Rules & policies

These rules cover everything in the game: chat, mail, profiles, gang pages, the newspaper, classifieds, ads and player names. Breaking them can mean a warning, a mute, a suspension or a permanent ban. Each rule comes with an example of what we mean.

Who can play

Why Underground Evolution is for adults (18+). The game is set in the 1920s underworld and shows adult themes: crime and violence (robberies, heists, fights, ambushes, implied shootouts and threats, but no gore); drugs, alcohol and tobacco (bootlegging, smuggling and drinking are part of the setting); gambling themes (casinos, betting and crates with published odds, but never real-money gambling: game money can never be cashed out); strong language (players may swear in messages, articles and ads, and you can switch it off with Hide strong language in Account); and mature themes such as corruption, bribery and organised crime.

• You must be 18 or over. This is an adult game. When you sign up we ask for your date of birth and country: they must be true, and they can't be changed afterwards except by staff. Example: a 17-year-old who signs up with a false date of birth loses the account when we find out, however good the player is.
• One account per person. Several people may share a home or a computer: tell us through the contact page so we don't mistake you for one person. Example: you and your brother play from the same flat. That is fine: each of you plays one account, and you tell us.
• Don't share, sell or buy accounts, and don't play someone else's. Example: "looking after" a friend's account while they are on holiday counts as playing it.
• If you think another player is under 18, use Report on their profile and choose "This player may be under 18". Never ask anyone for ID or photos.

Fair play

These can't happen by accident. They mean a permanent ban, and that ban is final:

• Bots and scripts: anything that plays the game for you or fills in its forms automatically. Example: a browser add-on that commits a crime every time your energy refills, even while you sleep.
• Tampering: forging or editing the game's requests. Example: changing the price in a Bazaar form before it is sent.
• Exploits: using a bug to make money or items. Report bugs through the contact page instead. Example: finding that a sale can be repeated for the same item and doing it ten times instead of telling us.
• Ban evasion: playing on a new account after a ban.
• Pretending to be staff: a name, title, mail or post that says or suggests you are staff, or a mark made to look like the Staff badge. Example: a name or title such as "Admin Jake", or a mail "from the moderation team" asking for your password.

Also not allowed:

Several accounts

• Multi-accounts: trading with your own second account, or having a friend do it for you. One person, one account: a second one made "just to try another build" is still a second account. Example: a mule account that commits crimes and mails its cash to your main.

Gold and trading

• Real-money trading: selling or buying anything from the game (Gold, items, accounts) for real money outside our own store. Gold enters the game only through our store and moves between players only on the Bazaar; there is no exchange between cash and Gold, and nothing can ever be cashed out. Example: selling a rare car for cash over a messaging app, or offering a gift card for Gold.
• Scam trades: pretending to trade and not delivering, or a "loan" you never meant to return. Example: "pay me first and I'll send the car", and the car never arrives.
• Spam and advertising: including links to scams or other sites. Example: the same classified posted ten times, or a "free Gold" link in every mail.

Respect

Crime is the theme of the game, and ordinary swearing is fine in messages, profiles, gang pages, newspaper stories and ads. If you would rather not see it, switch on Hide strong language in your Account. What is never allowed, anywhere:

Chat, mail and everything you write

• Slurs and hate speech, or discrimination. Example: an insult aimed at someone's race, religion, sexuality, disability or gender is a slur however it is spelled.
• Threats against real people, and harassment: keeping on at someone who has asked you to stop. You can block anyone. Example: "my gang will raid you tonight" is the game; "I know where you live" is not.
• Doxxing: real names, addresses, phone numbers, photos or workplaces of anyone, including yourself. Example: a screenshot that shows someone's real name counts.
• Sexual content involving anyone under 18. This is zero tolerance: the account is closed for good, and we report it to the police and other authorities where the law requires.
• Anything else that is illegal.

Names show up on our public website too, so they must be clean: usernames, character titles, gang names and tags, newspaper headlines and standfirsts, and ad headlines. Example: a gang tag that spells a slur is renamed and the gang warned; the second time, its founder is suspended.

Scams and personal safety

• Never share your password, with anyone. Staff will never ask for it, in the game, by mail or anywhere else. Example: a mail offering Gold "if you confirm your login" is a scam, whoever it says it is from.
• Never give out real-life details: your real name, address, phone number, workplace or photos.
• Don't arrange to meet another player in real life.
• Report anyone who asks you to move to another app (Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram and the like), who offers free Gold for a link or a login, or who asks for money outside the game. Example: "add me on Telegram and I'll give you the trick for free Gold".
• Gold is only ever sold in our own store.

Marks beside names

• Real staff carry the Staff badge by their name, real writers for The Evening Racket carry the press mark (a press card), and the wiki's writers carry the quill. Only the game puts a mark there: nobody can buy, type or copy one, and a name shows one mark at most.
• The Staff badge is optional: some staff play without showing it. So a name without the badge doesn't prove someone isn't staff, but a name with it always is.
• Nobody with a mark will ever ask for your password, your Gold or your items. Anyone who does is a scammer, whatever mark they show: report them.
• Claiming a mark you don't have (saying you write for the paper, edit the wiki or work for the game) breaks the rules: report it with "Claims a role mark they don't have". Claiming to be staff is zero tolerance (see Fair play): report it with "Claims to be staff".

What we do about reports

How to report. Use Report on a profile, a message, a newspaper article, a classified, an ad or a gang page. To report illegal content without signing in, use the report form. We never tell anyone who reported them.

How fast. We aim to respond within:

Kind of report	Target
Illegal content, threats, a player who may be under 18	4 hours
Hate speech, harassment, sexual content, doxxing, scams, complaints	24 hours
Everything else	72 hours

What you hear. The person who reported gets the outcome. If we remove something you wrote or punish your account, you get a statement of reasons: what we did, which rule you broke, and how to complain. Private mail is not browsed by staff: they see only a message that was reported (with a few either side), or, for a serious reason written down and logged, a conversation under investigation.

If you think we got it wrong. For a removal, a warning or a mute, open Account → Moderation decisions and ask for it to be looked at again; you have at least six months. Someone other than the person who decided will answer. For a suspension or a ban, appeal from your Federal Jail page when you sign in.

Consequences

We look at what happened, how serious it was and your history. In order of weight:

• Content removed (an article, an ad, a picture, a bio or a gang page).
• Warning: a formal note on your account.
• Mute: you can't send messages for a set time.
• Suspension: your account is locked until a set date.
• Permanent ban: the account is closed for good.

Zero-tolerance rules (above, and sexual content involving anyone under 18) go straight to a permanent ban. A suspension or a ban sends you to the Federal Jail page, where you can appeal once; bans for the zero-tolerance rules are final. Closing an account under 18 is not a punishment: we refund what was bought on it.

Contact

Our safety lead is the Underground Evolution Safety Team, who is accountable for keeping the game safe. Write to [email protected], report illegal content on the report form, or use the contact page for anything else. If someone is in immediate danger, call the emergency services (999 in the UK, 112 in the EU) first: we can't act fast enough.