Terms of Service

About these terms

Rites of Accord is made by CodeSeed Studios, the trading name of Bryce Merrill, based in Washington State, USA ("we", "us"). These terms are the agreement between you and us for ritesofaccord.com, the game (in a browser, installed from the site, or on Steam), and everything else we offer under the name Rites of Accord.

By making an account or playing, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the game. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data.

Who can play

• You must be 13 or older to make an account.
• If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you.
• Update emails are for 16 and over.
• Season prizes are for 18 and over.
• You may not use the game where the law forbids it, or after we have closed your account for breaking these terms.

Your account

Your account works on the website and in the Steam version. A Steam account, once linked to a Rites of Accord account, stays with that account, and two accounts can never be merged. So to keep one account everywhere:

• If you started in the browser: the first time you open the Steam version, choose "I Have an Account" and sign in. Steam is then linked to your account.
• If you started on Steam: add an email and password on the Account screen, then sign in on the website with them. Do not make a second account on the website: it cannot be linked to your Steam account later.

Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Do not share, sell or hand over an account, and do not use more than one account to get around these terms or to affect ranked play. If you think someone else has used your account, tell us at bryce@ritesofaccord.com.

Fair play and conduct

Do not:

• cheat, or use bugs or exploits to gain an advantage. Report them to us instead.
• use bots, scripts or other automation to play matches or climb a ladder.
• manipulate ranked play: losing on purpose, trading wins, arranging results, playing against your own other accounts, or letting someone else play on yours.
• harass, threaten or abuse other players, including with emotes, pings, usernames or force names.
• choose a username or force name that is hateful, sexual, threatening or otherwise offensive, or that pretends to be another person, us or a brand.
• pretend to be anyone else, including us.
• scrape or copy the site or the game in bulk, other than through the public data and links we provide for that.
• attack, overload or try to break into our servers, or reverse-engineer the game except where the law allows it.
• break the law through the game, or help someone else break these rules.

We may rename a username or force name that breaks these rules, and act as described in Suspension and closing accounts.

What you create

Your username, force names and the forces you build and share are yours. You give us a free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to store, copy, show and share them as needed to run and promote the game: in the game, on the leaderboard and in match history, in replays, in shared force links, on our website, and in our posts and videos (a season's winners, for example). For things already public when you delete your account, such as past match records, shared links and published videos, the licence continues.

Only put in the game what you have the right to use. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely, without owing you anything.

Our game and your licence

The game and everything in it (art, music, writing, units, rules, code and the rest) belongs to us or to those who license it to us. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to play it for your own non-commercial use, under these terms. The licence ends if your account is closed or you stop agreeing to these terms.

You may stream the game and publish videos and screenshots of it, including for money, as the streaming permission in our press kit says.

Beta and changes to the game

The game is in beta. Things can break, and we change the game as it grows: balance, units, factions, rules, maps, modes, seasons, ratings, prices and features, during the beta and after it. We may correct or reset ratings, standings or progress to fix mistakes or keep play fair, for example by undoing the rating change of a match that broke the rules.

We may stop offering a part of the game, or the game itself. If we end the game entirely, we will give reasonable notice where we can.

Purchases and refunds

• What you buy. A purchase gives your account a licence to use that content in the game, for as long as the game runs and your account stays open. It is not ownership. It has no cash value and cannot be sold, transferred or exchanged. Bought content may change with the game, as described above.
• On the website, Stripe takes the payment and the price is shown in US dollars at checkout. Purchases are final, except where the law requires a refund.
• In the EU and the UK, you may withdraw from a purchase of digital content within 14 days, unless you agreed at checkout that the content is supplied right away and that you lose this right once it is. If you did not give that agreement, the right stands: write to bryce@ritesofaccord.com within the 14 days.
• On Steam, purchases follow the Steam Subscriber Agreement and Steam's refund policy, and Valve handles refunds.
• If something you paid for did not arrive on your account, tell us and we will put it right.

Unlocking by play and promo codes

Some factions can also be unlocked by playing ranked games; the game shows what each one needs. We may change or end this way of unlocking, but a faction you have already earned stays unlocked.

Promo codes unlock what they say, once per account. A code may have an expiry date or a limited number of uses, has no cash value, and may not be sold or traded. We may cancel a code that was obtained or used against these terms, and what it unlocked.

Ranked seasons and prizes

• No purchase is needed to play ranked or to win a prize.
• Each season has its own dates and its own requirements for prizes: a number of ranked games against a number of different opponents. The leaderboard shows your progress.
• To receive a prize you must be 18 or older, meet the season's requirements, follow these terms, and be someone the law and our payment provider let us pay. We may ask you to confirm your age and identity.
• Prizes are paid through PayPal, to the email address of your PayPal account. You are responsible for any tax on a prize.
• We decide standings, eligibility and rule breaks, and our decision is final. We may withhold a prize, change standings or remove ratings for cheating, ranked manipulation or any other breach of these terms.
• We may name winners, with their results and forces, in the game, on this site and in our posts and videos.
• We may change or cancel future seasons and prizes. Prizes are void where the law forbids them.

Suspension and closing accounts

If you break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect players or the game, we may warn you, rename your username or a force, reset your ratings, remove you from a season, or suspend or close your account. Where it is reasonable, we will tell you why, and you can reply to bryce@ritesofaccord.com. If we close your account for a serious breach, you lose what it unlocked, unless the law says otherwise.

You can stop playing at any time.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account on the Account screen. Deleting removes everything the account unlocked or bought, cannot be undone, and does not by itself give a refund. What is removed and what stays is set out in the Privacy Policy.

Other services

Some parts of the game rely on other companies, under their own terms: Steam (Valve), Stripe for payments, PayPal for prize payouts, and YouTube for our videos. Our community server is on Discord, under Discord's terms and the server's own rules. Linking ListForge is optional, is governed by ListForge's own terms, and can be ended on the Account screen at any time. We are not responsible for services we do not run.

Disclaimers

We work hard on the game, but it is provided "as is" and "as available". As far as the law allows, we do not promise that it will always be available, free of errors, or that ratings, saves or other progress will never be lost.

Nothing in these terms takes away the rights you have as a consumer under the law of where you live when those rights cannot be waived by agreement.

Limits on our liability

As far as the law allows:

• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, data or goodwill;
• our total liability to you for all claims is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and 50 US dollars.

This does not limit liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited. If you are a consumer in the EU or the UK, we are responsible for loss you suffer that was a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill.

Your responsibility

If you break these terms or the law and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of that claim, as far as the law allows.

Law and disputes

The law of Washington State, USA, governs these terms, without regard to its rules on conflicts of law. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts located in Washington State, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction.

If you are a consumer, you keep the protections of the law where you live that cannot be waived by agreement, and you may also be able to bring a claim in your own country's courts. Players in the EU, the UK and California keep those rights.

Please write to us first at bryce@ritesofaccord.com. Most problems can be settled that way.

Changes to these terms

When we change these terms, we post the new version here with a new date. If a change matters, we will also tell you in the game or by email before it applies. If you keep playing after the date, you accept the new terms. If you do not accept them, stop playing; you can delete your account.

General

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the game. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term at once, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer these terms to anyone else. We may transfer them to someone who takes over the game, and we will tell you if that happens.

Contact

CodeSeed Studios (Bryce Merrill), Washington State, USA.
bryce@ritesofaccord.com