TERMS OF SERVICE

Thank you for choosing to play the game Warpath: 21st Century!

My apologies in advance for ripping off the Well of Souls Terms of Service. So some of this doesn’t really make
sense, viewed against the background of Warpath… but…

This is that long boring legal document that you always ignore in your hurry to get into the game. Little do you
know all the things to which you may have already agreed. For example, the last time you said: “I accept” to one of
these, you might have granted to Microsoft ™ prior refusal rights to any birthday presents you might receive now or
in the future.

For that reason, I advise you to read THIS agreement in full and complete detail, preferably with a lawyer by your
side. And I mean a corporate contract lawyer, not one of those inexpensive honest ones.

First of all, this program is a GAME and you probably didn’t even have to PAY for it. As a result, I expect you to
hold me blameless no matter how screwed up it is. Of course, I don’t expect it to deliver anything less than the most
amazing experience of your entire life. But contents may have settled during shipping and your bliss may vary.

The main reason for this TOS is to point out that synthetic-reality.com has the right to cut off your access to the
multiplayer mode of operation of this game for any reason it likes, and no matter how much you whine about it, we
don’t have to let you play it any more.

Of course, we’d only do that if you turned out to be some sort of idiotic jerk who wasn’t interested in playing the
game itself but rather just delighted in making the experience unpleasant for everyone else.

We know that YOU aren’t that sort of person, of course. For example, if you were THAT sort of person you
CERTAINLY wouldn’t have read this far into this document, with its teensy little print. Not saying that you’re bad
if you didn’t read it, of course. We’ve already covered the important bits, so you can stop reading any time now.
But we have to make it really long or it probably isn’t legally binding (on you, that is). I mean, why else are these
things always so long?

Here are some examples of things we would just as soon that you did NOT do while playing the game (and by
corollary are likely to bring repercussions upon you):

 Don’t hack the game or servers. I mean, really, how low can you go? If we detect any memory editing of
the game we will be very upset and probably shut down on you.
 Don’t try to circumvent various security features in an attempt to cheat without its being noticed. The game
has plenty of ‘sanctioned cheats,’ which we invite you to use at your leisure. The web site at
www.synthetic-reality.com has a complete list.
 Don’t use creative spellings of profanity in an effort to get your foul gutter words heard by people who have
sensibly turned on the auto-bleeper feature to protect their tender eyes. If you simply MUST talk like a
drunken sailor, spell correctly to give people a chance to filter you out efficiently. Better yet, don’t swear at
all! We will, on occasion, GAG you if we find you offensive enough while we’re paying attention. But
don’t assume that we will always be watching. And no fair getting mad at synthetic-reality.com if someone
manages to say something horrible in your presence.
 Don’t engage in racist, sexist, age-ist, class-ist, religio-ist or other negative karma conversation intended to
cause discomfort and sadness in other human beings. (For your own sanity, we also suggest you try your
best to not react to such attacks and simply MUTE the idiot instead. Remember what they say about prank
phone calls – no reaction is the best reaction.)
 Don’t use profanity in your character name. This will definitely get you banned eventually. And remember,
I don’t feel I need to discuss this sort of thing with you. I expect you to already know right from wrong.
Expect reasonable consequences for your actions – just like in real life, you have to take responsibility for
your actions.
  Don’t make an effort to spoof other people. I mean, role-playing is one thing, but pretending to be another
player is not acceptable. Use your own best judgment as to whether or not you’re just joking around, and
so will we.

That’s not too mean of us, is it? I mean, isn’t that really best for everyone? The above is not meant to be a complete
list of unacceptable online behavior, but it covers the basic issues. I mean: we reserve the right to evaluate your
behavior and take what we feel is appropriate action in response.

THE GOLDEN RULE

When I was a kid, in addition to “please” and “thank you” being the MAGIC WORDS, we were also told to follow
The Golden Rule™. Nowadays people seem to think this is some sort of subversive religious thing, but in this
context all we really mean is: Play nice with each other. In fact, it has been pointed out that we aren’t really
suggesting the golden rule because we ARE expecting you to want to be treated nicely. If you, in fact, have some
sort of weird self-esteem problems (which make you want to be abused), we don’t want you using the golden rule as
an excuse to abuse others.

ETIQUETTE

Text documents relating to online games often have a section about etiquette – as in how you are expected to
behave. Being a role-playing game that is not completely appropriate here. In any case, here are my observations
based on countless hours sitting behind a secret duck blind observing the players in their natural habitat:

 DON’T SHOUT! That is to say, don’t type in all capital letters ALL THE TIME. The game has an official
shout feature, which makes sure your voice is seen (so long as you are not being muted). The game also
provides a variety of optional filters (no_shout, olde-english, etc.), which will adapt incoming text as
necessary. (Right-click in the chat window to see a list.)
 Some people like to stay in character all the time. I can understand this, though I tend to just chat normally,
myself. Be sure to turn off the eavesdrop feature if you only want to hear people who are near you.
 Don’t be a level beggar. These are people who don’t really want to play the game; they just want to have a
high level character. They are constantly typing stuff like: “Please level me!” They tend to get ignored, or
punished. There’s nothing wrong with joining a hunting party and working as a team, but try to carry a
little of your own weight.
 Be nice to new players. They need to have a good time so that I stand some chance of their donating $10
someday.
 Be VERY nice to children. Once you figure out a little kid is around, be extra special nice. I shouldn’t have
to tell you this. Children should be given the opportunity of living in an artificial dream world of happiness
as long as possible. Parents should sit by the side of their children whenever they use the Internet.

Of course, you can also play the game in SOLO mode (just you) or on a local area network, in which case the rules
of etiquette would be entirely different: “Don’t talk to yourself and expect an accurate answer,” and “Don’t spill
soda on the other player’s keyboard.”

FOR YOUR PROTECTION

While the vast majority of players are excellent human beings like you, the occasional bad apple does sign on from
time to time. (After all, how can they be expected to stay away from such a great game? They’re only sub-human).
Anyway, synthetic-reality.com has provided you with a wide array of powerful social controls to let you tune your
pleasure. For example:

 MUTE people whom you no longer wish to hear.

  CENSOR people whose graphical ‘skins’ are offensive to you.
 Use the BUDDY HAT feature to categorize people into whatever categories you find helpful (for example:
friend, partner, enemy, idiot, and repulsive)
 Use the SOUL DIARY to record little notes to yourself about players you meet: “Likes cheese”, “Was mean
to kitty” etc.
 Disable SKIN TRANSFERS if it is more important to you to never see an objectionable skin than it is to
collect the amazing variety of attractive skins made by the other players.
 Use the various splitter bars to maximize the size of the more enjoyable windows (most windows are re-
sizable).
 Accompany your minor children at any time they use the Internet. They’ll appreciate the company.
 Don’t give out personal information to strangers, whether over the Internet or not.

And we encourage you to set a positive example yourself. Many players who at first glance appear to be the
worthless dregs of our decaying society are, in fact, merely teenagers fed a constant diet of Marilyn Manson and
simply need a calm hand and a caring voice to find a better path. Failing that, the game allows you to kill them in
many exciting ways (mild animated violence only, of course).

WHAT’S A SNERT?

From time to time you might see people mention the word ‘snert.’ While the deepest origins of the term appear lost
in time, it was contributed to the WoS mythology by Lady Gryphon. Definitions vary, but basically it describes
someone who diminishes the pleasure of the game for others. You don’t want to be a snert, in language or in deed.
Most server administrators will banish you from their servers if you engage in snertish behaviour. (I call that:
“Getting Snertified.”)

‘Snert’ is used instead of ‘newbie’ since we all start life as newbies, but we don’t all start life as snerts.

SERVER RULES

Speaking of servers (a server is a place where you can play the game – you can run your own server and make it
available to the public), the administrator of each server can impose various rules that govern all those who play
there. You should respect the wishes of your server admin, or start your own server with the rules set the way YOU
like them, you rebel you!

KEEPING SYNTHETIC-REALITY.COM IN BUSINESS

Well, maybe if I stick this in here, people will take pity on me. You’re probably asking yourself: “How can such a
TERRIFIC game, written by so obviously a caring and wonderful human being, be FREE?” If not, I invite you to
ask yourself that question now. I’ll wait….

OK, well, the answer is… um, well the jury is still out on that one (ask again in a year or two). To extend the time
before reading about our going-out-of-business auction (I’m keeping the chair), you might consider donating $10 to
us. This is covered on our web site at http://www.synthetic-reality.com and is really quite painless. If you’re the
sort of person who simply can’t stand to donate money without getting something physical back, you can spend a
little more and buy a mug, t-shirt, or mouse pad from our company store. Again, just visit the web site (or push the
DONATE $10 button in the game.)

MY APOLOGIES

My apologies if I have offended any corporate contract lawyers, idiotic jerks, teenagers, Marilyn Manson,
Microsoft™, decaying societies, people with weird self-esteem problems, snerts, or drunken sailors. It was not my
intention to do so and any comments to the contrary were intended to be light-hearted, semi-humorous remarks.

AZAMAN’S CLAUSE

Azaman is an active server administrator and has his own concerns for the legal protection of server administrators.
I’d like to point out that this ToS specifically applies to gameplay over all servers, but here are some nice points
which Azaman put together to cover the admins. (With a few generalizations by me...)

 You may not harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another
player. This excludes Player Killing, if it is accepted in this game server.
 You may not use any offensive or sexually explicit language on a server with the “noBleep” rule set, even
if you have creatively mis-spelled words, or otherwise used words not officially filtered by the bleeper.
 You may not use any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene,
hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable language toward any other player. And this means
on any server, whether it has noBleep set or not. Obviously, there is some gray area here distinguishing
between ‘raunchy’ and ‘obscene’ so the final determination is based on the server admin’s sensibilities,
and the server admin has the final say.
 You may not impersonate another player or the server administrator.
 You may not market, promote or advertise anything, or make any other form of solicitation (including
pyramid schemes and chain letters). (Well, you can encourage people to send money to Synthetic
Reality, of course.)
 You may not violate any local, state, national or international laws or regulations.
 You may not hack or try to hack the server or the game while on the server. Or do anything to cause any
damage on the server to the other players. If you are found to have broken this rule the server
administrator may file charges against you and ban you indefinitely.
 You may not arrange for the exchange or transfer of any pirated software or other contraband while you
are on the Game Server, or use the Game Server for any other illegal purpose.
 You may not organize any guilds or groups that are based on, or espouse, any racist, sexist, anti-
religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other hate-mongering philosophy while you are on the Game Server. Or
organize any such activities while on the Game Server.
 You may not use the Game Server for any activities other than activities that are permitted within the
game world.
 You may not post or communicate any player's real world personal information within the Game Server
without their permission.
 You may not modify or replace any electronic information being exchanged by the Mixer Client or Server.
 YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU AGREE TO THESE RULES AND WILL ABIDE BY THEM.
 YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT THESE RULES WILL APPLY TO ANYONE THAT YOU ALLOW TO USE YOUR
COMPUTER OR CHARACTER ID, AND THAT YOU ARE PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
CONSEQUENCES (INCLUDING TERMINATION OF YOUR USAGE) THAT MAY RESULT IF ANY SUCH PERSON
BREAKS THESE RULES.
 YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IF YOUR RIGHT TO USE THE GAME SERVER IS TERMINATED BY
ADMINISTRATOR FOR ANY REASON, YOU WILL NOT BE ENTITLED TO RETURN TO THE SERVER UNLESS
THE ADMINISTRATOR SO WISHES.
 THESE RULES MAY BE CHANGED, AND NEW RULES MAY BE ADDED, AT ANY TIME. YOU AGREE TO CHECK
FROM TIME TO TIME TO REVIEW ANY RULE CHANGES THAT SERVER ADMINISTRATOR MAY HAVE MADE.

People who run servers do so at their own expense and should be honored and respected, not hassled. Let me just
send out a little “thank you” here to server admins everywhere: Thanks! You’re the salt of the earth! (As are all you
folks who have purchased attractive t-shirts, mouse pads, and mugs from one of the Synthetic Reality merchandising
centers! Especially you, Sue!)
IN CLOSING

I’m sorry if this TOS is not long enough to look properly legal and professional. I’ll try to add more to it over time.

All joking aside, I’m really pleased that you’ve decided to give my game a try and I hope you enjoy it. I’ve met a
lot of really nice people in multiplayer mode and I hope you’ll be one more.

Have fun!

Dan Samuel

Email: dan@synthetic-reality.com
Web: www.synthetic-reality.com