Retirement Gifts are prohibited

[Captain Jack]

Ahoy,

Since I just noticed a second similar case,so we need to make an official announcement for this case.

The game rules clearly state:
5. Milking/Pushing
You must play your account to its own FULL benefit.

Your account MUST ALWAYS respect this rule. We do not check if an account retires; there is no such thing for us - there is no retirement mode. The best way to retire is to retain your assets in any way you see best. Distributing any amount of this assets as retirement gifts is prohibited.

This is a critical issue. We ask for your cooperation. This is a competitive game. You cannot artificially boost anyone. Your account cannot feed anyone in any way.

There will be reversals for the retirement gifts that were sent today.
From now on, for all future cases, if you find yourself at the end of receiving a retirement gift, please report it immediately to administration to avoid any issues but also to alert us. Only with your help we will be able to always monitor such cases 100%.

This is not a change of the rules. This is an underlining of the rules.
The rules are not to be meant to be explained at will by anyone; we are the rules creators, the rules enforcers and the only ones to clear out things about rules.

Always remember the foundation of the milking rule:
You must play your account to its own FULL benefit.

Apparently, distributing its wealth away, is pretty much against this.

Cheers,
Cpt Jack

[Poppy]

That basically restricts most of human social structures, ideologies and religious beliefs from being practiced in game. That includes, believe it or not, the actual pirates codes.

[PFH]

That basically restricts most of human social structures, ideologies and religious beliefs from being practiced in game. That includes, believe it or not, the actual pirates codes.

+a million
I would think you would have to tell the Admin first before you do it to get his permission. I can understand the rule, and I can understand the idea of it. I would add that if someone DOES want to retire, that they ask the admin to give away their stuff to certain players listed in the letter. if he approves, he gets a certain amount of time to give the stuff away. The player may not have loan debt for this.
After stuff is given away, the player leaves, and the admin can suspend their account or lock it.

[DezNutz]

I would like you to find me a pirate that gave away his treasure and wealth when he "retired". The wealth one collects is theirs and theirs alone. If a player wants to give his stuff away, put all his gc in his purse and light his own fleets up on the fastest possible route.

[PFH]

I will not say If i know anyone or not. I do know it probably has happened

[Most Lee Harmless]

Its not up for debate or modification : the no milking/pushing rule includes the dispersal of assets as gifts to others upon leaving the game. Thems the rules as explained by CJ and, as such, are final and binding on all players.

Online games aint democracy's or debating clubs bound by constitutional rights or privileges : at best one hopes for a benign dictatorship who's prime concern is keeping the game both honest and playable within its own Terms of Service. All should read those Terms, when we register for this game, we all agree to be bound by them.

I have seen no reason to doubt the admins in their desire to keep this game honest, indeed, I've had my wrist slapped on occasion when I have strayed to close to the edge of what is deemed acceptable. One of the shining lights of this game, when compared to others, is the admins commitment to fair-play for ALL its players.

So, given the choice between having a cast-iron rule on milking/pushing or a hazy or vague definition replete with exceptions and caveats which may allow for bending of it, I'd prefer the cast-iron version everytime. I've seen what happens to online games when they get out of control of the admins : its not nice, not fun and not fair and the game inevitably becomes unplayable.

The rule has been restated by the admins : end of.

[Poppy]

I think the rules CJ explained here goes a long way beyond retirement gifts. Regulare national distribution and stripsend, guild distributions (we do them in Merc for contract profits) and even helping a newbie out stands outside of the bounderies of "You must play your account to its own FULL benefit".

Pirates codes of old used to share expedition profits rather equally (1.5 equal share to captain, 1.25 equal share to quatermaster and health insurance to crue members). equal pay isnt a self interest of the individual participants (which had different risk and effort charestaristics) and is much closer to commune/commonist ideals.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Its simple : giving away all your assets then leaving the game is not 'playing your account to its own FULL benefit' : its benefiting others accounts at the expense of your soon to be dead account. Its also pertinent to point out CJ's comment that the game does not consider any account to be 'retired' as, rightly, a player can return at anytime and re-start their play.

I'd agree that we often gift credits, coin or ships to other active players : its common to give a newbie guild-mate a bit of aid that way to develop their account : but in doing so we can argue fairly that a strong guild-mate does benefit our own account : the point being we remain in the game to gain that benefit. It develops the social aspect of the game, builds bonds of friendship and mutual aid for both sides. Leaving the game could never be said to accomplish any of that.

[Poppy]

Ahoy,

This is a critical issue. We ask for your cooperation. This is a competitive game. You cannot artificially boost anyone. Your account cannot feed anyone in any way.

Cpt Jack

check it out Denik. this does not only apply to retirement but to any distribution from one account to another without an immediate benefit to the distributing account.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Well, there you go : it does then seem that direct aid in the form of a gift to another player is not allowed in any circumstance : so, that's kinda tough on newbies and means we all have to take great care not to infringe that rule when we try to help them develop : which means it becomes more important that guild treasuries are implemented to enable that vital and useful support for new player development.

I must also then assume that the use of 'Generosity' cards somewhat contradicts the rule as stated and look forward to some clarification of how mutual aid can be given to a mate before it becomes a contravention.