Service provider identification – who are we?

We are the developers and customer service representatives who provide gaming experiences through K.R. Engineering. You may interact with us by visiting this website (karstenrutledge.com), visiting our wiki, signing up for or accessing a Live.Gaming.SL or PlayMore account, contacting us through various means, or using our products within one of the virtual world platforms that we serve.

 

Data collection – what customer data do we collect, and how do we use it?

Second Life

• As of this writing, we collect certain avatar, region, and parcel data through our game tables in Second Life.
• This data collection is opt-in, as you must actively purchase or play one of our games in order for it to take place. If you wish to opt-out entirely, you have the option of not purchasing or playing our games. You can also choose to opt-out of having your information listed on Live.Gaming.SL.
• We only collect data on AVATARS in Second Life who directly play or own our games. There is no passive collection of AVATAR data that occurs.
• We do passively collect data on the REGIONS and PARCELS in Second Life that our games are played on.

 

Player Data

This section applies to all avatars in Second Life which have played or own a Gaming.SL game.

When a player joins (or rezzes) one of our games, the game uploads the player’s UUID, Username, Legacy Name and Display Name to our website.

• • Your UUID (Unique Universal IDentifier) is a unique 36-character string (e.g. 974cd5a0-16ca-42a9-bac6-8d583b7d7438) that uniquely identifies your avatar in Second Life. This UUID can be used by scripts to get information about your avatar, such as your name, how old your account is, and whether you are online or not. We collect this information as a unique identifier so that we can associate your achievements and high scores with your avatar. This UUID is also used to associate any licenses, addons, themes, or other products you have purchased with your account.
  • Your Username is the name you use to log in to Second Life and is always visible in your profile so that other Second Life residents can identify you uniquely, even if you change your Display Name. This username is unique to you. We collect this to aid in searching for yourself on the website to see your achievements and high scores.
  • Your Legacy Name is your name before the display names feature was implemented. For older Second Life residents, this will be the first and last name you assigned to your avatar when you created it. For newer Second Life residents, this will be your username followed by “Resident” as a last name. We collect your Legacy Name because Display Names can have unicode characters in them, and many features of Second Life (such as floating text) do not support Unicode characters, so we send the Legacy Name instead.
  • Your Display Name is the name you have chosen for yourself, it can be anything you want and is not unique to your avatar. Two avatars can have the same Display Name. We collect this information to use on the website in identifying you on pages showing your achievements and high scores, as this is the name you have chosen for yourself.

This information is uploaded every time you join or rez one of our games, so that if you have changed your name since you last played one of our games, we can update our database to correctly identify you on the website.

In addition to the information that is uploaded by the games, the server also records a timestamp (date and time) of the first time you ever played a Gaming.SL game and the most recent time you have played.

All of the information collected here is public data available to anyone who has a Second Life account. All of this data is visible simply by looking at your profile in Second Life. We simply mirror this data on our website.

As of this writing, no other information is collected about avatars.

 

Licenses

This section applies to all gaming tables in Second Life which support Gaming.SL Live.

Our games operate on a license-based system. When you purchase a Gaming.SL game, a license key is generated for your new game in our database. This license key grants you the right to operate one (1) instance of the game you have purchased. Additional licenses can be purchased for additional simultaneous instances.

Licenses in our database store the following information:

• • Date and time of purchase.
  • The game type and model that the license is for.
  • UUID of Second Life account that purchased it.
  • UUIDs of current and previous owners of the license.
  • Date and time that the license was last used in Second Life.
  • Licenses also store all of the settings of the game they were last used on. This is necessary to allow the game to save all of its settings between sessions, and restore the game settings to the same as the last time the owner used it. Otherwise the game would reset to a factory default state every time it was activated.

 

Region and Parcel Data

This section applies to all gaming tables in Second Life which support Gaming.SL Live.

While a Gaming.SL game is rezzed (in use), it will passively collect information about the region and parcel it is rezzed in. The following list is a complete accounting of all data collected on regions:

• • Region name.
  • Estate name.
  • Estate ID.
  • Region capacity (the maximum number of avatars allowed in the region at the same time.)
  • Region occupancy (the number of avatars currently in the region.)
  • Region performance sampling. This is a record of the last 5 region time dilation samples taken every 2 minutes.
  • Region type, such as Full Region, Homestead, or Void.

In addition to region data, the game will also collect data about the parcel that it is on. It does not collect information on other parcels in the region, ONLY the parcel it is currently rezzed (in use) on. The parcel data collected is:

• • Parcel name.
  • Parcel description.
  • Parcel UUID. This is an identifier that is unique to the specific parcel.
  • Parcel owner UUID.

All of the information collected here is public data available to anyone who has a Second Life account and access to the region. All of this data is visible simply by looking at region/parcel information windows in the Second Life viewer. We simply mirror this data on our website.

Region and Parcel information is recorded to be factored into the ranking and display of public games (see below). This information is also used to allow players to filter leaderboards and rankings by location, to see localized results.

 

Public Games

This section applies to all gaming tables in Second Life which support Gaming.SL Live.

Owners of individual games can optionally choose to make their games Public (also called Live). All games default to PRIVATE, and must be explicitly made public by the license owner if they choose to do so.

All games, regardless of whether they are Public or not, record the following information:

• • Region and Parcel the game is on (see Region and Parcel Data above).
  • Number of players currently playing the game.
  • Number of potential players near the game (Near as defined by within 40 meters of the game).
  • The most recent high score that was won on the game.
  • The most recent achievement that was unlocked on the game.
  • A subset of the game’s settings that have been made available as search criteria (e.g. only find Greedy games playing with Zilch rules).
  • Whether the game is public or private.
  • The Live Rank of the game. The Live Rank of the game is determined algorithmically by the server based on region type, region performance, region capacity, region occupancy, nearby players, and active players. Games which have a higher Live Rank will appear above games with a lower Live Rank on the Gaming.SL Live Games (list of public games) page on the website. The Live Rank has no effect on private games.

 

Achievement Data

This section only applies to games that are listed as supporting Achievements on the Gaming.SL website.

When a game believes that a player should be awarded an achievement, it uploads the following information to the website:

• • The player’s UUID.
  • The achievement they are to be awarded.
  • The progress of the player to unlocking the achievement if more than one step is necessary to be awarded. (such as “play the game X number of times.”)

If the player has already been awarded the achievement in question, no further action is taken and the request is ignored.

If the player has not previously been awarded the achievement, the database records that the player now has the achievement and sends back a “success” message to the game, so that the game can inform the player of how awesome they are.

A timestamp (date and time) of when the achievement was unlocked is also recorded.

As of this writing, no other information is collected about achievements.

 

High Score Data

This section only applies to games that are listed as supporting Leaderboards on the Gaming.SL website.

When a game has been won, it will upload “end of game” data to the server. This data includes:

• • The UUID of the winner (or multiple winners, in the case of a tie or team games) of the game, to display on high score boards.
  • The UUIDs of all other players who were playing against the winner(s).
  • The winner’s score, to display on high score boards.
  • The duration of the game (how long it lasted from start to win).
  • The total number of players who were playing at the time the game ended.
  • The minimum number of players who were present for the entire duration of the game.
  • The maximum number of players who were present for the entire duration of the game.
  • The Region and Parcel that the game was occupying when the game was won.
  • The version of the game that was played on.
  • What options were used for this game, if any. Options are game specific and are often variations on the base rule set, such as Amish Dice in Greedy Greedy. This information is used on the Leaderboards so that players can limit the high scores they see to only games played with specific rule sets. The reason for this is that games played with one rule set may allow for higher scores to be achieved than when using a different ruleset, so it isn’t fair to compare them directly to determine who has the “high” score. This information is also used by the Gaming.SL Jackpots for this same reason, to only determine winners from specific rule sets.

The server also records a timestamp (date and time) of when the game was won.

As of this writing, no other information is collected about high scores.

The Winner Data is used by the Top Scores page on the website.

 

Winner Data

This section only applies to games that are listed as supporting Leaderboards on the Gaming.SL website.

When a player wins a game in Second Life, we not only record the high score that was achieved, but we also record a tally of total wins for the winning player(s).

This win tally does not record any additional data beyond what is recorded in the High Score Data, but merely adds a separately searchable option for total number of times the player has won.

The Winner Data is used by the Top Winners page on the website.

 

Player Rank Data

This section only applies to games that are listed as supporting Leaderboards on the Gaming.SL website.

When a player wins a game in Second Life, we not only record the high score and a tally of total wins, but we also assign the completed game a rank. This rank is algorithmically determined based on the number of players playing, how well the other players (everyone except the winner) performed in the game as compared to the winner, as well as the previously recorded rank of all participating players compared to the previously recorded rank of the winning player.

This rank does not record any additional data beyond what is recorded in the High Score Data, but merely adds a single number that represents the finished game’s score, as well as a separately searchable number that represents the winner’s rank.

The Rank Data is used by the Top Ranked page on the website.

 

Addon Data

This section only applies to games that are listed as supporting Addons on the Gaming.SL website.

When you purchase an addon from our store, the vendor uploads your avatar UUID and the name of the addon that you wish to purchase.

• • If you have previously purchased this addon, the server rejects the request and the vendor will refund you.
  • If you have not previously purchase this addon, the server will record your UUID and the addon you purchased together in the database, so that we know in the future that you now own this addon. The server also records the timestamp (date and time) of when you purchased it.

Addon data is sent from the server to your game tables every time they “check in” with the server. The server sends a list of only the names of addons that you have purchased that are compatible with the type (e.g Greedy Greedy, Simopolis, etc) and the version of the table checking in. No other data is sent. How the games use specific addons is completely open-ended and is implemented fully in the game itself, not on the server. The game only needs to know which ones you own from the server.

We record addon ownership information in the server rather than in the table for two reasons:

1. 1. So that when you update your table, the new table that you receive will automatically have access to the addons that you had installed on your old table.
   2. Because addons are not game specific. An addon might work with BOTH Greedy Greedy and Simopolis, for example, and we only want you to pay for it once instead of twice. Likewise, you may have more than one Greedy Greedy table, and we don’t want you to have to buy the same addon for each of your tables. So our server records that you own this addon, and then all compatible games that you own now or in the future have access to it simultaneously.

As of this writing, no other information is collected about addons.

 

Can I opt out of the Gaming.SL.Live service?

Yes, you can. Click the Gaming.SL logo on any Gaming.SL enabled game in Second Life and click “Opt Out” on the menu. You can also use the Opt Out kiosk in our store. Should you change your mind, simply repeat this process to opt back in to Gaming.SL.

What does this opt me out of?

• You will disappear off of the website. You will not show up for achievements, leaderboards, jackpots, player profiles, or any other features of the website.
• You will no longer appear on in-world Scorekeepers or Gamekeepers or any other objects in Second Life that access data from Gaming.SL.
• Gaming.SL will no longer record information that pertains only to your account, such as achievements. As such, you will no longer gain achievements and will no longer see them announced for you in-world.

What does this NOT opt me out of?

• In order to record that you have opted out of Gaming.SL features, the database must maintain a record of your account that is flagged as having opted out, so we know to ignore it in the future. As stated above in the Player Data section, this record contains no private information, only freely available information to everyone in Second Life. It will, however, not be visible on the website anymore.
• If you win a game, the game must still upload the results of the game to the Gaming.SL website, which includes the UUID of the person who won it and the UUIDs of the other participating players. However, information pertaining to you will not show up on the website, such as on leaderboards and jackpots. If you win a game, it will be recorded, but it won’t be visible anywhere.
• Any existing information in the database at the time of opt-out will continue to exist, but will simply become unavailable on the website. This means any achievements or similar that you have incurred while playing will still be recorded in the database, but will not be accessible on the website. Also, no NEW information will be added to the database after opting out. If you wish to have all old information removed from the database, please contact us. We do not remove achievements and other old data immediately upon opting out because customers often opt-out by accident, and we do not want to destroy their Gaming.SL experience because they accidentally pressed the wrong button.
• Owning and playing games will still work normally.
• This does not disconnect your game table from the website, only you personally. Other people can continue to gain achievements and high scores on your game table.
• If you have purchased addons for your games, they will continue to work normally. It also does not prevent you from buying more addons, themes, or games in the future.

 

Sinespace

Details coming soon.

 

Associated Websites

• We have several websites that you may choose to visit, including this website (karstenrutledge.com), our wiki, Live.Gaming.SL and PlayMore.
• The information we collect from these visits is data which is commonly collected by web servers on the Internet. During normal browsing of our websites, we may log your IP address, your page requests, and your browser user agent string. We do this in order to provide you with the content you have requested and to aid in spam detection.
• The above information is anonymous unless you are logged in, as we do not have any way to associate an IP address with a virtual world account. Scripts in Second Life cannot access the IP address of an avatar, so our games do not upload this information for simply playing or owning our games. Only Linden Lab employees can see the IP addresses of avatars connected to Second Life, and we are not affiliated with Linden Lab.
• Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
• We also log the IP address and virtual world identity of users who choose to create a login on Live.Gaming.SL. Creating a login is not necessary to own or play K.R. Engineering games.
• Information about cookies coming soon.

 

Customer Service and In-World Contact

• We offer several ways for customers to contact us. In addition to the contact form provided on this website, customers may choose to instant message (IM) VelvetPurrsons or Karsten Rutledge on Second Life, IM Karsten Rutledge on Sinespace, email us directly, or visit our virtual showroom hosted on the SL platform.
• While assisting customers via virtual world IM, we will have access to their virtual world name. The conversation (including any information the customer chooses to disclose, such as the names of their alts or their email address) will be displayed on our computers as a matter of course. 
• While assisting customers via our contact form and email, we will have access to their email address, the name associated with that email address, and their virtual world user name.
• If a customer purchases one of our products, a record of their purchase will be retained in our database. This includes the time and date of the purchase, the amount of the purchase, the transaction number applicable to the virtual world platform used, the name of the avatar that initiated the purchase, and the item name.
• If customers choose to visit our virtual showroom on the Second Life platform, their avatar name and the time of their visit will be automatically logged by a basic visitor counter. Karsten Rutledge will then be notified, and if he is offline, this notification may then be forwarded to his email account. No other loggers (including conversation loggers) are used in our store.

 

Data management — who has access to the information listed above?

• Only two people have access to the Gaming.SL and Live.Gaming.SL databases, all customer service logs, and the website information detailed above. The first is the account holder behind the “Karsten Rutledge” Second Life and Sinespace accounts. The second is the account holder behind the “VelvetPurrsons” Second Life account.
• If you visit any of our websites, our webspace provider, InMotion Hosting, may keep service logs that contain your IP address, browser information, and page requests. These are purged regularly.
• Your data is not shared with any third parties either directly or indirectly, beyond any gaming information that is plainly visible by viewing the Live.Gaming.SL website.
• We do not use any of the APIs provided by Google, Twitter or Facebook. Our pages on these services are used for announcements and discussion only, they do not connect back to our servers in any way.

 

Data retention — how long do you keep the above information, and how do you keep it safe?

• All records may be retained indefinitely, unless we receive a written request from a user asking us to erase their personal information. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
• Service log information (such as IP addresses, page requests, etc.) is purged regularly.
• All customer information is housed on secure, password-protected computers and servers. Your password (if you have created an optional login on one of our websites) is stored in the database using an industry-standard encryption. No plain-text passwords are stored anywhere on the website. Nobody knows what your password is but you. We do recommend that you not use the same password for Gaming.SL as you do for Second Life or any other website, to follow best security practices.

 

I have additional questions — how can I contact you?

You can contact us via the contact form on this website.

 

When was this Privacy Policy last updated?

It was last updated on May 21, 2018.