GAMES CHARTER! READ ME FIRST! v4.4 (New Rules on Regional Bypassing - Dec 17th 2014)

Welcome to the boards.ie Games forum. This is one of Irelands oldest and finest gaming related forums run by gamers for gamers. The primary focus of this forum is for the discussion of computer and video games on any platform, be it a console, handheld, PC, or even a Mac.

Retr0gamer and Johnny_Ultimate moderate this forum at the moment.
FutureGuy, Myrrdin and Sierra Oscar are the Category Moderators.

This means we keep the peace and sort out anything that disrupts the normally laidback friendly discussion of gaming.

Here's some guidelines:

0. Ignoring this charter.
This charter is stickied, has an icon and the text is in caps. Anybody we think hasn't read the charter or chooses to ignore it will result whatever action we feel necessary at the time. This includes wedgies. We are sick of telling people to read this charter.

1. Posting about Warez.
This means that if you post anything on how to obtain, copy, hax0r, backup, get a serial number for or otherwise copy or circumvent copy protection. We don't care if you want to back up your perfectly legal copy of The Sims. Copying protected cd's is off-topic anyway. There is a zero tolerance for this. If you break this rule, you will be permanently banned and your post will be edited and/or deleted.

The reason we are so strict on this is that if Games was a place were such things were discussed then boards.ie could be shut down by the Garda for hosting warez monkeys.

Admitting to downloading a pirated game / filling your flash card with ROMs is now zero tolerance, and an infractable offense. By admitting to pirate, you're theoretically providing evidence for a highly unlikely but possible prosecution.

Anyone selling ROMs gets a permanent ban.

However, discussion of mod-chips is acceptable because modifying hardware you own is still legal. The day that it becomes illegal to connect a chip to some hardware I own is the day I start smashing consoles outside Garda stations shouting "HOWDYA LIKE THESE MODIFICATIONS!?!"

We are well aware that one function of some mod chips is to make copying games easier. Talking about that is no different to any other warez discussion and will be pounced upon with severity.

While discussions of mod-chips are acceptable, they are more suitable to the Console Modding forum, and threads may be moved there.

If a game is officially abandonware (ie. the game publishers have given their permission for it to be copied) then that's ok. See the Free Games thread for abandonware links and other free games.

2. Flamewars.
This is not an arena for you to prove how brilliant you are at calling people names. Keep that witty tongue to yourself. And if somebody else starts slagging you off, ignore him/her or we'll ban you too. Of course, if it's really, really funny and the guy/gal was being obviously moronic then maybe, just maybe we might ignore it. Risky though...

3. Stay on topic.
Now this rule is flexible. As long as everybody’s happy bunnies and the topic naturally drifts off to some other interesting thing, we don't care. However if a mod posts a warning which includes the phrase "back on topic" that means you talk about the topic in hand and not what a moron that other poster is.

4. Newbie bashing.
Picking on newbies is the act of a coward. You were a newbie once. Remember that. Newbies will be given time to get use to the uniqueness that is Games. This does not give newbies free reign to go round being dicks. For god sake read the forum for at least a couple of days before professing that the Atari Jaguar was a piece of crap and what's all the fuss about it.

4a. Dissing the Jag
Do not diss the Jag.

5. Spoiler Tags.
Sometimes you'll want to ask for help on a particular level of a game. But other users maybe even worse than you at the game and not want to have the surprise ruined. Boards comes complete with spoiler tags which hide the text unless you highlight it (left click, drag). For example if I want to hide the text "There is no ending for Pacman on the Atari 2600, it just resets the score to zero", I'd type [spoiler]There is no ending for Pacman on the Atari 2600, it just resets the score to zero[/spoiler]. This would then post as .

For a further list of vBulletin codes check out Newbie FAQ which is a mine of information about this sort of thing.

6 Reporting threads
If you there's something on this forum that really needs a moderator to look at it then use the Report this Post feature. When you do an e-mail is sent to the moderators and we will have a look at it and take action if necessary. You won't be named at any stage.

Do not abuse this feature. This will cause us annoyance. Annoyance leads to hurtful feelings. Hurtful feelings leads to bannings.

7 Thread title should relate to contents
When creating a new thread please use a suitable title. Please do not just give your reaction (“wow”, “this is gone too far” etc), or post demands such as “look at this”.

8 Posting articles from other websites
Do NOT post full articles. Only post a paragraph or two of an article, then you must name the publication (Eurogamer, GameSpot, IGN etc), and link to the full article (or a full URL with the site name is fine, like so - http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=60660 ). Users repeatedly breaking this rule may be banned.

9 (NEW) Conflicts of interest rule
Direct or indirect employs and/or members of companies and/or groups should state they are such if talking about said companies and/or groups.

It should be made clear that such persons are employs and/or members of said companies and/or groups in the first post by such persons in every thread that said companies and/or groups are a topic, or sub-topic off. This is irrespective of whether such persons have made such information known in the past, or not. This is a compulsory rule; repeat offenders after a warning may be banned.

10 Selling stuff in the forum is not allowed.
Please use www.adverts.ie.

11 Dispute Resolution Procedure.
There is a new dispute resolution procedure in place. If you feel you that have been banned unfairly, please follow the complaints procedure as outlined in this forum.

12 Bypassing Swearing Filter
Bypassing the swearing filter is now an escalating offense (Yellow Card -> Red Card -> Ban for repeated offenses)

13 Absolutely no discussion on how to evade restrictions on geographically locked content. This includes posts that describe the use of Proxies, VPNs and browser add-ons, along with questions like "How do I watch the US Netflix on my console?"
Absolutely no discussion on “Game Sharing” or “Account Sharing”.
Absolutely no discussion on purchasing products that require the use of a false address. This includes buying from different regions' digital marketplaces (e.g. Steam, PSN, Xbox Live) or anywhere that requires a fake address.

Looking elsewhere

Boards.ie has other Games related forums. These are listed under the Games Menu. The more popular Games have their own forums, there are also console brand forums (PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo).


Also under Hosted:
Dawn of War
Operation Flashpoint
Soldat

Have questions about your internet connection? Sure, most of the time you'll get answers on things like pings and stuff in Games but you may also want to look at the Broadband forum or the Ireland Offline forum for more detailed information.

If you want to talk about a game that isn't listed there then post to Games about it. You'll almost certainly get a reply about it. Generally, new forums are not created for individual games anymore unless they are already massively popular or Games is over-run with discussion of them. I usually don't support new games forums if I don't think they'll last but I have no veto over their creation.

Do not post to Games asking for a new forum to be created. Do this in Forums.

My thanks to Shinji, the original moderator of this forum and general fountain of gaming knowledge. You can read his words of gaming words of wisdom at: http://www.eurogamer.net/, and here http://www.gamesindustry.biz/

So that's it. Enjoy your time here. Remember, it's all about the games \:eek:/




v4.4 17-12-14 Added new regional bypass rules
V4.3 11-07-12 Bypassing the swear filter is now an escalating offense. See point 12 above.
V4.2 14-09-10 Dispute Resolution Procedure Info Added.
V4.1 03-10-09 Piracy rule changed (now zero tolerance)
V4.0 25-02-06 some new rules, new image thanks to KdjaC
V3.06 04-01-06 Added Hosted forum links.
V3.0.5 29-03-04 Changed Tweaking/Modding to the Console Modding forum as I just noticed it's existence.
V3.0.4 22-12-04 Meglome is not a mod now, right? / added link to Tweaking / Modding board
v3.0.3 25-11-04. Added url for the excellent gamesindustry.biz
v3.0.2 23-10-04. Clarified section about modchips. Cheers Cult
v3.0.1 28-09-04. Gave the whole thing a little jazz. Got rid of terrible "joke" in place of some vague down-with-ma-niggaz like phrase. Word \m/
V2.5.0 22-09-04. Added 0. Changed title. Added eek.
V2.4.0 14-08-04. Expanded Warez section. Battoned mainbrace. Fixed date below to not be 4 years in future. :eek:
v2.3.0 04-08-04. Moved this thing down the bottom and made the first bit bold.
v2.2.0 01-07-04. Added links to Broadband and Ireland Offline forums.
v2.1.3 26-06-04. Changed Feedback/Suggestions to Forums and url'd it.
v2.1.2 11-03-04. Added abandonware exception to 1.
v2.1.1 16-02-04. Tweaked 1.
v2.1. 06-02-04. Added 5 and 6 and tidied up some other minor things.
v1.0 (original charter)


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