Nothing is more fun for us than talking about our favorite subject — zombies! — with all of you. We love your comments on what we write, your insights into zombie lore, and your passionate replies about gaming and MMOs, and we are honestly flattered that you’d choose to spend some of your precious gaming time with us. (You’re not at work or school, are you?)
That said, we want to keep the comments on-topic and, most importantly, fun for everyone. In that spirit, we’re going to nut-up and mod-out comments that don’t contribute to a fun and enjoyable community.
Here are the rules of the post-apocalyptic road:
- Join the conversation. Share your thoughts on topics that interest you. Be part of Undead Labs. A great comment can make our day, and in light of the long hours and mountains of code, art, and design we have to produce, that can make all the difference. We sure don’t want to be talking to ourselves anymore than we already are.
- The whole world is watching. Keep in mind that this is a public forum, so anything you choose to post becomes a permanent part of the public record. By posting here you are choosing to openly and freely share your ideas with the community. You don’t retain any rights, ownership, or control over what you post, and any company, including Undead Labs, can take your thoughts and ideas and do as they wish with them.
- Be cool, be interesting, be hip. “OMG that is so true!” takes up space and contributes nothing. On the other hand, pointing out that Max Brooks is disdainful of humor in the zombie genre and sharing your thoughts on how to draw the line between slapstick comedy and pseudo-serious horror makes you look highly educated and sophisticated beyond belief.
- Give us constructive feedback. Did we say something stupid? Are we violating Rule #43 of making a good zombie MMO? We want to hear it. Really, we do. But keep in mind that when the zombie apocalypse comes, you might find us at your back, so it’s a good idea to encourage us to watch your back.
- Ask us questions. If we can answer, we will. Keep in mind, though, that “can’t” can have a few meanings. It can mean that we don’t know the answer; or it can mean that we know the answer, but aren’t prepared to provide it just yet. The important thing to remember is that we are immersed in trying to build a great game for you, so we may not be able to answer every question, but we’ll do our best.
- Keep it on topic. This should go without saying, as it is Rule #1 with just about every forum in existence, but a comment needs to have some relationship to the post. We’ll stretch with you up to a point, because a bit of, um, creativity in posts can often infuse a discussion with new energy, but we’ll need to wield the heavy hand when our post about a barter economy in post-apocalyptic Europe devolves into an argument about whether elder dragons can fly for more than an hour without a bathroom break.
- Don’t slam games from other companies. We’re here to make a zombie MMO, and you’re presumably here because you have some interest in that, so let’s keep the conversation rooted there. We have tons of friends in the industry working on other games, and we don’t want this to be a forum to discuss the pros and cons of those games.
- If you are a native English speaker, by all means use it, and use it well. But do keep in mind that the Lab draws an international audience, many of whom are not native English speakers. We should all be honored that someone who is not a native English speaker even tries to communicate with us in our language, so let’s show them some respect.
- Post in English. I wish we had the staff and resources at this point to host a multi-lingual community, but we don’t, so for now, all comments must be in English. As we get closer to release, we’ll build out a full multi-lingual community team.
- Don’t slander, use racist names, call someone a nazi, SHOUT, spam, use flash photography in public, or generally just act like a jerk. In other words, make life miserable for everyone here, and we’ll boot your ass right out. With glee. Work out your rage somewhere else.