Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Arkade is run by Jrd-ops (“Arkade”, “we”, “us”). You can contact us at support@jrd-ops.com or through our Discord server at discord.gg/ArkadeASA.

These terms apply to everything we run under the Arkade name (together, “Arkade”):

• our ARK: Survival Ascended game servers (the “cluster”);
• the website at arkade.site, including the shop;
• the Arkade Discord server and our Discord bot, ArkWarden; and
• points, shop items, kits and any other feature we offer.

These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, our Refund Policy and the server rules posted in our Discord server, form the whole agreement between you and us. If they conflict, these terms win, except that the Refund Policy explains your refund rights in more detail.

Arkade is an independent, player-run community. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Studio Wildcard, Snail Games, Epic Games, Discord or Stripe.

2. Who can use Arkade

• You must be at least 13 years old to use Arkade.
• If you are under 18, you must have your parent or guardian's permission to buy points. By buying points you confirm that you are 18 or over, or that you have that permission.
• You need your own legitimate copy of ARK: Survival Ascended and must follow its licence terms. Arkade does not sell or licence the game itself.
• You must not use Arkade if we have banned you, or to get around a ban placed on someone else.
• Arkade is for personal, non-commercial use. You must not use it to run a business or to make money.

3. Your account and linking

Signing in to the website and using the shop, points and kits requires a Discord account and a character linked to it (using /link in our Discord server). You agree that:

• you will only link a character that you play yourself, and one Discord account per player;
• you are responsible for everything done through your Discord account and linked character, so keep your Discord account secure;
• you will not share, sell, buy, lend or transfer accounts, linked characters or balances; and
• we can unlink or refuse a link if we reasonably believe it is wrong, shared, or being used to break these terms.

Your Discord account is provided by Discord under its own terms. We can't recover a Discord account you lose access to, but if you link a new one we will look at moving your balance across once we are satisfied it is you.

4. Playing on Arkade

No-wipe policy and rollbacks

Arkade runs a no-wipe policy: we do not plan to reset the cluster. But no online game can promise that nothing is ever lost, so we can't guarantee that any progress, structure, creature or item will be kept. We may roll a map back, or restore it from a backup, to deal with a crash, data corruption, an exploit or duplication, a security problem or a game update, and we may remove anything obtained by breaking these terms.

If a rollback removes something you bought in the shop during the time that was lost, tell us and we will deliver it again or return the points you spent on it.

Availability

We work to keep the cluster online, but maps will sometimes be offline for restarts, maintenance, game updates, hosting failures, attacks or other reasons outside our control. We don't promise any particular uptime, that every map will always be available, or that the cluster will run forever (see section 13 on closure).

Rates, maps, mods and schedules

We may change rates, maps, mods, the raid window, points rates and bonuses, the rules and any other part of how Arkade is run, to keep the cluster fair, balanced, secure and working. The cluster uses community-made mods that their authors can change or withdraw, and game updates from Studio Wildcard can change or break things. We are not responsible for changes we don't control, but we will try to limit their effect on players.

5. Rules and fair play

You must follow the server rules posted in our Discord server, which form part of these terms and may be updated there. In particular, you must not:

• cheat, or use hacks, bots, macros, scripts, modified clients or any third-party software that gives an unfair advantage;
• exploit bugs or glitches, including meshing, duplication and under-map building. If you find one, report it to us instead;
• exceed the tribe or raid-party limits, including by allying with other tribes to get around them;
• use alternate accounts to get around limits, bans or other enforcement;
• buy, sell or trade accounts, points, items, creatures, bases or services for real money or anything of real value outside the official Arkade shop (“real-money trading”);
• harass, threaten, dox or abuse anyone, or post hateful, sexual, violent or otherwise illegal content (see section 11);
• attack, disrupt or overload our servers, website or bot, or try to access any part of Arkade you aren't meant to; or
• impersonate Arkade staff, or misuse our name, logo or bot.

We decide whether a rule has been broken, acting reasonably and on the evidence available to us, which may include server logs and connection records (see our Privacy Policy). Depending on how serious it is, we may warn you, remove items, creatures or structures, reset or wipe a tribe, reverse points or purchases, or suspend or ban you from some or all of Arkade. Some rule breaks carry a fixed penalty set out in the server rules (for example, meshing results in a tribe wipe and ban).

6. Points and virtual items

Arkade has a points system. You earn points by playing (currently 25 an hour while you are online, with a bonus during the weekend raid window) and you can also buy them. Points are spent in the shop on in-game items, creatures, packs and upgrades (“virtual items”).

• Points and virtual items are a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use a feature of Arkade, granted under these terms. You don't own them, and they are not money, e-money, a deposit, a gift card or property.
• Points have no cash value. They can't be exchanged for money, withdrawn, sold, or transferred to another person, except where a feature of Arkade expressly allows it.
• Points only exist on Arkade. They can't be used anywhere else, including on other servers or in the official ARK store.
• We can correct balances that are wrong because of a bug, a duplicate delivery, a mistake on our part or a payment that is reversed, and we can remove points or items obtained by breaking these terms.
• Points you earned by playing, and any bonus, promotional or compensation points, are given free and may be changed or withdrawn at any time. We will treat points you bought fairly, as set out in section 7 and the Refund Policy.

7. Buying points

Prices and payment

Points are sold in the packages shown in the shop, priced in pounds sterling (GBP) and including any taxes we are required to charge. Payment is taken by our payment provider, Stripe. We never see or store your full card details. A purchase is complete, and the contract between us is formed, when Stripe confirms your payment.

Delivery of points, and your right to cancel

Points are digital content. Before you pay, you ask us to add your points straight away by ticking the box in the shop, and you acknowledge that you lose your 14-day right to cancel once they have been added. The payment page repeats this above the Pay button. This is allowed under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. We confirm it in the Discord message our bot sends you when your points are added. Our Refund Policy explains the refunds we still offer, including for top-ups you haven't spent.

Promotions and discount codes

Discount codes and promotions apply only as stated, only while they run, and only when used at checkout. They can't be applied to earlier purchases or exchanged for money, and we may end or change a promotion at any time. Bonus points shown on a package are part of that package.

Mistakes

If we list something at an obviously wrong price or with the wrong contents, we may cancel the purchase and return what you paid (in money or points). We will tell you if we do.

Payment disputes

If something is wrong with a purchase, please contact us first; we can almost always fix it faster than your bank can. If you dispute a payment with your bank or card provider (a “chargeback”), we may suspend your access to the shop and remove the points that payment added while the dispute is open. If the dispute is found in your favour we will make sure you're not charged twice for anything; if it is found in ours, we may restore your access. Disputing a genuine payment in bad faith breaks these terms.

8. The shop and deliveries

• When you buy something with points, the points are deducted and the item is delivered to your linked character in game: straight away if you are online, otherwise when you next log in. Some items are delivered at a set time, which the shop will show.
• Make sure you have room in your inventory. If a delivery fails or arrives incomplete, tell us within 7 days and we will check the delivery records, then deliver the missing items or return the points.
• Once delivered, a virtual item is part of the game. It can be lost, killed, destroyed, stolen or raided like anything else in ARK, and we don't replace items lost through normal gameplay.
• Some creatures or items need a paid ARK expansion or DLC to use; the shop marks these. Check that you own it before you buy.
• Free kits (such as /kit) are limited, only available to linked players, and may be changed or withdrawn at any time.
• We may change what the shop sells, and its prices, at any time. Changes don't affect a purchase already made.

9. The Discord bot

Our bot, ArkWarden, runs in the Arkade Discord server and, if you add it, in your own server to post your tribe's log (raid alerts). If you add it to a server, you confirm that you are allowed to, and you understand that it will post your tribe's log into the channel you choose. We only start sending a tribe's log once membership of that tribe has been verified in game. You can remove the bot or stop the alerts at any time. The bot uses Discord under Discord's own terms and policies.

10. Chat, names and public stats

• Messages you send in game chat, in our Discord server and to our bot must follow these terms. Game chat may be shown on other maps in the cluster, and our systems read and record chat, commands and game events to run Arkade and enforce the rules, as explained in our Privacy Policy.
• Your character name and in-game statistics (such as hours played, kills, deaths and structures destroyed) may be shown publicly on arkade.site and in our Discord server.
• You keep any rights you have in what you post. You give us a free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to host, copy, display and share it as needed to run and promote Arkade (for example, showing a screenshot you posted in our Discord server). This licence ends when the content is deleted, except for copies we reasonably keep in backups or records.

11. Illegal content, reporting and complaints

You must not post, send or share anything illegal on Arkade, including threats, harassment, hate speech, fraud or scams, content that promotes terrorism or self-harm, or any sexual content involving children. We remove illegal content that we become aware of, may suspend or ban the accounts involved, and may report it to the police or other authorities.

To report illegal or harmful content or behaviour, or to complain about how we have handled a report or a decision we made about you (such as a ban), contact us at support@jrd-ops.com or through our Discord server. Tell us what happened, where and when, and who was involved. We will review it, act where needed and tell you the outcome. Where a penalty is fixed by the server rules, a complaint can challenge whether the rule was broken, not the penalty itself.

12. Suspension and termination

• You can stop using Arkade at any time. To have your data deleted, see our Privacy Policy.
• We may suspend or end your access to some or all of Arkade if you break these terms or the server rules, if the law requires it, or to protect Arkade or other players. Where it is reasonable and safe to, we will tell you why.
• If we ban you for breaking these terms, you lose access to your points and virtual items and we don't refund them, except where the law requires us to.
• If we close Arkade permanently, or stop selling points, we will give at least 30 days' notice in our Discord server and on arkade.site, and we will handle points you bought as set out in our Refund Policy.
• Sections 6, 7 (payment disputes), 12, 14, 16 and 17 continue to apply after your access ends.

13. Changes to Arkade and to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect changes to Arkade, to the law, or to how we run things. We will post the new version here with a new date, and for significant changes we will also announce them in our Discord server at least 14 days before they take effect, unless the change is needed sooner for legal or security reasons. If you keep using Arkade after a change takes effect, the new terms apply. If a change significantly reduces the value of points you bought and haven't spent, you can ask us for a refund of those points under our Refund Policy.

14. Our responsibility to you

• Your legal rights are not affected. Nothing in these terms limits your rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or any other law that can't be excluded, including your right to digital content that is as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. Citizens Advice can explain these rights.
• We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable.
• We don't exclude or limit our liability where it would be unlawful to, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
• If digital content we supplied damages a device or other digital content belonging to you, and that happened because we failed to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. We are not responsible where you could have avoided the damage by following our advice or installing a free update.
• Arkade is for private, non-commercial use, so we are not responsible for any loss of profit, business, business opportunity or data used for business purposes.
• We are not responsible for things outside our reasonable control, including game updates, mods, outages at our hosting, Discord, Epic or Stripe, or attacks on our services.
• Apart from the liability we can't limit (see above), our total liability to you for all claims connected with Arkade is limited to the greater of the total amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and £100.

15. Third-party services

ARK: Survival Ascended is published by Studio Wildcard and Snail Games; online play runs through Epic Online Services; sign-in and our community use Discord; payments are processed by Stripe; and the cluster uses community mods. Each is provided under its own terms, which you must also follow, and we are not responsible for them. Arkade is operated and monetised within the terms that apply to unofficial ARK: Survival Ascended servers, and nothing we sell gives you any rights in the game itself.

16. Intellectual property

The Arkade name, logo, website, bot and our own content belong to us or our licensors. ARK: Survival Ascended and its content, names and artwork are the property of their respective owners and are used here to describe the game our servers run. You may not copy, modify, resell or reuse our content, bot or services except as these terms allow.

17. General

• Governing law and courts. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales; if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you can also bring them in your local courts.
• Disputes. If you have a problem, please contact us first and give us a chance to put it right; most things can be fixed quickly.
• Severability. If a court decides that part of these terms is unlawful or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• Transfer. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another person or business that takes over running Arkade; we will tell you if this happens and it won't reduce your rights. You may not transfer yours.
• Third-party rights. No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms.

18. Contact

Questions about these terms: support@jrd-ops.com, or ask in our Discord server at discord.gg/ArkadeASA.