Bumping this again as we've just banned several players for varying lengths of time due to violations of this rule.
Let me clearly state in no uncertain terms:
1. No amount of sharing IC info is acceptable within our rules. If you are not cool with this, you are playing the wrong game. This is not a rule we bend on. People often think they are safe sharing little tid bits or slice of life things. You are not. This information can still be exploited and there is no grey area for the staff on this. We have no way of objectively knowing that someone OOCly telling X that Y happened or that your character thinks Z thing, was not used or abused information. And thus, ALL OOC communication about the IC world is objectively forbidden.
2. There is no statute of limitations on someone who shared IC info OOCly. If someone did it 5 years ago and we find out about it today they will be banned. If someone did it a month ago and we find out today, they will be banned.
3. We catch people doing this. We have tools that aide us. On top of that, people end up feeling bad and confessing, or they get caught and give up others, or they have an OOC or IC falling out and want to screw over the other person OOCly. If you are currently meta gaming, or sharing IC info, stop now. When you are caught, the fact that you haven't been doing it for a while will be considered when determining the length of your ban.
4. When we approach someone and ask why they have been meta gaming and if they want to admit it, it's because, for the most part, they have already been caught. Lying to a staff member, when directly asked about meta gaming makes your ban worse. Why? Because I don't like people lying to my face in the game I spend my free time helping run, and I don't like when people do it to my staff. And we don't like having to waste our time putting together a bunch of logs and screenshots and crap and writing a bunch of documentation and notes about it, instead of running the game. Come clean when you are caught-- because we will do all the investigating and we will be in a much less forgiving mood for having to do it.
5. Coming forward voluntarily results in the shortest ban, with ban length depending on the severity of the infraction and if this is your first offense. If you have been meta gaming, you can email [email protected] and explain the situation, why you are coming forward, and include logs, and screenshots so that we can remove the other people cheating as well. As I've said, this will result in a more lenient ban and the ability for you to keep your character upon your return.
It is a slippery slope to talk to each other OOCly on chat applications. We can't stop you. It isn't explicitly forbidden. We encourage you not to so that you don't fall down a hole you can't crawl out of, intentionally or unintentionally harm other players by sharing info, shape the IC world through OOC means, etc. You will lose access to the game if you break this rule.
The game doesn't work and isn't fun if you don't play it the way it's intended to be played. The entire thing is predicated on you not sharing info OOCly.
Share info ICly. Play the game as it is intended.
