Terms of Service

About these terms#

Emergence Online ("Emergence", "EO", "the game") is an online life-simulation world operated by Gigaion, LLC ("we", "us", "our"). These Terms of Service ("terms") cover your use of the game, the EO Launcher and installer, this website and everything on it (including the Showroom, the Chronicle and Gavelry), and any other service of ours that links to these terms (together, "the service").

By creating an account, or by using the service without one, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the service. Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your information; it is part of the deal too.

Some features may come with extra rules that we show to you when you use them (for example the rules of a particular event). If those rules and these terms disagree, the extra rules win for that feature.

Age and children#

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or play.
• If you are under 18, you need permission from a parent or legal guardian, and they should read these terms with you. They agree to these terms for you and are responsible for how you use the service.
• If the law where you live sets a higher age for agreeing to these terms or to the use of your data without a parent's consent, that age applies to you instead.

Children

Children under 13 are not allowed to have an account or to play, even with a parent's permission. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will close it and delete its data. If you think a child under 13 is playing, contact us through the Support page.

You may not use the service if we have banned you before, or if the law forbids you from using it.

Your account#

• One account per person. An account is for one human being. Don't share it, sell it, give it away, or let someone else play on it. Don't create extra accounts to get around limits, sanctions or rewards.
• Accurate details. Use an e-mail address that you control and can receive mail at. We use it to verify the account, to reset your password and to send security and moderation notices.
• Usernames and display names are visible to other players. They must follow the code of conduct. Your account keeps a permanent internal ID, so a name can be changed later (some name changes are unlocks you pay for with EO Credits).
• Characters belong to your account. You can have as many as your account's character slots allow.
• You are responsible for your account and for what happens on it, unless it was used without your permission and you weren't careless.

Keeping your account secure#

We give you several ways to protect your account, and some actions require them:

• Passwords must be long. Use one you don't use anywhere else.
• Passkeys let you sign in with your device's screen lock or a security key instead of a password. They can't be phished, so we recommend them.
• A second factor: an authenticator app (time-based codes) or one-time codes sent by e-mail. When you turn one on you get recovery codes. Store them somewhere safe: each works once, and they are the way back in if you lose your device.
• Strong confirmation for sensitive actions. Trading with other players, gifts, auction bids or purchases above a set limit, name changes, changing your e-mail or sign-in methods, linking or unlinking a Steam or Epic account, and merging accounts all need a recent confirmation with a passkey or second factor. Without one, these actions stay locked.
• Signed-in devices. Your account's security page lists where you are signed in. You can sign out a device there at any time.

Emergence staff will never ask for your password, sign-in codes, recovery codes or a launcher device code. If you think someone else has got into your account, change your password, sign out your other devices, and contact us through the Support page.

Steam, Epic and merging accounts#

If you play through Steam or the Epic Games Store, the game can sign you in with that store account. You can start with an instant account (no e-mail, a temporary "traveler" username), or link the store account to an existing Emergence account. To use this website and any action that needs strong confirmation, an instant account must add an e-mail address and a passkey or second factor.

When you link a store account we receive a confirmation from that store that you control it. We never see your Steam or Epic password. Your use of Steam or Epic is also governed by their own terms.

Merging accounts. You can merge another account you control (for example a Steam instant account) into your main account. You prove you control both, review what will move, and confirm. Then:

• everything moves to the main account: characters (with their homes, households and items), credits, Showroom items, Chronicle progress and sign-in methods, and the other account stops working;
• you can't undo a merge yourself. Only our support team can reverse one, and only for a good reason;
• trading, gifts, auctions and transfers are locked on the main account for a short period (playing is not affected);
• a merge isn't possible while either account has an active sanction, open trades, escrow, listings, bids or unfinished orders, or if either account was part of a recent merge.

Closing your account#

You can stop using the service at any time. To have your account closed and your personal data deleted, contact us through the Support page. We may ask you to confirm the request from the e-mail address on the account or by signing in. A self-service option on the website is planned.

When an account is closed, you lose access to it and to everything attached to it: characters, homes, items, in-game money and credits, and it can't be undone. Some records are kept after closure for legal, accounting, fraud-prevention and dispute reasons, and so we can act on cheating and rule-breaking (see How long we keep it in the Privacy Policy).

We may also suspend or close accounts as described in Moderation and enforcement.

Code of conduct#

Emergence is a shared world built for role-play. Conflict between characters is part of a good story. Real harm to real people is not. When you play, chat, name things or trade, don't:

• harass, bully, threaten or stalk anyone, in character or out of it, or keep contacting someone who has blocked you;
• post hate speech or attack people for who they are (for example race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation or age);
• share sexual content involving minors in any form, or sexual content aimed at people who haven't agreed to it;
• share anyone's real-world personal information (names, addresses, photos, contact details) without their permission, or use the game's map to find or point at a real person's home;
• impersonate staff, other players or real people, or claim to speak for us;
• scam, phish or defraud anyone, inside or outside the game, or ask for passwords or sign-in codes;
• spam, advertise, or link to cheats, account sellers or harmful sites;
• buy, sell or trade accounts, in-game money, credits or items for real money or anything outside the game;
• break the law, or encourage someone else to.

Use the in-game tools when someone bothers you: you can block, mute and report. Reports go to our moderators.

Fair play#

These promises shape the game, and the rules that go with them apply to everyone:

• No pay-to-win. Wealth, skills, careers and property are earned by playing. If we ever sell anything for real money, it will be style, capacity or services, never in-game money, skill, stats or promotions.
• AI and away characters are always marked. When you log out, your character can carry on under the game's own away mode, and some characters are run by AI. These characters always carry a visible marker (an "Away" or "AI" badge, and a different look), so nobody mistakes them for a live person. Don't try to hide, fake or get around these markers, and don't present an automated character as a human.
• Chronicle Marks come only from your own play. Marks, the progress points of the Chronicle, are earned by activities you actually do yourself. Activities done in away mode, by an AI or by somebody else playing for you don't count, and trying to make them count breaks these rules.
• Away mode is the only allowed automation. It is deliberately weaker than playing yourself.

Cheating, exploits and bots#

The game servers decide what happens in the world. To keep it fair, you must not:

• use cheats, trainers, memory editors, modified game files or clients, or anything that reads or changes the game's data or network traffic;
• use bots, macros, scripts or AI programs to play for you through the game client, or to farm money, items, Marks or skills;
• abuse bugs or exploits, including duplicating items or money, or tell others how to. If you find one, report it (see Bug reports) and don't use it;
• attack, overload, probe or disrupt our servers or other players' connections, or try to get into accounts or systems that aren't yours;
• get around rate limits, bans, trade locks or other protections.

We look for automated play using a mix of signals, and a staff member reviews a case before acting on it. Accessibility tools are welcome: screen readers and other assistive technology are allowed, and you can tell our support team that you use them.

If we find cheating or exploit abuse, we can remove what was gained (money, items, progress), reverse the trades involved, and sanction the accounts.

Virtual money and items#

The game has in-game money (dollars on your characters' bank accounts), EO Credits (earned by playing), items, homes, vehicles, Showroom looks, Chronicle rewards and other virtual things ("virtual items").

• They are not real money and not your property. We give you a limited, personal, revocable licence to use virtual items in the game. They have no value outside it, can't be exchanged for real money, and we don't buy them back.
• Some items can't be traded. Showroom purchases, Chronicle rewards, name-change unlocks and some event items are non-tradeable or bound to your account. EO Credits can never be traded or transferred.
• The economy can change. We may adjust prices, wages, fees, taxes, item stats or availability to keep the game balanced. We may also correct balances and items affected by bugs, exploits or fraud.
• Selling for real money is forbidden. Buying or selling accounts, in-game money, credits or items outside the game is not allowed, and we can remove anything involved.

Purchases and refunds#

There are no real-money purchases in Emergence Online today. Everything on this website and in the game is paid for with in-game money or EO Credits earned by playing.

We may add paid features later (for example cosmetic items, a premium currency called EO Coins, or membership). If we do, you'll see the price, any taxes and the payment method before you buy, and any extra terms for that feature.

Refunds

All purchases are final. We don't give refunds unless our support team approves one. To ask for a refund, contact us through the Support page and tell us why; we look at each request individually. This applies except where the law requires otherwise.

Trading and marketplaces#

You can trade with other players in several ways. All of them use in-game money and virtual items only.

Trading in person (the trade window)

Both players add items and money, both mark the trade as ready, and both confirm. The server then checks everything again and swaps it all at once, or nothing at all. If either side changes the offer, both confirmations are cleared. Read the window carefully before you confirm.

Gavelry (auctions and fixed-price listings)

• Sellers pay listing and final sale fees in in-game money. Buyers may pay shipping and sales tax. The fees are shown before you list or bid.
• A bid is a promise to buy. If you win an auction or take a fixed-price offer, you must pay.
• The buyer's payment is held in escrow by the game until the order is complete. Goods travel by in-game courier to the buyer's door.
• Problems with an order can be taken to the dispute service. Buyers and sellers rate each other, and the ratings are public.

The Event Market

The Event Market is a place in the game you travel to through a Waygate. Its stalls are run by computer-controlled vendors with limited, rotating stock, and some stalls can be rented by players. Opening hours, stock and prices can change.

Rules for every marketplace

• Describe what you sell honestly. Don't manipulate prices, bid on your own listings, or trade between your own accounts to move value around.
• New accounts, recently merged accounts and some items have trade limits or locks.
• Every trade, bid and order is recorded. Moderators can cancel listings, hold orders and reverse fraudulent trades (items and money) and anything that came from them.
• We run these marketplaces as part of the game. We don't guarantee what any item is worth, and we're not responsible for deals between players beyond the protections described here.

Chat, names and other content#

"Your content" means what you create or send in the service: chat and phone messages, usernames, display names, character names and looks, listing notes, reports, bug reports and anything else you write or upload.

• You keep your rights in your content. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, show, transmit and moderate it for running, protecting and improving the service, for as long as we need to for those purposes.
• Other players see it. Names, profiles, listings and chat are shown to other players. Don't post anything you want to keep private.
• We can moderate it. Chat and names pass through automatic filters. Chat is logged and moderators can read logs and reported messages. We can hide, remove or rename anything that breaks these terms.
• You are responsible for it. Only post what you have the right to post, and nothing that breaks the code of conduct or the law.

Moderation and enforcement#

If you break these terms, we can act on your account or characters. Depending on how serious it is and how often it has happened, we may:

• warn you, mute you, or remove you from a game session;
• rename something, remove content, or cancel listings and orders;
• reverse trades or remove money, items or progress that came from breaking the rules;
• suspend your account for a period, or ban it permanently and close it.

We may also act immediately, without a warning, when we need to protect players, the game or the law.

Staff actions are accountable. Every staff action is written to a tamper-evident audit log. Staff can't sanction themselves or anyone of the same or a higher staff role, and high-impact actions (such as reversing a chain of trades or a merge) need a second staff member's approval.

Appeals. When we suspend or ban an account, we e-mail the reason and the end date (if there is one) to the address on the account. To appeal, reply to that e-mail within 30 days with your username and why you think the decision is wrong. A staff member who didn't make the original decision will review it. See Support and appeals.

The launcher, the game and updates#

The EO Launcher, the installer and the game client ("the software") are licensed, not sold. As long as you follow these terms, we give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to install and use the software on your own devices to play Emergence Online.

You may not copy, sell, rent, redistribute or modify the software, remove its notices, or reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble it, except where the law gives you a right to that cannot be taken away. Parts of the software are open-source components (such as fonts and libraries) under their own licences, which still apply to those parts.

• Automatic updates. The launcher checks for updates to itself and the game and installs them automatically. Every update is signed and verified before it's used. The game servers may require the latest version, so you may not be able to play until an update has finished.
• Signing in. The launcher never asks for your password. It opens this website in your browser, or shows a short device code to approve on the website. The sign-in is stored in your operating system's credential store and you can sign out at any time.
• Uninstalling signs the launcher out and removes its data. Game folders are only removed if you choose that option.
• If you play through Steam or the Epic Games Store, that store installs and updates the game instead of the launcher.

Bug reports#

You can report a problem from inside the game with F8 (or the Report a bug option on the in-game phone). The report is saved on your computer and, when you are signed in, sent to us. It contains:

• a screenshot of the game view at the moment you pressed F8 (not of the rest of your screen);
• the summary and details you type;
• the game build, the map, your character's position and the in-game time, and your account and character IDs;
• the last couple of minutes of the game's log, which includes technical information about your computer (such as the operating system and graphics hardware), and the reference IDs of the game's recent calls to our services.

Don't put passwords or personal information in a report. There is a limit on how many reports you can send. By sending a report you let us use it to find and fix problems. The Privacy Policy says how long we keep reports.

Availability and test phases#

Emergence Online is under active development. Features, rules and content will change, sometimes a lot. We may add, change or remove features, take the service down for maintenance, or stop offering it.

During test phases (such as playtests and betas), we may reset characters, items, money or progress, and some features may be unfinished or unstable. We'll say when a phase is a test.

If we decide to shut down the service for good, we'll announce it on this website and give at least 30 days' notice where we reasonably can. If our financial situation doesn't allow that, we'll give as much notice as is practical.

Our content and your feedback#

The service, including the game world, art, music, code, text and the names Emergence and Emergence Online, belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by law. These terms don't give you any rights in it other than the licences described here.

If you send us ideas, suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely without paying you or giving you credit.

Other services#

Parts of the service rely on other companies, for example Steam and the Epic Games Store for store accounts, and a third-party human-check (bot-protection) service on sign-up and sign-in. Their own terms and privacy policies apply to your use of their services. We aren't responsible for services we don't run, or for websites that players link to.

Disclaimers#

We work hard to keep the service running, fair and secure, but we provide it "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we make no promises that it will always be available, free of bugs or errors, or that any data, progress or virtual item will be kept, and we disclaim all implied warranties, such as merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Emergence is a game. Its banks, loans, jobs, laws, insurance and prices are fiction. Nothing in it is financial, legal, medical or other professional advice.

Some places don't allow these disclaimers, so some of them may not apply to you.

Limitation of liability#

To the fullest extent the law allows, we (and our members, employees and suppliers) are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the service or your inability to use it. That includes indirect, incidental, special, consequential and punitive damages, and loss of data, virtual items, progress, profits or goodwill.

If, despite this, we are found liable to you, our total liability for all claims together is limited to the amount you actually paid directly to Gigaion, LLC for the service. Money you paid to anyone else, such as a platform store (for example Steam or the Epic Games Store) or other players, doesn't count towards that amount.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law, such as for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and nothing takes away rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country you live in.

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 dealing with it, to the extent the law allows.

Governing law and disputes#

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Idaho, USA, where Gigaion, LLC is based, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Talk to us first

Most problems can be sorted out quickly. Before starting any claim, contact us through the Support page, describe the problem and what you want, and give us 60 days to try to resolve it informally. We'll do the same before bringing a claim against you.

Arbitration for players in the United States

If you live in the United States, you and Gigaion, LLC agree to resolve disputes by binding individual arbitration instead of in court. This means:

• Any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to these terms or the service, including whether this section applies, is decided by a single neutral arbitrator, and the arbitrator's decision is final and binding.
• Arbitration is administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration is seated in Idaho; you can take part by video or phone, or in writing where the rules allow. Fees are paid as those rules provide.
• The arbitrator applies the law described above and these terms, and can award the same individual relief a court could. A court with jurisdiction can enter judgment on the award.
• You and we both give up the right to a trial by jury.
• Small claims: either of us may instead bring an individual claim in a small claims court, as long as the claim qualifies and stays there.

No class or representative actions

Claims may only be brought individually. Neither you nor we may bring or take part in a class action, class arbitration, collective action or representative action (such as a private attorney general claim) about the service, and an arbitrator may not combine claims of different people or award relief to anyone other than the individual who brought the claim.

If any part of this arbitration section is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim is heard by the state and federal courts located in Idaho, and the rest of the section still applies to other claims.

Players outside the United States

Disputes are heard by the state and federal courts located in Idaho. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country you live in, and you may also bring a claim in your local courts where that law allows.

Changes to these terms#

We may update these terms when the game or the law changes. The "last updated" date at the top shows when. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in advance, on this website or by e-mail, before it takes effect. If you keep using the service after a change takes effect, the new terms apply. If you don't agree with them, stop using the service and you can ask us to close your account.

General#

• These terms (with the Privacy Policy and any extra feature rules) are the whole agreement between you and us about the service.
• If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in force.
• If we don't enforce a rule straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• You can't transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else. We may transfer ours, for example if the service is sold or reorganised, and these terms will continue to protect you.
• Sections that by their nature should survive the end of this agreement (such as virtual items, your content licence, disclaimers, liability and governing law) survive it.

Contact us#

Emergence Online is operated by Gigaion, LLC. For questions about these terms, contact us through the Support page.

For suspensions and bans, reply to the e-mail we sent you (see Support and appeals).