GULF GAMBIT — COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Effective date: 2026-09-27 Last updated: 2026-09-27

1. What this document is

Gulf Gambit is a game about persuasion, alliances and betrayal. That only works if the table is safe to sit at.

These Guidelines say, in plain language, what is expected of you in chat, in matches and on your profile — and what happens when someone ignores it. They are the readable companion to our Terms of Service, which is the binding agreement. Where the two ever disagree, the Terms of Service governs.

They apply everywhere you can reach another player: the global council, private envoy channels, alliance threads, your callsign, and anything else you can write or display.

2. The short version

• Play the villain in the game, not to the person. Lying, betraying an ally and breaking a pact are the game working as designed. Targeting the human being is not.
• Win by playing. No cheats, bots, exploits, collusion or second accounts.
• Keep it 13+. Everyone here is at least thirteen. Write accordingly.
• Leave people their privacy. Someone else's real name, photo, address or account is not yours to share.
• Use the tools. Report, mute and block are there to be used, and using them is never held against you.

3. Betrayal is not harassment

This is the rule most likely to be misread, so it gets a section of its own and comes before all the others.

Deception is a mechanic in Gulf Gambit. You may lie about your orders, promise a border you intend to cross, form an alliance in order to break it, and coordinate against a player who trusted you. None of that is a violation, and a report that amounts to "they betrayed me" will not be actioned.

What changes when the match ends — or when the words stop being about the map:

The test is simple: when the match ends, does it end? If it does, it was the game.

4. Chat

The council table gets heated. It stays civil.

Not allowed:

• harassment, threats or intimidation;
• hate speech, or abuse based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age;
• sexual content, and any sexualisation of minors;
• doxxing — posting someone's real name, address, workplace, phone number, photos or accounts without their consent;
• spam, flooding, advertising, referral links or account trading;
• impersonating another player, a public figure or Gulf Gambit staff;
• links to malware, phishing or pirated material;
• encouraging anyone to harm themselves.

How the filter works. Messages are checked before delivery. Some words are delivered obscured; a smaller set is refused outright, and the message is not sent. Matching is done per word rather than per fragment, so ordinary place names and surnames are not caught by accident.

The filter is a word list. It cannot hear tone, and it will not catch harassment that is phrased politely. That is what reporting is for.

5. Your callsign and profile

Your callsign is visible to everyone you play. It is checked against the same filter when you choose it.

Don't use a name that is a slur, sexual, an impersonation of staff or a real person, an advertisement, or an attempt to look like a system message. We may require a change, and we may change it ourselves if you don't.

6. Fair play

Gulf Gambit is competitive, and a match is only worth playing if everyone arrived the same way.

Not allowed:

• cheats, bots, scripts, macros or modified clients;
• knowingly exploiting a bug instead of reporting it;
• win trading, or arranging results in advance;
• a second account to gain an advantage, evade a ban, or take an extra seat in a match;
• account sharing, selling or buying;
• deliberately stalling a match, or going inactive to spoil it for everyone else;
• interfering with our servers other than through the game itself.

Found a bug? Tell us at support@gulf-gambit.com rather than using it. We'd much rather fix it.

7. Zero tolerance

These are not warned about. Accounts are removed, and we report to the authorities where the law requires it:

• sexual content involving minors, or any attempt to contact a minor sexually;
• credible threats of violence;
• doxxing;
• severe targeted harassment;
• content whose distribution is unlawful.

8. Your tools

All three ship in the app, and none of them notifies the other player that you used it.

Mute and block take effect immediately and can be undone from the same place.

Neither one removes a player from a match already in progress. Other players are in that match, and it does not end because two people fell out.

Report honestly. Filing reports against someone who simply beat you, or organising others to report a player, is itself a violation.

9. What happens when rules are broken

We look at what happened, how bad it was, whether it was aimed at someone, and what came before it. Depending on that, we may:

• remove the content;
• issue a warning;
• restrict chat;
• restrict matchmaking;
• suspend the account temporarily; or
• terminate it permanently.

We generally warn before acting permanently. Serious violations skip straight to the end, and Section 7 always does.

Reviews are done by people, helped by automated detection. Automated systems flag; they are not the last word.

Every report goes to our moderators the moment it is filed, and we aim to respond within 48 hours. A response may be an action, a warning, or a decision that no rule was broken; we do not always tell the reporter which.

10. If you think we got it wrong

Write to support@gulf-gambit.com from the email address on the account. Tell us the callsign, roughly when it happened, and what you think we missed.

We will look again. If we were wrong, we will say so and undo it.

11. Changes

We will update these Guidelines as the game changes. Substantial changes will be announced in the app. The date at the top always reflects the current version.

12. Contact

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. In the Netherlands that is 112.