PLEASE READ THIS TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SERVICE.
Last updated: March 9, 2019
Introduction
YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING VORTEX WEBSITES AND SERVICES TERMS OF USE. YOUR USE OF OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES CONSTITUES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS, CONDITIONS, AND OUR POLICIES AND NOTICES (THE “AGREEMENT). IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT, THEN YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO USE, CONTINUE TO USE, ACCESS, OR CONTINUE TO ACCESS OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES.
Welcome to the websites and services of the VORTEX Company and its partners (“VORTEX”). “VORTEX’s Sites” include vortex-gaming.net and other Internet sites on which these terms of services are posted. VORTEX and any and all entities that control, are controlled by, or are affiliated or under common control with VORTEX are collectively referred to herein as “we,” “us” or “our”. All software, products, websites, games and services made available or offered by or though our websites or subsites is offered to you, the user, by VORTEX and its services Providers, licensors, and suppliers (our “Third Party” Providers) are subject to your acceptance without modification of these terms. Your use of our services and websites is subject to the Terms of Use and the End User License Agreement (the “EULA”), incorporated herein by this reference, both of which you must accept before you can use any of our services or websites. Please print out a copy of this Agreement for your records. It is your responsibility to regularly check the Site to determine if there have been changes to these Terms of Use and to review such changes.
This Agreement is applicable only to the services and websites as provided by us and not on other services or websites on the World Wide Web. Should you click on a link that references you to another site not owned or operated by us, you should consult the outside sources legal documents before continued use.
1. Accounts
While using our sites and services, in order to gain additional access such as games and other communication sources as offered by us, you will be requested to register an account. You agree to provide truthful and accurate information and update the information promptly when it changes. We have the right to refuse the user to change certain personal information if any information is fraudulent. Users will also be required to supply a unique username and password herein known as “login information”. Users agree to not share their account and login information with anyone unless a user is under the age of 13 and cannot legally agree to these terms. If the user is under the age of 13, all accounts must be registered by a parent or legal guardian and that parent or legal guardian must accept this agreement. These accounts are to help us better serve our users and keep track of market trends. Your personally identifiable information is collected voluntarily provided by you, the user. For matters of privacy please review our Privacy Policy also located on our sites.
a. Ownership
You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership over your account and characters associated with the account. Also, you agree and acknowledge that you shall not own any virtual entities that embody your characters or account in our services and websites. Users, as such, are only borrowing an account, characters or virtual avatars from us and acknowledge and agree that the users’ accounts and other related objects are on loan from us. As a consequence, VORTEX, at any time, may delete or terminate without notice or refund any accounts that are fraudulent or have breached this or other agreements as listed by us.
b. Selling
As accounts, characters, and other related virtual objects are on loan from VORTEX, users cannot sell, barter, or trade their accounts, characters, and other related objects for real currencies or virtual currencies whether real or conceived. If a user tries to sell their accounts, proper actions will be taken against said account including but not limited to account termination without notice or refund.
c. Sharing
As accounts, characters, and other related virtual objects are on loan from VORTEX, users are explicitly forbidden from sharing accounts with other users. If an account is shared between users, VORTEX reserves the right to terminate the account without notice or refund.
2. Virtual Goods
Within our games and services, VORTEX uses a virtual form of currency so users may purchase virtual items or services during their time of use. Also, any items or objects or currencies held within our games or services are collectively known as “virtual goods”. These virtual goods are used by the users in our services and sites. Any virtual currencies purchased by you, the user, from our services, through legal means, shall use this virtual currency to purchase other virtual goods and services as offered by us. Users are warned and advised against purchasing virtual goods or virtual currencies from other individuals or companies that are not representative of, related to, or legally owned by VORTEX and our Third Party vendors.
a. Ownership
You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership over any virtual goods or virtual currencies and said items are on loan from our services. As a consequence, VORTEX, at any time, may delete or remove any virtual items obtained illegally, those that have an error in their coding, or virtual goods that are temporary items. Also, accounts that have been terminated can have all virtual goods removed from the account without refund.
b. Selling
Issues related to Guest Services, technical support, and billing issues, etc. may also require you to provide us with personal information (such as such as your real name, email address, street address, etc.) so that we may address your inquiries and other situations properly.
3. Public Communication Services
Before using any of our services, websites or public communication services, please carefully read and review our policies concerning user generated content.
VORTEX offers several services such as forums, profile pages, blogs, and chat rooms (collectively known as “Public Communication Services”). We offer these services to allow our company and our Third Party Providers a chance to communicate with our users and also allow open communication between our users. You acknowledge that the use of our public communication features is for public use and not private communications. Also, you acknowledge that you will not use these public communication services to solicit, sell, or advertise any products, news, or services, unless expressedly permitted in writing from our company.
When using these public communication services we cannot guarantee the security of or privacy of any information or communications sent and received between users. It is the responsibility of the users to protect their personal information. We assume no responsibility in any leak of personal information when users choose to display their information in these services.
We are not responsible for, nor do we endorse, any information, opinions, technical tips, or other advice posted or transmitted by any users in any of our Public Communication services. We do not claim any liability connected with any submissions if not posted or specifically written by our company.
VORTEX and our Third Party Providers have no obligation to monitor or supervise any public communication services, however we reserve the right to monitor and supervise all services, websites, and public communication services. VORTEX also has the right, in our sole discretion, to supervise, monitor, edit, screen, block, remove, and refuse to post or transmit any user generated content, in part or in whole.
a. Rules and Code of Conduct
The Rules and Code of Conduct applies to all of our services, websites, and public communication services. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to understand and adhere to the Rules and Code of Conduct.
I. Community Rules of Conduct
The terms listed below are not all-inclusive, and are subject to change without notice. Exceptions to these Guidelines may be made on a case-by-case basis, depending on what is in the best interests of the community as a whole.
- Play nice. Do not personally attack another poster. Don’t try to make another user’s life difficult. If you disagree with an opinion or idea, there is no reason to become hostile.
- Keep it clean. Posts containing vulgar, obscene, or otherwise generally unacceptable material will be summarily removed and a warning will be issued. This includes any material that can be construed as racist or illegal, and covers racial slang/pornography/copyright violations/etc. In addition, for the benefit of all, no discussion on religion and politics will be allowed. Direct links to any of the above count as well, as do attempts to sneak around the censor filter.
- Do not discuss topics that are in direct violation of a game’s Terms of Use or EULA. This also includes discussion in violation of any Non Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) a title or player may be under.
- No trolling allowed. While the basic idea of just what trolling is can vary from case to case, it is generally accepted that trolling is posting in a manner intended to anger or insult another poster or posters. Behavior of this sort is frowned upon and will be dealt with accordingly.
- Do post constructively. Any posts that do not provide any substance to the discussion, or the community as a whole, will be removed. This includes advertising/spam, abuse of the color/size tags, spamming nothing but smiley faces, abusing the quote function, posting without using the search function first, ranting in every thread, etc. Also messages consisting of posting in a manner that could be considered “baiting” of another poster.
- Please keep posts related to the topic at hand. While some discussions will naturally morph into related topics, purposefully derailing a conversation will not be tolerated.
- Moderators’ or Guest Service Representatives’ decisions are not to be publically discussed – likewise for service correspondence without explicit permission from the staff member. Should you have a comment, concern, question or issue, use the private message feature to contact a moderator or administrator. Furthermore, if you believe a post or thread to be in violation of these rules, either in whole or in part, use the report function on said post or thread or contact a moderator privately. In addition, altering or editing a staff member’s message or post edit is also forbidden.
- Private messages shall be kept private unless a user has expressedly written consent of the author of said message(s) to publicly post the information contained therein.
- Bugs, exploits, bots, hacks, or “cheats” in any form are not acceptable topics to be posted on these forums. Should you find a non-abusive bug pertaining to any of the VORTEX Interactive products, please use the Tech Support forum to let us know about it or contact us directly via the support system. For exploits and other such cheats, please make immediate use of the support ticket system.
- No account hopping to evade suspension or other such penalties. You are personally responsible for your conduct on the forums and in game. If you create a new account to continue bad behavior because another account was suspended, any accounts involved will be permanently revoked. Disciplinary actions such as forum suspension apply to a person, not a specific account. This also includes posting by proxy or on behalf of a suspended user.
II. Gameplay Rules of Conduct
Our company and Third Party Providers’ primary concern is the enjoyment of our users while they make use of our services. We take extreme measures in ensuring a fair and enjoyable playtime. However, some acts may go beyond normal means or gameplay and are considered violation of our Terms of Use. These acts include, but are not limited to:
- Any conduct that is strictly forbidden by these Terms of Use, our EULA, or any other document that states our rules.
- Impersonating a staff member or official, or a representative of our company and/or Third Party Providers.
- Using or exploiting bugs (errors in coding or game design flaws).
- Using, creating, sharing, or soliciting any Third Party programs that creates an unfair advantage or disadvantage to any users in our services.
- Soliciting, selling, or advertising any services, any virtual goods or virtual currency exchanges.
- Transmitting of or facilitation of transmitting any unsolicited advertising, junk mail, chain letters, spam, pyramid schemes, get rich quick schemes, or any other form of solicitation.
- Violating any laws whether applicable to local, state, national, or international laws, rules or regulations, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
III. Account, Nickname, Character, and Guild (Clan) Naming Policies
Players may be required to supply an account name and nickname to fully use our services, sites, and other features as offered by VORTEX. Also, users may create characters in our games as well as form guilds or clans. While we want players to have the freedom to give names to each, some names may be deemed inappropriate and as such will be considered in violation of our Terms of Use. Such names that are not allowed, but not limited to, are listed below:
- Any names that employs the use of vulgar language which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, racist, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise unacceptable.
- Any names that contain Trademarked or Copyrighted brand names.
- Any names that contain religious figures, deities, or representatives of any religions.
- Any names that contain complete or partial sentences.
- Any names that are related to drugs, sex, alcohol, illegal substances, or illegal or criminal activity.
- Any names that contain or are entirely gibberish.
- Any names that reference to real persons, pop culture icons or personas.
- Any names of another person or staff member with the intent to impersonate that person or staff member including, but not limited to:
- Game Master
- Game Saviour
- Admin
- Moderator
- Staff Moderator
4. User Generated Content, User Generated Submissions and Intellectual Property
All content, games and other information offered in our websites or services are subject to copyright and trademark protections.
Any and all content submitted by users by uploading or transmitting to our services, sites, and public communication services, shall be considered, and remain, the property of VORTEX and/or its Third Party Providers from the moment the information or content is transmitted or uploaded. Hence, VORTEX and/or its Third Party Providers shall have sole ownership of all now known and henceforth copyrights and all other intellectual property rights to ALL USER GENERATED CONTENT of every kind, ad infinitum. You acknowledge that VORTEX and/or its Third Party Providers shall be irretrievably entitled to use, modify, adapt, publish, reproduce, license, sell, or otherwise change in any way, shape or form in any medium, without compensation or credit to the user that provided the content. You also relinquish any rights or claims that any use by our company or Third Party Providers of any User Generated content violates any of your rights, including but not limited to privacy, morality, proprietary, religious or other rights and/or rights to credit for any content or ideas, ad infinitum.
a. Fansites
I. VORTEX may, in connection with your fansite, grant you, on a non-exclusive and non-licensable basis, permission to redistribute or reproduce, on the fansite only, to end users, certain content such as game-related images, artwork, graphics, and trademarked logos so long as your fansite complies with all conditions described here in our Terms of Use.
II. You agree to include our trademarks, copyright or other proprietary notices when displaying any content from our sites and services as well as our Third Party Providers.
III. As the owner of an unaffiliated website, that is solely independent from our company, you will have sole control over all content and be responsible for any and all information, designs, ideas, and content uploaded and transmitted to your site. As such, we reserve the right to refuse the use of any of our content if the fansite is comprised of, houses, or harbors any slander or libel about VORTEX, its Third Party Providers, Employees, Officers or any officially related partnerships with VORTEX.
IV. You agree to not charge subscription fees without the written permission or license agreement with our company. You also agree to not generate revenue from the fansite without our written permission from our company or mutual license agreement. You may not use any limited permission content for your fansite in such circumstances unless we give written permission or through a mutual license agreement.
b. Submissions
I. We may, from time to time, ask for feedback in ways of polls, posts, or e-mails (“Feedback”). We welcome all comments and information regarding our sites and services. However, unless we specifically request ideas, notes, drawings, creative suggestions, fan art, videos, pictures, images or fan fiction (“User Generated Submissions”), we ask user to not submit any User Generated Submissions. While we do value any feedback and input you may have, we request that any specific feedback given does not contain User Generated Submissions.
II. Any and all User Generated Submissions that you send to our company, whether at our specific request or despite our previous request to not submit User Generated Submissions, and along with all Licensed Content shall become and remain, ad infinitum, the property of our company from the moment of creation.
III. You acknowledge that VORTEX and/or its Third Party Providers shall be irretrievably entitled to use, modify, adapt, publish, reproduce, license, sell, or otherwise change in any way, shape or form in any medium, without compensation or credit to the user that provided the content. You also relinquish any rights or claims that any use by our company or Third Party Providers of any User Generated Submissions violates any of your rights, including but not limited to privacy, morality, proprietary, religious or other rights and/or rights to credit for any content or ideas, ad infinitum.
5. Disclaimers
NEITHER VORTEX, VORTEX’S THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, NOR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DISTRIBUTING ANY CONTENT OR SERVICES CONTAINED FROM AND HOUSE IN OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES, NOR ANY OF OUR EMPLOYEES, RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, VOLUNTEERS OR OTHER AGENTS, MAKE ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THAT OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT OUR GAMES OR SERVICES ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
a. Limitation of Liability
Neither VORTEX nor its Third Party Providers or Affiliates shall be held liable in any way, shape or form, for any damages or losses of any kind, whatsoever. In no event will VORTEX, our third party Providers, employees, officers, directors, volunteers or other agents involved in our services and sites, be liable for any indirect, direct, implied, not implied, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or related to:
I. the use or inability to use any sites or services we provide;
II. the use, by you, of any browser or software owned or operated by any party;
III. the downloading of any of our software as offered by VORTEX, our Third Party Providers, or our affiliates.
b. Links
While using our sites or services there may be links available that will take users outside of our sites and services to other sites or services that are beyond our control. These links may be in the form of:
I. Text links.
II. Banner.
III. Pop-ups.
IV. Ads.
V. User-Provided Links.
You acknowledge that when you click on any of these links that are mentioned in this section, the sites you are taken to are under separate terms of use and privacy policies, and we are not responsible for such sites and services that are not provided by us. We cannot be held responsible for any information, products, services, or sites that users are sent to by these links and as such we highly advise our users to investigate other websites’ legal documents before continued use. If you feel a link may cause malicious problems with computers and privacy issues, please inform us at vortexgamingstaff [@] gmail.com (Please remove the brackets and spaces between vortexgamingstaff, the @ symbol, and gmail.com). However, we assume no responsibility in any links, whatsoever, nor make any implications of obligation toward the warning or removal of links that cause malicious problems, whether they are known or unknown to our company.
6. Security of Account
We respect the right to privacy for all of our users and as such will not solicit any personal and private information. Please consult our Privacy Policy for information regarding our policies about your privacy. However, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and login information, and you will be responsible for all uses of your account information, whether or not the usage or changes were authorized by you. You acknowledge you will not share any information with others unless the user is under the age of 13. A parent or legal guardian may control the account and give access to the child. In the event you become aware of any such security breach of your account, please notify us immediately at support.vortex-gaming.net (Please remove the brackets and spaces between support, the @ symbol, and vortex-gaming.net).
7. Refunds
VORTEX reserves the right to not refund any and all purchases made by users of our Virtual Goods, including but not limited, to purchases of our virtual currency and items that are downloadable or were obtained using our virtual currency.
8. Account Termination and Dispute Resolution
VORTEX, as owners of all accounts, may and reserves the right to terminate any and all accounts without notice. We may also block your continued use of our sites and services. If you are the owner of a terminated account, you are not allowed to view, use, change, modify, re-sell, or access any sites or services provided by VORTEX. You acknowledge and understand that if your account is terminated for a breach of our Terms of Use or any other legal documents that require acknowledgement and acceptance, you will not be allowed to contact our support team to dispute a resolution. Any accounts that have been terminated due to breach of contract will not be subject for any refunds and the user will incur all fees based off of charge disputes we receive from the account owner’s financial institutions or establishments.
VORTEX also reserves the right to terminate any accounts that share common identifiable information such as, but not limited, to I.P. address, without notice.
9. Governing Law
You agree that actions of law are only applicable to local and national laws in which VORTEX GAMING. is headquartered in, without regard to choice of law principles, in which this Agreement shall be construed under. The application of the United Nations convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods is excluded.
10. Amendment Clause
At any time, VORTEX may amend or make changes to these Terms of Use, including but not limited to, modification, deletion and/or additions of any portion, section, or the terms of use in its entirety without notice. However, we will display the date this document was last modified. We do, however, reserve the right to e-mail any notification of changes made.
11. Indemnification
You acknowledge and agree to indemnify and hold VORTEX, our Third Party Providers, Employees, Affiliates, Officers, Respective Directors, Volunteers or Partners (“Company”), harmless, from against any and all liability and costs including, but not limited to, court fees, attorneys’ fees, or other fees incurred by the Company in connection with any claim arising from:
a. Any breach by you, the user, of the Agreement or any representations, covenants and/or warranties contained in this document.
b. Your use of our sites and services, including but not limited to, your account and all of our other services and features.
12. Other conditions
If any condition of these Terms of Use shall be unlawful, or void, then that condition shall be deemed severable from this Agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining conditions. This Terms of Use Agreement is the complete, exclusive, and all inclusive statement of the agreement between you, the user, and our Company concerning any services and websites we provide. As such, this Agreement supersedes and any other prior or simultaneous agreement, either written or oral, and any other agreements or communications with regard hereto between you, the user, and our Company; provided, however that these Terms of Use is in addition to, and does not replace or supplant, our EULA and Privacy Policies. This Agreement may only be modified as set forth in this time. The section headings used in this Agreement are for reference points and shall have none, whatsoever, legal bearings or effects on this document.
13. Acknowledgements and Requirements of Acceptance
I HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND, AND ACCEPT THE ABOVEMENTIONED TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT AND AGREE THAT MY USE OF VORTEX’S SERVICES AND WEBSITES, AS PROVIDED BY VORTEX, IS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT.