Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and The Mob Way ("we", "us", "the game"). By creating an account, logging in or playing, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy and our Game Rules. If you don't agree, don't use the game.

The Game Rules are part of these Terms. If the two ever seem to disagree, the owner decides which applies (see section 11).

2. Who can play

• 18 or older. The game contains violence, crime, drugs and mature language. Accounts found to belong to anyone under 18 are closed.
• One account per person. Extra accounts ("alts") are not allowed. See the Game Rules for households that share a connection.
• You must not be barred from using the game by law, or by an earlier ban from us.
• You must give a real email address you control.

3. Your account

• Your account is your login. Your character is the person you play. They are separate: your account name is never your character's name.
• You are responsible for everything that happens on your account. Keep your password private and don't reuse it from other sites.
• You may not share, lend, sell, buy, trade or give away an account or a character, or let someone else play it for you.
• Tell us right away at support@themobway.com if you think someone else has got into your account.
• Staff will never ask for your password. Anyone who does is not staff.

4. A work of fiction

The Mob Way is a game. Its families, characters, cities and events are made up. Any resemblance to real people, families or organizations is coincidental. Nothing in the game encourages, endorses or teaches real crime, and nothing said in character is a real-world threat. Real-world threats are against the rules and may be reported to the authorities.

5. Characters and death

• Every character has one life. When a character dies, by another player, by the game, or because you retire it, that character is gone for good. Your account stays, and you can start a new character from the bottom.
• Deaths inside the game are final. We do not bring dead characters back or refund what they had, except where the owner decides otherwise.
• Only the owner can bring a character back, and only the owner decides whether anything is restored and what. Asking doesn't oblige the owner to do it.

6. In-game money and items

• Cash, dirty money, drugs, bodyguards, properties, ranks, stats, achievements, badges and everything else in the game ("virtual items") are part of the game. They have no real-world value and can't be exchanged for real money, goods or services.
• In-game money can never be bought with real money or cashed out. Fight wagers, side bets and anything else staked in the game use in-game money only.
• You don't own virtual items. We give you a limited, personal, revocable licence to use them inside the game while your account is in good standing.
• We can change, rebalance, remove or reset virtual items at any time, including through updates, bug fixes, rule enforcement or a full game reset.
• Selling, buying or trading virtual items, characters or accounts for anything outside the game is forbidden.

7. Paid extras

• Some extras (such as VIP) may be bought with real money. A purchase gives you a licence to that extra for the time stated. It is not a deposit and not money held for you.
• Extras belong to your account, not a character. If a character dies, time left on an extra carries over to your next character.
• Nothing renews on its own. Every purchase is a one-time payment for a set time. We never charge you again unless you choose to buy again.
• Purchases are final and non-refundable, except where the law says otherwise or the owner decides to make an exception.
• If your account is suspended or banned for breaking these Terms or the Game Rules, you lose any extras on it without a refund.
• We may change what an extra includes, its price, or stop offering it. If we stop an extra you already paid for, we'll honour the time left or offer something of equal value.
• Payments are handled by a payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.
• If you dispute a charge with your bank instead of contacting us first, we may suspend the account while it's sorted out.

8. What you post

• Forum posts, chat, mail, profile text, pictures, names and anything else you put in the game ("your content") stay yours.
• You give us a worldwide, free licence to store, show, copy and moderate your content as needed to run, promote and improve the game. This lasts as long as the content is in the game and for a reasonable time after, in backups and logs.
• You are responsible for your content. You must have the right to post it, and it must follow the Game Rules.
• We can review, hide, edit or remove any content, and we are not required to keep any of it.
• Private mail is private from other players, not from staff investigating a report or a rule break.

9. Conduct

Everything you do in the game must follow the Game Rules. In short: no cheating, no bots or scripts, no extra accounts, no exploiting bugs, no real-money trading, and no harassment, hate or real-world threats. Lying, scheming and betrayal inside the game are part of the game; doing it outside the game, or with real money, is not.

10. Staff and enforcement

The game is run by the owner, with admins and moderators the owner appoints. Staff can investigate any account and take any of these actions, with or without warning, as they judge the situation needs:

• A warning
• A mute from chat, forums or mail
• Jail
• Removing content
• Taking back money, items or progress gained unfairly
• Killing a character
• A temporary suspension
• A permanent ban of the account, and of any other accounts belonging to the same person

Every staff action is recorded in a log that can't be edited or deleted. If you think a decision was wrong, you can appeal once by support ticket within 14 days. The owner's decision on an appeal is final.

12. Changes to the game

The game is always being worked on. We can add, change, rebalance or remove any feature, number, rule, city, rank or item at any time, and we can reset part or all of the game. We'll announce big changes when we reasonably can, but we don't owe you any compensation for them.

13. Availability

We aim to keep the game running, but we don't promise it will always be available, fast or free of errors. It may go down for maintenance, updates or reasons outside our control. Parts of the game may be marked as preview, test or beta, and may be wiped. The beta (beta.themobway.com) is a test of the game: every beta character, item and in-game amount is wiped when the game opens, and nothing can be bought there with real money. We are not responsible for anything lost to downtime, lag or errors, except as the owner decides under section 11.

14. Ending your account

• You can stop playing at any time. To close your account, use Close my account in Settings (or ask us at support@themobway.com). It takes effect at once: your living character dies, you're logged out everywhere, and you can't log back in.
• Changed your mind? Send a support ticket within 30 days and the owner may reopen the account. A character that died when it closed stays dead. After 30 days your personal details are deleted or anonymized (see the Privacy Policy, section 7), and it can't be undone.
• We can suspend or close any account at any time if we believe it broke these Terms or the Game Rules, puts other players or the game at risk, or if the law requires it.
• When an account closes, its characters, virtual items and paid extras end with it.
• Sections 6, 8, 11 and 15 to 20 keep applying after your account ends.

15. Disclaimers

The game is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises of any kind, express or implied, including that the game will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose. We are not responsible for what other players say or do.

16. Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for any loss of data, virtual items, characters, profits or goodwill. Our total liability to you for anything to do with the game is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the 6 months before the claim, or US $50. Some places don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

17. Indemnity

If someone brings a claim against us because of your content, your use of the game or your breaking of these Terms, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses from it, to the extent the law allows.

18. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

• Talk to us first. Before any formal claim, email support@themobway.com with what happened and what you want. We'll try to sort it out within 30 days. Most problems end there.
• Small claims. Either side may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court where you live or in New York.
• Courts. Anything else goes only to the state or federal courts located in New York, and you and we agree to those courts.
• One at a time. To the extent the law allows, claims are brought individually, not as part of a class or group action.
• Time limit. To the extent the law allows, any claim must be brought within one year of when it arose.
• Nothing here takes away rights the law where you live gives you and that can't be signed away.

19. Copyright complaints

We respect copyright and follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Our designated agent for copyright notices is listed in the US Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory under The Mob Way:

Copyright Agent, The Mob Way
Email: themobway2@gmail.com
Mailing address and phone: as listed in the directory above.

Sending a takedown notice

If you believe something in the game uses your copyrighted work without permission, send our agent a notice that includes:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• the copyrighted work you say is being infringed;
• what in the game is infringing and where to find it (the character, post, message or page), clearly enough for us to find it;
• your name, address, phone number and email;
• a statement that you believe in good faith that the use isn't authorized by the owner, its agent or the law; and
• a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or are authorized to act for the owner.

When we get a valid notice we remove or disable the material quickly and tell the player who posted it. Knowingly false claims can make you liable for damages (17 U.S.C. 512(f)).

If your upload was removed by mistake (counter-notice)

If something you posted was taken down and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, send our agent a counter-notice that includes:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• what was removed and where it appeared before it was removed;
• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification;
• your name, address and phone number; and
• a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, if you're outside the US, any district where we can be found), and that you'll accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice or their agent.

We'll pass the counter-notice to the person who complained. Unless they tell us within 10 business days that they've filed a court action to stop you, we'll put the material back within 10 to 14 business days of receiving your counter-notice.

Repeat infringers

Accounts that repeatedly post others' copyrighted work will be closed.

20. General

• Whole agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Game Rules are the whole agreement between you and us about the game.
• If part fails. If a court finds part of these Terms can't be enforced, that part is limited as little as needed and the rest still applies.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a rule once, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
• Transfer. You can't transfer these Terms or your account to anyone. We can transfer them if the game changes hands.
• Events outside our control (outages, attacks, disasters, provider failures) don't make us liable for what they cause.
• Notices. We can give you notice in the game or at your account's email address. You give us notice at support@themobway.com.

21. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. For important changes we'll give notice in the game or by email before they take effect. If you keep playing after a change takes effect, you accept the new Terms.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@themobway.com, or use Contact at the bottom of any page.