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War of Wizards - Copyright WoW Games 1996-2005
W AR O F W IZARDS Costs, Terms and Conditions

The commercial version of War of Wizards 2.0 aims to be a low cost, highly enjoyable game. As poor students ourselves, we have hated not being able to play many of the games out there due to a tight budget. A low per turn rate combined with a system which allows enthusiastic and creative players to earn game credits, should make playing the commercial version of WoW 2.0 an option for everyone.

The other drawback many people find with commercial PBeM games is the difficulty in transferring funds to a foreign country. WoW Games has set up many option so payment can be securely made with or without a credit card and in almost any currency.

To participate in a WoW commercial game, the following fees apply;

Turn costs are still deducted if no orders are issued as default production, taxing and feeding still take place.

For ease of payment and to decrease associated costs, we request payment in half yearly (generally 25 turn) blocks, which translates to $50 Australian for our standard games. Full refunds of account balances will be given on request in the event of a player officially withdrawing from playing War of Wizards 2.0. However credits given by us may only be redeemed in game turns and will not be refunded. (See the only exception to this below.)

In summary, an initial $A10 (approx US $6) Start-up plus $A40 (approx US$28) to cover the first 20 weeks is payable. So for an initial $A50 (approx US$35) you will be able to play WoW 2.0 for the next 6 months +.

Credits will be given with the initial start-up and for each news submission (up to 25% of that turn fee, calculated by a provided formula). Although we hope there shall be none, rewards in game credits may be issued for finding bugs and errors in the game. This shall be at the sole discretion of the GM.

Turn costs will be deducted from the account balance until a player has paid for the first 5 turns. After that initial 5 turns, credits will always be used before the account balance is altered. Credits may only be used to pay for a turn if the amount of credits is greater than the turn cost, and may not be used to pay part turn costs in combination with the account balance remaining, ie. you may not use $0.43 credits and $1.57 from the account balance. Either $A2.00 from credits available or from account balance must be used.

There is also a grace period for your accounts. The system will continue to process your orders until your balance reaches $A-6.00. When your balance goes below $A4.00 the system will send you a message to tell you your balance is getting low.

At the top of a players turn report the following account details will appear, similar to the example below.

ACCOUNT INFORMATION.
********************
  Game 14 Account Summary.            AMOUNT   TURNS
    + Money Used On Turns            $A  6.00   (3)
    + Game Credits Used On Turns     $A  0.00   (0)
    + Global Credits Used On Turns   $A  0.00   (0)
    Total Used On Turns              $A  6.00   (3)

    + Credits Given                  $A 10.00   (5)
    - Credits Used On Turns          $A  0.00   (0)
    - Credits Retracted (News)       $A  0.00   (0)
    Game Credits Remaining           $A 10.00   (5)

  Overall Account Summary For : harry
    + Money Received                 $A 50.00
    - Money Used                     $A 16.00
    Money Remaining                  $A 34.00

    + Credits Given                  $A  0.00
    - Credits Used                   $A  0.00
    Global Credits Remaining         $A  0.00

  Notes: Remaining Money and Global Credits are being spread across 1
         game that you are currently playing. At the above game per
         turn price ($A2.00), you have 17 turns remaining, not including
         any game related credits that would give you extra turns.

This would mean that $50 Australian has been received of which $10 has been used on start-up, while another $6 has been used to pay for three turns, leaving an account balance of $34 with $10 of game credits. If an appropriate news submission was made, the next turn report could show the below in the game credits section:

    + Credits Given                  $A 10.50   (5)
    - Credits Used On Turns          $A  0.00   (0)
    - Credits Retracted (News)       $A  0.00   (0)
    Game Credits Remaining           $A 10.50   (5)

Upon receiving payment for a commercial game, WoW Games will endeavour to offer a player a position as soon as possible. As we can not start games with out first filling them, there may be a delay between accepting an offer and a players first turn report. Players are allowed to participate in multiple games (although we prefer a player to only play each map once). The player may start in a second game using the existing account and is not required to transfer any additional money as long as they have an account balance of at least $20. If not a player must increase their account balance to at least this level. Game credits may only be used in the game that they were acquired. However global credits can be used within any game.

* Refund Policy

* Player Drop Out Policy - Modified 6th September 1999

If a player drops out of a game, the WoW AI module will continue to play that players position for them (This module is still in development). All though not as good as a human player it will provide sufficient resistance, ensuring that lands of that player are not conquered too quickly. The WoW AI module only takes over once no orders have been sent in for three turns.
We will attempt to replace a commercial position if possible. Our policy on this is that the new player that takes over the position does not have to pay the startup cost and they get $A 10.00 of Game Credits to start with. After this the replacement has to start paying for the turns. Note that if the replacement occurs before turn 5 however the replacement player will have to pay with real money until turn 5 like all the other players.

* Customer Service Charter - Introduced 18th March 2002

INTRODUCTION:

The War of Wizards project has been developed and play tested for countless hours over the past few years. Every attempt has been made to ensure bugs in the program and the system have been eliminated. However, due to the size and complexity of the game, errors MAY inevitably still occur. It is the primary reason that this Customer Service Charter is placed in the terms and conditions.

JUSTIFICATION:

This Customer Service Charter seems extremely strict, however it became apparent that it was required if the majority of people were to be satisfied with our service as a Commercial PBeM service provider. For without them we only appeared to be pleasing the minority. The other reason for level of details provided in this charter was to make it clear what a player had a right to request of WoW Games and what they did not.

BUGS & TURN RERUNS:

The most likely causes for a rerun would be due to internal errors in the program that caused results that were not as designed or as intended. Note that design does not necessarily equate to the contents of the rules. Where the design was correct and the rules were not the rules will be updated. Where the system did not perform as designed or intended the identified bug will be corrected. The speed of correcting this bug will be determined by its severity and impact on game play. Were a bug has impacted game play servearly and it will obviously impact the final outcome of the game, WoW Games will correct the bug and re-run the turn. In this particular event all players will be issued with s game credits to the value of one turn as compensation for the inconvenience caused.

Where impact was limited, or the effect of the bug was localised, efforts will be made to manually correct the impacted player's situations. This will be at the discretion of WoW Games. If the player does not find the efforts (practicality restricts the manually corrections that can be made) satisfactory they have two course of action, they can make a Compensation request see below, or they can organise a complete re-run of the turn. Though this has to be organised by the player not by WoW Games. The player has to have agreement from all other current players before a rerun will take place. Current players include any wizards that were vanquished that turn. No turn rerun game credit is given to players in this situation.
Note: That a player can organise a rerun of a turn for game play reasons (i.e. One players orders were not submitted in time and the whole outcome of the game is changed completly as a result.), however the rerun is subject to the same conditions as above.

Any bug that is confirmed to exist by WoW Admin will result in a submission of the details to WDG, and a further submission will be made when it is corrected. Note that nothing is a bug until WoW Admin officially say it is a bug. Also note that if WoW Games neglects to mention a bug is fixed to WDG list this in itself does not constitute grounds for a Compensation request to be raised. If you plan to use a feature where there has been a known bug in existence, you should not assume it has not been fixed. Seek clarification from WoW Games. If a player is not part of the WDG list and as a result does not get details of bugs that are fixed this also does not constitute grounds for Compensation request to be raised if fixing the bug impacts them.

Bugs that have been in effect for a number of turns in a game and have not been found only warrant people to submit a Compensation requests for the impact the bug has on them for the turn in which the bug was actually found. Not also for all previous turns. Any bug finding rewards are only issued to the first person(s) that report the bug and not those that were necessarily affected by the bug.

Any player who finds what they think is a bug of any type is obliged to report this to the WoW Admin immediately and or WDG. Taking advantage of a bug is a breach of the WoW 2.0 conditions of play and will be dealt with accordingly.

PLAYER STRATEGIC MISTAKES:

Never assume anything, believe the rules. If they turn out to be wrong then tell WoW and we will decide if it is a bug, in which case the above applies conditions apply. Also remember if something is not explicitly documented, do not assume that something works in a specific way. Because something not being documented will not constitute a bug. If something is not clear before you use a feature please request further information from WoW Help or WoW Admin. Note that if any information provided by these sources turns out to be incorrect, this in itself will not constitute a right to submit a Compensation request to WoW Games. Unless it was documented in the rules there are no grounds for a request.

PLAYER ORDER MISTAKES:

Forgetting to include particular orders or making mistake in the order submitted to carry out a strategy (ie. Trade with a caravan for food to feed your empire.) are also the players mistake and are to be lived with, regardless of how simple or how large the impact. There are no grounds for requesting corrections or compensations.

PLAYER SYNTAX MISTAKES:

If a player makes a mistake in order syntax and even if the intent is still clear, there are still no grounds for requests for corrections or compensation as the syntax checker would have typically found the error and let the player know in advance that there was a problem. Even if there are syntax related problems that the checker did not pick up, it is the players responsibility to ensure that their orders are all correct.

MISSED ORDERS:

It is the players responsibility to get orders in on time. There is already a delay of at least one hour between the deadline and when the turns actually run to allow for change of daylight savings in Australia. It is up to players to take into account time deadline changes as a result of local timezone changes. Note that without an orders receipt always assume that your orders have not yet been received. The Internet does not guarantee the order of delivery for mail notes and hence orders. So if you send multiple versions of your orders close together, be careful to check the receipts to check that the most recently processed orders match your most recent submission. If this issue occurs there will be no grounds for corrections or compensation requests.

If orders are not processed and the reasons are for lack of money, didn't submit on time or Internet service provider / mailer problems on the players side, there will be no grounds for corrections or compensations requests.

If however there are proved to be Internet service provider problems on the WoW Games side or none of the other above errors occurred and the player has an orders receipt, WoW will depending on the number of affected players, rerun the complete turn, or where practical manually re-run parts of the submitted players orders. Where the player is not satisfied with the outcome, they can submit a compensation request, or organise with the other players in the game for a rerun of the turn to take place, though the player has to organise this and get all current players to agree. Current players include any players that were vanquished that turn. In such a case no game credit is issued as a result of the rerun.

DELAYGAME FEATURE:

The delay game feature is provided for players that are positive a bug has impacted their turn and they are waiting on a response from WoW Games before allowing the turn to continue. Please always try and submit bug reports as soon as possible.

It is also used for those players that are waiting for WoW Games update their commercial account balances.

Needing more time to submit and or write orders is not a valid reason for use of this feature, the exception to this is if the turn was run late and did not allow enough time to write subsequent orders. A game is late when there is less than five days for a weekly game to prepare orders, and when there is less than two days for twice weekly game. Even where this is the case the delay cannot exceed more than a day and half a day respectively.
Note: Where a turn is not run within four days of the next turn date for a weekly game and within one day for a twice weekly game, the next turn will be skipped and turns will next be run at the next scheduled time after that. A turn running late due to any action of WoW Games does not constitute grounds to submit a compensation request.

If a temporary reschedule of a turn run is required by a player, they can use the delaygame feature to prevent a turn from running. However before the delaygame is issued the player requesting the reschedule must have organised with all the other players the new date and time of the next turn run and all current players must be in agreement with the change in schedule. Without complete agreement a delaygame should not be issued.

COMPENSATION REQUESTS:

There are a number of compensation requests that a player is allowed to formally issue to WoW Games. These are to be sent WoW Admin and state explicitly which type of compensation request you are making and the exact reasons to justify the request. Any request should provide details of the game affected, the player name, player login name, player number, and turn affected.

A compensation request can only take place within one week of any decision being published that is the cause of the request, (in other words if you continue to play for further turn(s) your right to the a compensation request will be void.). Granting of any request will still be at the discretion of WoW Games. Though your right to exercise the Player Drop out policy still remains available to you.

RESPONSE TIMES: WoW Games will endeavour to respond (not necessarily correct) to all bug submissions within 48 hours. Please ensure that the following details are in the submission, game number, player name, player login, player number, relevant turn number, details, and where appropriate extracts of the report, along with the details of the bug.
All other email we will endeavour to respond to within a week.

DISCLAIMER:
WoW Games reserve the right to adjust players resources, modify a players position in anyway, offer game or global credits or in a worst case scenario re-run a turn, without warning. Any number of reasons could cause these decisions to take place. The decision to carry out any of these actions is at the discretion of the WoW Games Administrators. Notification of such decisions will be sent to all concerned within a timely fashion.

* Methods Of Gaining Credits - Modified Winning Reward Formula 5th January 2003

  • Spelling (per unique word) $A0.50 (Global Credit)
  • Bug $A1.00 (Global Credit)
  • Helping WoW $A?.?? (Subject to WoW Admin). (Global Credit)
  • Winning Prize $A1.00 x No. of players starting in game + 20%. Split between remaining alive players. With the highest empire ranked player receiving most and the rest proportioned out decreasingly to the remaining alive players. Unless otherwise specified in rules for that particular world. (Global Credit)
  • News Reward Max = 25% of Per Turn Cost. (Game Credit)
  • New Moderation Reward = 25% Per Turn Cost of game moderating. (Global Credit)
  • Max 2650 Gold Resource for Blurbs. (Game Resource Reward)
  • Player Web Page = $A2.00 (Game Credit)
  • Re-run compensation = Per Turn Cost (Game Credit)
  • * Global Credits to Money Policy - Added 2nd August 1999.

    * Playing WoW 2.0

    To commence playing in a commercial WoW 2.0 game, a player MUST agree to abide by all the above. We expect the games to run smoothly but in the event of the above or any other situations, we reserve the right to take whatever action we see fit, to restore order to games. Any time these terms and conditions change you will be notified. If at that time you no longer wish to agree to abide by all of the above we can arrange for your membership to be terminated.

    If as a commercial player you have any questions about any of these terms and conditions, please do not hesitate to contact WoW Games Administration.



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