Below are the Rules of Conduct that we ask all users of Namco Arcade abide by while posting here at the Namco Arcade forums.  While we are unable to completely enforce all of these rules based on the number of incoming posts, rest assured that serious violations of these rules will generally be acted upon in a swift and decisive manner.  We hope that our trend of few bans from these forums continue, but we will not hesitate to remove those who are more interested in causing problems than discussion.

Appropriate manners must be used at all times.  Posts which belittle or demean another participant, or which are racially, sexually, religiously, or otherwise offensive may be deleted without warning.  Additionally, continued posting in such manner may lead to a permanent ban from the discussion forum.  Any posts which are harmful, threatening, or pornographic in nature will be deleted immediately, and the poster may be banned without warning.

Racial slurs, attacks on the heritage, religion, or sexual preference of others, and similar posts will not be tolerated.  We promote tolerance of our diversity, and do not condone attacks which would make a poster feel that their differences make them less of a person than anyone else.  By the same token, we also ask that everyone respect those differences and not use this forum as a means with which to "convert" others to "defend their cause."  Additionally, use of the word "gay" in a derogatory manner, whether used as "innocent slang" or direct attack, may lead to a ban.

Bypassing the profanity filter may lead to a ban.  There is a filter in place that edits out common racial slurs and profanity from the posts which contain them, however, there is no way to ensure that all words are filtered, nor to ensure that people cannot bypass it.  We do not condone the use of words which are filtered, however, attempts to purposely bypass the filter by spacing (s u c h   a s   t h i s), using numbers or incorrect letters (l1ke th3se examplez), or any other means of getting around the filter may lead to a ban.  Anyone who uses a racial slur that is not caught by the filter will receive a SINGLE warning, and any subsequent use will lead to a ban; use of multiple slurs not caught by the filter will lead to an immediate ban.  We do not tolerate such behavior, and our stance against it is firm.

Participants will not infringe on the copyrights and trademarks of others.  No poster to this forum will upload, post, or otherwise make available any materials protected by copyright or trademark laws without the express written permission of the holder of that intellectual property.  (Note: This rule does not apply to "fair use" or "fan use" of items, as long as it is appropriate, but does apply to programs, artwork, or other material that is used outside of acceptable practices.)

Personal phone numbers and address will not be posted or distributed through our private message system.  While we cannot prevent the transmission of personal information via email or through other means, for the protection of all posters of this forum, any messages that contain personal information such as phone numbers and address will be deleted.

Ideas within are public domain.  This forum is for discussion purposes only.  Any implementation of an idea discussed within this forum by Namco Cybertainment Inc., Namco America Inc., Namco Hometek Inc., Namco Holding Corporation, Namco Limited, or any of their affiliates or subsidiaries does not grant the poster any special consideration for origination of such idea.

No "spamming" is allowed.  Spamming is the act of repeatedly posting the same or like messages.  Anyone found to be spamming this message board will be banned immediately, and we will contact their host ISP (internet service provider) with information regarding this conduct, and request that action be taken against the account holder.  The act of "vertical spamming," or the purposeful spacing of posts to create large amounts of blank space, will often lead to that post being deleted, and a continual habit of that nature may lead to an eventual ban.

Impersonating other posters will not be tolerated.  This includes pretending to be a Namco representative or the representative of one of our affiliates or subsidiaries.  Official Namco personnel who are allowed to post on this forum are identified by red usernames.

Posting about other websites, message boards, web-groups, email lists, and like "advertisement" is allowed conditionally.  The conditions to doing such are that you start no more than one advertisement topic per week regarding the group you are promoting, and that you do so on an appropriate board (if it is about a Tekken group, do so on the Tekken boards, et cetera); that if you wish your signature to contain a promo for a group, you do so tastefully, and within the rules of these forums; that it is not for another commercial site (for instance, a message board at ign.com); and finally, the site you are promoting MUST NOT be a pay-to-view site, nor require the users to subscribe or otherwise pay for information*.  Be advised that spamming the boards to promote a group falls under the same rules that govern spamming, and will lead to a ban.  Note:  This does not mean you cannot discuss groups of this nature as a regular part of the use of this forum, simply that we have had users who post continually asking for users of this forum to join other groups — we appreciate fan groups, but we must limit the scope of advertisement of outside groups to prevent the board from being overrun by "Join this group," posts.

* A site that contains some pay-only information in the form of sound and/or video content that is high-bandwidth may be posted, as we understand that high-bandwidth items are not cheap to maintain.  However, the majority of the information on the site must be free for view.

Posting information about "warez," "hacks," or other illegal software, music, or other digital media is not allowed.  "Warez" and "hacks" are illegal versions of copyrighted programs.  Posting the location of such sites or methods by which to obtain such programs or other illegally distributed material will not be tolerated.  Music services that allow the free downloading of legitimately shared, authorized, or public domain music is permissible, but services such as the former Napster should not be linked to.

Our private message system is governed by these same rules.  Anyone caught sending private messages to other users that violate these Rules of Conduct may have their right to send or receive private messages revoked, and may even be banned from this forum.  Anyone caught sending members messages of a pornographic or threatening nature will be banned without warning.

Threatening to crash our host server or otherwise cause disruption of service to Namco Arcade or any of its posters will not be tolerated.  In this day and age, there are a great many people who either believe they can scare people with the threats of hacks or crashes, or worse, people who are truly capable of such.  We will not tolerate such threats or activities, and doing so will lead to a ban from these forums.  In addition, should someone be caught in the act of attempting to crash, hack, or otherwise engage in a denial of service attack against our server, we will contact our ISP immediately, and provide any and all information we can to federal, state, and/or local authorities.

Unsolicited advertisements are not allowed.  This forum is for the discussion of arcade gaming and other forms of entertainment.  This forum may not be used to promote money-making ventures.  References to other resources will be permitted, as long as they are non-admission based resources.  If you have a business, event, or product that you would like to advertise on Namco Arcade, please contact Namco Cybertainment Inc., Jim Snyder, Webmaster, (630) 238-2200 Ext. 2253, jsnyder@namcoarcade.com.

Opinions expressed within are of the posters.  Posts within do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Namco Cybertainment Inc., Namco America Inc., Namco Hometek Inc., Namco Holding Corporation, Namco Limited, or our affiliates or subsidiaries, nor do we guarantee the validity of any information contained within.

Termination of posting rights.  We reserve the right to terminate the posting rights of any user within the forum for any violation of these Rules of Conduct, or for any activity which we determine to be unacceptable for this forum.

This forum is free for its users.  Namco Cybertainment Inc. and Namco America Inc. do not charge a fee of any sort to post upon, read, or otherwise use this forum for discussion purposes.  Advertisement within the forum may be purchased or otherwise arranged by contacting us (see information above regarding advertisements).

Commitment to keeping this forum friendly.  Namco Cybertainment Inc. and Namco America Inc. have a commitment to making sure that this forum remains a friendly environment for the open discussion of ideas, tips, and other arcade and entertainment related information.  We welcome everyone to take part in this forum, and hope that everyone will agree to keep it a place where children of all ages, from kids to grandparents, may come to discuss fun and entertainment.

Posts of any nature may be deleted at our discretion.  While this forum is open for all sorts of discussion, any topic or post that we deem to be inappropriate for these forums may be deleted without warning.

Anyone who is banned and discovered to have bypassed this ban by creating a new account by any means will be banned immediately.  You may have some valid point you wish to make, or wish to carry on a discussion (particularly one you were banned for), but the point of a ban is that you are no longer welcome on these forums.  Should we discover that you are continually returning after being banned, we may contact your host ISP and request action be taken against you.

This forum and "First Amendment Rights."  It is important to distinguish that "First Amendment Rights" guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America with regards to freedom of expression are rights granted that state the government of the United States shall enact no law that prohibits such.  This is not a governmental forum, and as such, we are not bound by "First Amendment Rights."  While we certainly encourage free speech, there are topics which are inappropriate for this forum, and such topics may not be discussed here.  When we delete a thread or a post, it is important that posters understand we are doing so because the topic is inappropriate for the forum, and that "First Amendment Rights" do not apply.  Think of how certain topics are inappropriate in your living room, in front of your parents, or in other places in life; the same holds true here.

We reserve the right to amend these rules at any time.  As a part of the use of the continued use of this forum, you may be required to agree to rules changes in the future.  While we do not see the need to update these rules, from time to time, an issue may arise that requires existing rules to be updated, or new rules to be instituted.  We reserve the right to adapt these rules for any such future issues.

Please direct any questions or comments about these rules or this forum to the webmaster via email.