I am copying this here from the Q and A forums (where it was posted in October) as it was getting buried:


Okies, here are some answers relating to current policy - I hope they are what you were all looking for. Remember this is current policy, and moving forward, so if we could refrain from picking on specific incidents in the recent past it would be constructive. Please don't flame me or each other if they are not what you wanted, let's try and keep this friendly? And do keep an eye on the blog for new developments...


These clarifications stand from the present time until a new ruleset is posted. The current rules are as posted here,

http://utopia.swirve.com/rules.php

additionally as updated by Roisin’s blog here,

http://blog.swirve.com/2008/09/18/up...utopia-policy/


Wars

OMAC does not intend to change the rules on wars and will not intervene in player wars unless a clear rule violation is seen to have occurred. The previous incident where a war was changed was an error on the part of our staff.

Coercion

Requesting a player to leave your kingdom is acceptable, however, abuse, bullying, and swearing at them when they refuse, or trying to make them hand over their account details will result in deletion.

Likewise, requesting a player to use IRC or other external programs is again acceptable, if unnecessary to play the game, though attempting to bully people into using external tools, is not.

Similarly, asking a player to leave a kingdom if they refuse to use external tools is OK, but we would urge you to attempt to work with people, first - walk them through the tools, explain why they are important - before resorting to violence.

The definition of what is considered abusive and what is not will be determined by common sense and will necessarily be subjective, I am sure you all have slightly different standards on this one, but I think we all know what wouldn’t be broadly acceptable in a game “designed to be played by people of all ages and backgrounds” Also, please do not swear at the support staff, it is really not necessary.

Detection

If I explained our in-game tools, I would have to kill you. They do however exist and are the basis on which we make our decisions. Further improvements are being made to these tools at the moment.

Notifications

Policy changes will be notified to the community in advance, as was done with the recent Blog.