About account policies and expirations.

[HR-Trevor]

I thought I'd take a moment to clarify some of our policies and terms, since there may be some confusion floating around.

From time to time we are forced to expire or lock out an account. Expiration usually occurs when we realize someone has multiple free/trial accounts which is not permitted. When this happens, the accounts in question are expired but not locked out.

This means the person who owns those accounts has the option of continuing play if they start a subscription. We are not removing this person from the game, we are simply removing their privelege to request a free account. If they send a request for a free account, it will be denied.

Sometimes when a player is disruptive or causing potential or real problems for the game (behavior, threats, etc.) we may opt to expire their free account. When this happens, like above, this person can continue play if they sign up for a standard account. In this case, the expiration is much like a warning or a caution that says, "You're crossing the lines of policy and we don't want to ban you, but we think you've gone far enough we don't feel you should play free any longer either."

Now beyond those cases, a player can cause so many problems or violate so many policies that they can in fact be banned completely and don't have the option of playing even if they pay. This is a condition I take seriously and I do not ban accounts unless it seems to be in the game's best interest to do so.

Generally if an account is banned it is because of one of the following criteria have been met:
* The account holder has been given repeated warnings and cautions and continues to violate our policies.
* The account holder has made criminal or legal threats against Haelrahv or its staff.

I can't stress point two enough. If you make a personal threat against staff, a threat to harm the HR/RPGN servers, or a threat of some sort of legal action for some perceived wrong, you will be banned immediately without question.

The last point I want to address is the never-ending rumor mill. Any time an account is expired or banned, the facts of that expiration or banning are subject to the account holder feeling attacked or mistreated and telling every player they know that Trevor unfairly banned them when they did nothing wrong.

The facts are that these bannings and expirations occur for a reason and these reasons are typically not fully divulged or are denied by the persons seeking sympathy. Often such persons even misrepresent themselves banned/locked out when in fact they were simply expired as free account holders and could still be playing.

Overall, we have a great community and wonderful, loyal players. I mainly decided to make this post because I understand how it feels when you think a friend you hang out with daily was somehow wronged and they're not allowed to play the game any more. I want to re-assure all of our players than banning and expiring accounts are measure we do not like to employ and only do so when it's necessary.

Finally, I'd like to say that my mailbox is always open to discuss these issues if anyone feels they or a friend have been unfairly banned or expired.
_________________
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy