1. Introduction
Happy Joker Gaming is a free social arcade platform built for Canadian adults. The community features — leaderboards, forums, events, player profiles, and all social interactions — exist to enhance the entertainment experience and connect players who share a love of arcade culture.
These guidelines exist because communities don't run on good intentions alone. They run on clear, consistently enforced expectations. Every person who uses any community feature on this platform is bound by these guidelines from the moment they first interact publicly. Ignorance of the guidelines is not a valid defence against enforcement action.
These guidelines work alongside our Terms of Service. In the event of any conflict, the Terms of Service govern. These guidelines provide the social and behavioural layer on top of the legal framework.
2. Who Can Participate
All community features are restricted to adults aged 19 years and older who are currently residing in Canada. This requirement mirrors the platform-wide eligibility criteria and is not negotiable.
By posting in any community space, participating in any event, or engaging with any social feature on the platform, you are confirming that you meet these eligibility requirements. If we have reason to believe a user does not meet these requirements, access will be suspended immediately and the account reviewed.
Province-specific legal requirements may also apply. Players are responsible for understanding the digital entertainment laws applicable in their own province or territory and ensuring their participation is compliant.
3. Respectful Conduct
The single most important rule in this community is simple: treat every other player with respect. Happy Joker Gaming brings together adults from all provinces, all backgrounds, all skill levels, and all walks of life. That diversity is a strength — but only if everyone commits to engaging respectfully across those differences.
Respectful conduct means addressing disagreements calmly and constructively, assuming good faith in other players' intentions, and choosing encouragement over criticism whenever possible. It means celebrating others' successes rather than diminishing them. It means competing hard but fairly, and taking wins and losses with equal grace.
Respect extends to the platform itself: treat community spaces as you would a shared physical space. Don't litter it with low-quality content, don't monopolize conversations, and don't exploit features in ways that degrade the experience for others.
4. Prohibited Behaviour
The following behaviours are strictly prohibited and will result in enforcement action up to and including permanent removal from the platform:
- Harassment and bullying: Targeting any player with repeated unwanted contact, insults, threats, or intimidation tactics — whether publicly in forums or privately through messaging features.
- Hate speech and discrimination: Content that demeans, threatens, or discriminates against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic.
- Impersonation: Pretending to be another player, a community moderator, a Happy Joker Gaming staff member, or any other person in a way that misleads others.
- Spam and flooding: Posting repetitive, irrelevant, or promotional content in community spaces. This includes unsolicited links to external sites, self-promotion unrelated to the platform, and automated or bot-generated posts.
- Cheating and exploitation: Using software tools, exploits, glitches, or any other method to achieve scores or outcomes that do not reflect legitimate gameplay. Sharing methods for cheating with others is equally prohibited.
- Doxxing: Sharing or attempting to obtain and share private personal information about another player without their explicit consent.
- Underage access facilitation: Sharing access credentials, providing workarounds for the age verification system, or otherwise helping a person under 19 access the platform.
- Malicious content: Posting links to malware, phishing sites, or any other harmful technical content in community spaces.
5. Content Standards
All user-generated content submitted to any community feature on the platform — including but not limited to forum posts, profile information, usernames, avatars, and event comments — must meet the following standards.
Content must be in English or French, the two official languages of Canada. Content must be relevant to the platform and its community. Adult language is permitted in context but must not be used aggressively or directed at other users. Sexually explicit, graphically violent, or otherwise inappropriate content is prohibited regardless of context.
Usernames and avatars must not contain slurs, hate symbols, or any content that would violate the prohibited behaviour section of these guidelines. Happy Joker Gaming reserves the right to require a username or avatar change at any time without notice if we determine it violates these standards.
6. Privacy of Others
Respect the privacy of your fellow players. Do not share personal information about other players that was not voluntarily made public by those players. This includes real names, locations, contact details, photographs, and employment information.
Screenshots of private conversations shared publicly in community spaces without the other party's consent are a violation of these guidelines. Even if you believe a private message contains violating content, the appropriate response is to use the Report function — not to post the conversation publicly.
Our Privacy Policy governs how we handle your personal information. These guidelines govern how you should handle the personal information of others within the community.
7. Fair Play
Competitive features like leaderboards and weekly challenges must be participated in fairly. Scores achieved through exploits, automation, or any method other than genuine manual gameplay are invalid and will be removed if detected. Accounts found cheating will be disqualified from competitive features and may be permanently banned.
Sharing legitimate strategies, tips, and gameplay advice is actively encouraged. The community is stronger when players help each other improve. There is a clear difference between sharing knowledge and sharing exploits — use your judgment, and when in doubt, don't share it.
8. Reporting Violations
If you witness behaviour that violates these guidelines, please report it using the in-platform report function available on all community content, or by emailing hello@happyjokergaming.com with details of the incident.
Good reports include: the username of the person involved, the specific content or behaviour that occurred, a link or screenshot if applicable, and the approximate time it happened. The more detail you provide, the faster our moderation team can act.
Reports are confidential. The person being reported will not be informed of the reporter's identity. Please do not abuse the report function to target players you simply dislike — false reports are themselves a guidelines violation.
9. Enforcement
Happy Joker Gaming operates a tiered enforcement system. Minor first-time violations typically result in a warning and content removal. Moderate violations or repeat minor violations result in temporary suspension from community features. Serious violations — including any form of harassment, hate speech, cheating, or underage facilitation — result in immediate permanent removal with no warning required.
All enforcement decisions are made by trained human moderators, not automated systems alone. We aim to be fair and consistent but reserve the right to exercise judgment in unusual or ambiguous situations. The safety and wellbeing of the community as a whole always takes precedence over any individual account.
10. Appeals
If you believe an enforcement action against your account was made in error, you may submit an appeal by emailing hello@happyjokergaming.com within 14 days of the action being taken. Include your username, the enforcement action applied, and your explanation of why you believe it was incorrect.
Appeals are reviewed by a senior moderation team member not involved in the original decision. We aim to respond to all appeals within five business days. Appeal decisions are final.
11. Guideline Changes
These guidelines may be updated from time to time as the platform evolves. Significant changes will be announced through the community hub. Continued use of any community feature following a guideline update constitutes acceptance of the revised guidelines. The current version is always available on this page, with the "last updated" date shown at the top.
Questions about these guidelines? Email hello@happyjokergaming.com.