Champions Online Rules of Conduct

Welcome to Cryptic Studios’ Champions Online! Champions Online (the "Game") is a massively multiplayer online game which allows you to interact and build relationships with numerous other players. As such, we at Cryptic Studios ("Cryptic") want to ensure that we develop a vibrant and positive social experience for all of our users. We have therefore created these rules of conduct (the "Rules of Conduct") for all of the Champions Online players to follow.

Please read these Rules of Conduct carefully. By using the website located at www.champions-online.com (the "Site" and, collectively with the Champions Online game service, the “Service”), installing the Game software (the "Software") or creating a Champions Online account (an "Account"), you agree to be bound by, and subject to, these Rules of Conduct. If you do not agree with these Rules of Conduct, please do not use the Service, install the Software or create an Account.

These Rules of Conduct are in addition, and your use of the Game is subject to, the terms and conditions of the Champions Online Terms of Use (the "Terms of Use"), the Champions Online End User License Agreement, and the Champions Online Privacy Policy. You should review each of the foregoing documents carefully prior to creating an Account. If you do not agree to any of these documents, do not install the Software and do not create an Account.

  1. Rules of Conduct. Your use of (i) the Game, (ii), the Service, (iii) the published Game-related images, graphics and artwork (the "Cryptic Content"), (iv) the trademarks, logos, and service marks of Cryptic (the "Cryptic Marks"), and (v) any information and materials provided through the Site, including any data, text, graphics, images, audio and video clips, logos, icons, software and links ("Online Materials" and collectively, with the Cryptic Content and Cryptic Marks, the "Material") is governed by these Rules of Conduct. These Rules of Conduct, maintained and enforced exclusively by Cryptic, must be adhered to by all users. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these Rules of Conduct. The following rules are not meant to be exhaustive, and Cryptic reserves the right to determine which conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the Game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit as set forth in Section 2 below. Cryptic reserves the right to modify these Rules of Conduct at any time.

    (a)

    When you create an Account, you will have to create a user name and display name. [Your display name will be visible to other users, but your user name will not.] You will also be able to choose the names of your Game characters, design their costumes, and found or join supergroups with other users. When you choose a user name, display name, character name, or supergroup name or otherwise create a label or image that can be seen by other players playing the Game (each a "User Identifier"), you must abide by the following guidelines as well as the rules of common decency. If Cryptic finds a User Identifier to be offensive or improper, or believes a User Identifier is or may be illegal, it may, in its sole and absolute discretion, refuse to grant you the User Identifier, change the User Identifier, remove the User Identifier, and/or suspend or terminate your use of the Game. In particular, you may not use any User Identifier:

    (i)

    Belonging to another individual or entity with the intent to impersonate that individual or entity, including without limitation, impersonating any Cryptic agent or employee or any other Cryptic community user;

    (ii)

    That incorporates vulgar language or imagery or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

    (iii)

    That is subject to the rights of any other person or entity without written authorization from that person or entity;

    (iv)

    That belongs to a popular culture figure, celebrity or media personality;

    (v)

    That is, contains, or is substantially similar to a trademark or service mark, whether registered or not, or may otherwise cause confusion;

    (vi)

    That contains, or simulates, character nudity;

    (vii)

    Belonging to any religious figure or deity;

    (viii)

    Taken from Champions products, including character names from the Champions role-playing game and other Champions products and media;

    (ix)

    Related to drugs, sex, alcohol, or criminal activity;

    (x)

    Comprised of partial or complete sentences (e.g., “Welovechicken”);

    (xi)

    Comprised of gibberish (e.g., “asdlfsdoifh”);

    (xii)

    Uses any characters except for the following: numbers and letters, period (.), underscore (_), or dash (-) and space;

    (xiii)

    Is substantially similar to, or otherwise contains or duplicates any copyrighted work or component of a copyrighted work (including, without limitation, comics, anime, movies or other videogames, and any characters appearing in any of the foregoing);

    (xiv)

    Referring to pop culture icons or personas (e.g., “Spiderman,” “Madonna”); or

    (xv)

    That incorporates titles such as “The Lord” that could be construed as religious. However, heroic titles such as “Captain”, “Mighty” or “Super” may be used.

    You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above, nor can you have a “first” and “last” name that, when combined, violate the above name restrictions.

    (b)

    Rules Related to Interaction with Other Users. Communicating with other users and Cryptic representatives is an integral part of the Game and is referred to in this Agreement as "Chat." In addition, we and our designees host message boards, blogs, online discussions and other forums found on the Site (collectively, the "Forums") that permit you to interact with other users. When engaging in Chat in the Game, or otherwise using the Game, or when participating in the Forums, you may not:

    (i)

    Transmit, post, offer or solicit (A) any content, information, images or language which, in the sole and absolute discretion of Cryptic, is deemed to be offensive, including, without limitation, content, information, images or language that is unlawful, harmful, harassing, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, sexually explicit, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the restrictions set forth in this Section 1(b)(i)(A); (B) any content, information, images or language that infringes our or any third party’s intellectual property or other rights; (C) any material, non-public information about companies without the authorization to do so; (D) any trade secret of any third party; or (E) any advertisements, promotions, solicitations, chain letters, pyramid schemes, investment opportunities or other unsolicited commercial communication (except as otherwise expressly permitted by us);

    (ii)

    Transmit or post any content or information that is derogatory or harmful to the reputation of the Game, Cryptic or our directors, officers and employees in any way;

    (iii)

    Transmit or post any software or other materials that contain any viruses, worms, trojan horses, defects, date bombs, time bombs or other items of a destructive nature;

    (iv)

    Participate in or discuss any matter violating any local, state, national, or international laws or regulations;

    (v)

    Solicit other users’ passwords and/or credit card information;

    (vi)

    Participate in anti-social, disruptive, or destructive behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, “flaming,” “spamming” and “trolling.” “Flaming” is defined as posting content that is deliberately hostile. “Spamming” is defined as repeatedly posting unwanted content. “Trolling” is defined as posting content that is deliberately intended to provoke a vehement response from other users;

    (vii)

    Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as intentionally causing the Chat screen to scroll faster than other users are able to read, or setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat;

    (viii)

    Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, including, without limitation, posting commercial solicitations and/or advertisements for goods or services;

    (ix)

    Sending repeated unsolicited or unwelcome messages to a single user or repeatedly posting or transmitting similar messages in a Chat session or Forum area, including, but not limited to, continuous advertisements to sell goods or services;

    (x)

    Communicate or post any user’s personal information in the Game or on any Forum or websites related to the Game, including, but not limited to, such user’s real name, address, phone number or private e-mail address, except that a user may communicate his or her own personal information in a private message directed to a single user;

    (xi)

    Use bots or other automated techniques to collect information from the Game or any Forum or website owned or administered by Cryptic;

    (xii)

    Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention, unwanted contact via Chat or any Forum, or discomfort to any user of the Game or any Forum;

    (xiii)

    Cheat or utilize “exploits” while playing the Game in any way, including, without limitation, modification of the Game’s files;

    (xiv)

    Participate in any action that, in the sole and absolute opinion of Cryptic, results or may result in an authorized user of the Game being “scammed” or defrauded out of items that user has earned through authorized game play in the Game;

    (xv)

    Pretend that you are, or that you represent, someone else, including, without limitation, any Cryptic agent or employee or any other Cryptic community user, or communicate in the Game in any way to express or imply that any statements you make are endorsed by us, without our prior written consent;

    (xvi)

    Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any message or transmittal you send to Cryptic on or through the Site or the Service offered on or through the Site; or

    (xvii)

    Otherwise violate Cryptic's Forum Infractions Policy or Forum Usage Guidelines

    (c)

    Rules Related to Use of the Site. In addition to the Rules of Conduct set forth in Sections 1(a) and 1(b) above, while using the Site, Material, Software and/or the Service, you agree not to:

    (i)

    Restrict, interfere or inhibit any other visitor or user from using the Site, including, without limitation, by means of “hacking” or defacing any portion of the Site;

    (ii)

    Use the Site, Materials, Software and/or Service for any unlawful purpose or solicit the performance of any illegal activity or other activity which infringes the rights of Cryptic or others;

    (iii)

    Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the infrastructure of the Site or Cryptic’s systems or networks, or any systems or networks connected to the Site or to Cryptic;

    (iv)

    Modify, adapt, sub-license, translate, sell, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the Site or Game except as permitted under applicable law;

    (v)

    Remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in the Site, Materials or Game;

    (vi)

    “Frame” or “mirror” any part of the Site without our prior written authorization;

    (vii)

    Except as permitted under Section 3(g) of the Terms of Use, link to any page of or content on the Site other than the URL located at http://www.crypticstudios.com or http://www.champions-online.com/;

    (viii)

    Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application or other manual or automatic device or process to retrieve, index, “data mine” or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site and/or Game, and/or any of its or their contents;

    (ix)

    Harvest or collect information about Site visitors or users without their express consent, including, without limitation, reverse look-up, trace or seek to trace any information on any other Site visitor or Game user, or any other customer of Cryptic, including information on any Account not owned by you, to its source, or exploit the Site or the Service or information made available or offered by or through the Site in any way where the purpose is to reveal any information, including but not limited to personal identification or information, other than your own information;

    (x)

    Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the Game and/or Site, or any other systems or networks connected to the Site or to any computer used to support the Service, or to the Service, by hacking, password “mining” or any other illegitimate means;

    (xi)

    Probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Site or Service, or breach the security or authentication measures on the Site or Service; or

    (xii)

    Use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or Service, or any transaction being conducted thereon.

    (d)

    Rules Related to Gameplay. Cryptic strictly enforces the rules that govern game play. Cryptic considers most conduct to be part of the Game, and not harassment, so player-killing, is considered a part of the Game. Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is “fair” and are considered serious violations of this Agreement. Those acts include, but are not limited to, the following:

    (i)

    Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or “program bugs” to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;

    (ii)

    Conduct prohibited by this Rules of Conduct, the Champions Online Terms of Use, the Forum Infractions Policy, the Forum Usage Guidelines or any end user license agreement, codes of conduct or posted rules, instructions and/or guidelines with respect to the Game and any future revisions of any of the foregoing; and

    (iii)

    Anything that Cryptic considers contrary to the “essence” of the Game.

  2. Violation of the Rules of Conduct

    (a)

    Disciplinary Measures by Cryptic. In the event that you violate any of the Rules of Conduct, Cryptic shall have the right to take any disciplinary measures as it sees fit, including, without limitation, the following actions:

    (i)

    An e-mail warning may be issued to the user at the discretion of Cryptic;

    (ii)

    Editing, deletion or closing of the post, thread or message in any Forum or any Chat session;

    (iii)

    Temporary suspension of the user’s Account;

    (iv)

    The termination and deletion of the user’s Account; or

    (v)

    Permanently banning the user from all accounts and future accounts.

    (b)

    Notification of Legal Authorities. Cryptic may, with or without notice to you, disclose your Internet Protocol (IP) address(es), personal information, and information about you and your activities in response to a request by law enforcement, a court order or other legal process. In addition, the following are examples of the type of violations of the Rules of Conduct that may result in the notification of proper legal authorities by a representative of Cryptic:

    (i)

    Threat of physical harm or safety to oneself or any other person made through the Site, the Service or any web sites that are owned, operated, licensed or controlled by Cryptic;

    (ii)

    Offering or solicitation of material that might be deemed illegal, indecent or obscene, including, but not limited to, child pornography, illegal drugs and pirated software; or

    (iii)

    Harassment of another end user and/or any Cryptic employee or contractor.

  3. Please read the Terms of Use, Forum Infraction Policy, Forum Usage Guidelines and Privacy Policy