Our Charter
Respect (Section R)
- We're not talkin' 'bout respec' init. No, we're just asking that you don't treat others in a negative or demeaning way. If you have a problem with someone, contact an officer or admin, or indeed one of the few moderators. These people are: TSM (aka Stew), Logaan (aka Alex/Log) and RavenIII (aka Matt/Tower). If its game specific, try to contact one of the officers in your game; we have quite an odd structure (more on this later).
Public Image (Section P)
- Avoid public flame wars, 'debates' are fine - flame wars are another thing generally speaking. Likewise avoid personal arguments in public places.
- We get a lot of members from aiding complete strangers, this is generally on a meet-them-by-luck basis and beg them to enter. So were possible, try and help newbs or strangers in-game.
The Usual (Section U)
- Swearing is permitted, but avoid going overboard - rampant swearing isn't really funny; and we do have some young members.
- Ask for help or a match/session, but please oh please don't spam chat or pester. Likewise, if someone asks
it'd be considered more polite to decline rather than leave them in the dark.
- This must be distinguished from someone trying to rally the troops, but - when you're asking someone specifically, do so… don't just spam generally hoping that person who came online gets the hint.
- Guild/clan hopping in-games is generally frowned upon. This is where an alliance generally containing or being led by EGC has numerous clans or guilds whereby members wish to move from one to another for some perceived convenience. Past experience suggests this just upsets the leadership of one or another of the communities; and generally isn't worth it.
- The only exception to this rule tends to be with planned (or discussed at the very least) merges, and in most of these situations EGC will opt to keep its status, absorbing existing communities. This is likely to be most often seen in MMOs when player bases start shrinking.
VoIP Usage (Section V)
- Finally we have a Teamspeak (3) server, usage is generally reserved for community members with permission asked for acquaintances.
- We may move users to different channels if our main channel is getting crowded (generally dependent on the game being played) furthermore we have an etiquette which we'd like users to follow as close as possible.
I don't want this to be rules, rules, rules; I want to throw some extra info down for anyone interested in joining. Basically EGC came about originally as a guild (from Guild Wars) called Universe In Exile [UiE]. Its origins are an interesting story which can be read about in the members' club area of the forum. Anyway, EGC today was formed under the new name and tag because we no longer play just one game - though arguably there are times when we can be a little… narrow in our field of view; the thing is, we try to cater to a broad range of tastes. We have Role-playing-game players (naturally), Soldier-shooter-types, Strategists, Adventurers and whatnot.
Not only that but we have a broad age range, generally no one younger than their teens (our normal restriction is 18, but maturity of the individual or family inclusion makes this rule lax) - to some pretty ancient beings full of wisdom, wit and heady knowledge; and with that, a broad range of budgets… from student, to… not-student. Hence its impossible to buy every game under the sun, especially the new ones. This all boils down to a few things…
- Our Guild Wars community, while not as large as it used to be, is still active; and its still labelled UiE for anyone wanting to be in-the-know.
- We have a number of “splinter colonies” in varying games, some laying dormant, some active.
- Then we have a “central admin” which is the team on the forum and to a degree the regular TS users.
- This means splinter-groups may not have leaders who are central admin, and indeed a situation may arise whereby we have “unofficial”* communities.
- Simply put, if they are an community officer on this forum and a leader or officer in your game community of choice - then its likely an “official”* community.
* Unofficial in the sense that we either wouldn't trust the individual leading the community, hence we may or may not have little control over its day-to-day running. Official in the sense that we know about it and there is someone we trust in control.
As a further note, 'Exilers' doesn't automatically imply that the community is even remotely linked to us - it is a rather general word; and against its definition, we aren't exactly a pack of lone-wolves either. So give us a chance, visit the forums and chat with us, join us on TS (details in the Members Club if we like you!), have some fun in games with us.
But heavens forbid you want to eat cookies. Biscuits are fine, just don't leave them in your cuppa-tea for too long.
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To finish with the boring rules:
- We don't appreciate piracy of any sort, you either support your favourite developer for doing something you love using or playing. Alternatively you don't support your least favourite developer and you don't give them an even better reason to consider using DRM (by pirating their rubbish games).
- Likewise cracking of the games isn't talked about, or indeed linking to cracks or warez; especially linking.
- Note, this does not exclude debate on the matter - so long as you remain in the grey area of agreeing/disagreeing with actions, rather than saying if you do or do not.
- Racism, sexism, even unfaltering patriotism - these are generally frowned upon; this is not to say you shouldn't expect the odd amount of fun being poked in your direction for your nations generalisations (we Brits love tea and biscuits, our American friends love coffee and donuts, our Finnish-folk are frozen… this kind of thing generally ok).
- No pornography or terribly rude things, though when things are pushed too far we'll probably just clean it out.