a user has obtained the express written consent of the author of such message(s) to publicly post the information contained therein.
9. Bugs, exploits, bots, hacks, or cheats in any form are not acceptable topics to be discussed via the Public Communication Services. Should you find a non-abusive bug pertaining to any of the E36's products, please use the Public Communications Services to let us know about it. For malicious exploits and other such cheats, please email us directly at cs[at]element36.com, replacing the [at] with @.
10. You are personally responsible for your conduct while using E36's websites and services. If you create a new account to continue actions in violation of the Terms of Service because another account was suspended, any accounts involved will be permanently revoked. Disciplinary actions such as forum suspension apply to a person, not a specific account. This also includes posting by proxy or on behalf of a suspended user.
Our company and Third Party Providers' primary goal is the enjoyment of our users while they make use of our services. We take several measures to ensure a fair and enjoyable experience for all our users. However, in spite of our best efforts, there may be users whose actions may adversely affect gameplay and may be in violation of our Terms of Service. These acts include, but are not limited to:
1. Any conduct that is strictly forbidden by these Terms of Service or any other document that governing our interaction with end users.
2. Impersonating a staff member or official, or a representative of our company and/or Third Party Providers.
3. Using or exploiting bugs (errors in coding or game design flaws).
4. Using, creating, sharing, or soliciting any third party programs that create an unfair advantage or disadvantage for any user.
5. Soliciting, selling, or advertising any services, any virtual goods or virtual currency exchanges.
6. Transmitting of or facilitation of transmitting any unsolicited advertising, junk mail, chain letters, spam, pyramid schemes, get rich quick schemes, or any other form of solicitation.
7. Violating any laws whether applicable to local, state, national, or international laws, rules or regulations, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Players may be required to supply an account name and/or nickname to fully use the services, sites, and other features offered by E36. Also, users may create characters in our games as well as form alliances. While we want players to have the freedom to give names to each, some names may be deemed inappropriate and as such will be considered in violation of our Terms of Service. Listed below are, among others, examples of naming schemes that are not allowed:
1. Any names that employ the use of vulgar language or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, racist, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise unacceptable.
2. Any names of another person or E36 staff member with the intent to impersonate that person or staff member including, but not limited to:
a. Game Master
b. Mystic
c. Admin
d. Moderator
e. Staff Member
3. Any names that contain Trademarked or Copyrighted brand names.
4. Any names that contain religious figures, deities, or representatives of any religions.
5. Any names that contain complete or partial sentences.
6. Any names that are related to drugs, sex, alcohol, illegal substances, or illegal or criminal activity.
7. Any names that contain or are entirely gibberish.
8. Any names that refer to real persons, pop culture icons or personas.
All content, games and other information offered in our websites or services are subject to copyright and trademark protections.
While we encourage users to create Any and all content submitted by users by uploading or transmitting to our services, sites, and Public Communication Services, shall be considered, and remain, the property of E36 and/or its Third Party Providers from the moment the information or content is transmitted or uploaded. Hence, E36 and/or its Third Party Providers shall have sole ownership of all now known and henceforth copyrights and all other intellectual property rights to ALL USER GENERATED CONTENT of every kind, ad infinitum. You acknowledge that E36 and/or its Third Party Providers shall be irretrievably entitled to use, modify, adapt, publish, reproduce, license, sell, or otherwise change in any way, shape or form in any medium, without compensation or credit to the user that provided the content. You also relinquish any rights or claims that any use by E36 and/or Third Party Providers of any user generated content violates any of your rights, including but not limited to privacy, morality, proprietary, religious or other rights and/or rights to credit for any content or ideas, ad infinitum.
i. E36 may, in connection with your fansite, grant you, on a non-exclusive and non-licensable basis, permission to redistribute or reproduce, on the fansite only, to end users, certain content such as game-related images, artwork, graphics, and trademarked logos so long as your fansite complies with all conditions described here in our Terms of Service.
ii. You agree to include our trademarks, copyright or other proprietary notices when displaying any content from our sites and services as well as our Third Party Providers.
iii. As the owner of an unaffiliated website, that is solely independent from our company, you will have sole control over all content and be responsible for any and all information, designs, ideas, and content uploaded and transmitted to your site. As such, we reserve the right to refuse the use of any of our content if the fansite is comprised of, houses, or harbors any libel about E36, its Third Party Providers, their respective employees, officers, directors, volunteers, agents or any of E36's affiliates and partners.
iv. You agree to not charge subscription fees without the prior written consent or license agreement with E36. You also agree to not generate revenue from the fansite without E36's prior written consent or a mutual license agreement. You may not use any limited permission content for your fansite unless we provide prior written consent or enter into a license agreement.
i. We may, from time to time, ask for feedback in ways of polls, posts, or e-mails ("Feedback"). We welcome all comments and information regarding our sites and services. However, unless we specifically request ideas, notes, drawings, creative suggestions, fan art, videos, pictures, images or fan fiction ("User Generated Submissions"), we ask users to not submit any User Generated Submissions. While we do value any feedback and input you may have, we request that any specific feedback given not contain User Generated Submissions.
ii. You acknowledge that E36 and/or its Third Party Providers shall be irretrievably entitled to use, modify, adapt, publish, reproduce, license, sell, or otherwise change in any way, shape or form in any medium, without compensation or credit to the user that provided the content. You also relinquish any rights or claims that any use by E36 or Third Party Providers of any User Generated Submissions violates any of your rights, including but not limited to privacy, morality, proprietary, religious or other rights and/or rights to credit for any content or ideas, ad infinitum.
NEITHER E36, E36'S THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, NOR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DISTRIBUTING ANY CONTENT OR SERVICES CONTAINED IN OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES, NOR ANY OF OUR EMPLOYEES, RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, VOLUNTEERS OR OTHER AGENTS, MAKE ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THAT OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT OUR GAMES OR SERVICES ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
Neither E36 nor its Third Party Providers or affiliates shall be held liable in any way, shape or form, for any damages or losses of any kind, whatsoever. In no event will E36, our Third Party Providers, employees, officers, directors, volunteers or other agents involved in our services and sites, be liable for any indirect, direct, implied, not implied, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or related to:
i. the use or inability to use any sites or services we provide;
ii. the use, by you, of any browser or software owned or operated by any party;
iii. the downloading of any software offered by E36, our Third Party Providers, or our affiliates.
While using our sites or services there may be links available that will take users outside of our sites and services to other sites or services that are beyond our control. These links may be in the form of:
i. Text links
ii. Banners
iii. Pop-ups
iv. Ads
v. User-provided Links
You acknowledge that when you click on any of these links that are mentioned in this section, the sites you are taken to are under separate terms of service and privacy policies, and we are not responsible for such sites and services that are not provided by us. We cannot be held responsible for any information, products, services, or sites that users are sent to by these links and as such we highly advise our users to investigate other websites' legal documents before continued use. If you feel a link may cause malicious problems with computers and privacy issues, please inform us at cs[at]element36.com (please replace [at] with @). However, we assume no responsibility for any links, whatsoever, nor make any implications of obligation toward the warning or removal of links that cause malicious problems, whether they are known or unknown to us.
We respect our users' right to privacy and will not solicit any personal and private information. Please consult our Privacy Policy for information regarding our policies about your privacy. However, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and login information, and you will be responsible for all uses or changes to your account information, whether or not the usage or changes were authorized by you. You acknowledge you will not share any information with others. In the event you become aware of any security breach of your account, please notify us immediately at cs[at]element36.com (Please replace [at] with @).
E36 reserves the right to not refund any and all purchases made by users of our virtual goods, including but not limited, to purchases of our virtual currency and items that are downloadable or were obtained using our virtual currency.
E36, as owners of all accounts, reserves the right to terminate any and all accounts without notice. We may also block your continued use of our sites and services. If you are the owner of a terminated account, you are not allowed to view, use, change, modify, re-sell, or access any sites or services provided by E36. You acknowledge and understand that if your account is terminated for a breach of our Terms of Service or any other legal documents that require acknowledgement and acceptance, you will not be allowed to contact our support team to dispute a resolution. Any accounts that have been terminated due to breach of contract will not be subject to any refunds and the user will incur all fees based off of charge disputes we receive from the account owner's financial institutions or establishments. E36 also reserves the right to terminate any accounts that share common identifiable information such as, but not limited, to I.P. address, without notice.
You agree that actions of law are only applicable to local and national laws which Element 36 Interactive Pte. Ltd. is headquartered in, without regard to choice of law principles, in which this Agreement shall be construed under. The application of the United Nations convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods is excluded.
At any time, E36 may amend or make changes to these Terms of Service, including but not limited to, modification, deletion and/or additions of any portion, section, or the Terms of Service in their entirety, without notice. However, we will display the date this document was last modified. We do, however, reserve the right to e-mail users any notifications of changes made.
You acknowledge and agree to indemnify and hold E36, our Third Party Providers, employees, affiliates, officers, respective directors, volunteers or partners ("Company"), harmless, from against any and all liability and costs including, but not limited to, court fees, attorneys' fees, or other fees incurred by the Company in connection with any claim arising from:
a. Any breach by you, the user, of the Agreement or any representations, covenants and warranties contained in this document.
b. Your use of our sites and services, including but not limited to, your account and all of our other services and features.
If any condition of these Terms of Service shall be unlawful, or void, then that condition shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining conditions. This Terms of Service agreement is the complete, exclusive, and all-inclusive statement of the agreement between you, the user, and our Company concerning any services and websites we provide. As such, this agreement supersedes and any other prior or simultaneous agreement, either written or oral, and any other agreements or communications with regard hereto between you, the user, and our Company; provided, however that these Terms of Service are in addition to, and do not replace or supplant, our Privacy Policy. The section headings used in the Terms of Service are for reference only and shall have no legal bearings or effects on this document whatsoever.
I HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND, AND ACCEPT THE ABOVEMENTIONED TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT AND AGREE THAT MY USE OF E36'S SERVICES AND WEBSITES, AS PROVIDED BY E36, IS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT.