Requirements for Sponsored Hosts

Host Behavior
As a sponsored host, you represent newHorizone. You are expected to follow these guidelines.

Sponsorship may be revoked for any of the following:

• Banning players from your game without permission from your Sponsor.
• Rude treatment of players.
• Failure to follow any of the rules for hosting.
• Patch use of any kind.
• Consistent absences from your scheduled game.
• Violation of the Terms of Membership/Terms of Service (ToS/ToM).
• Misappropriation of prizes, either giving away or selling.
• Allowing harassment of players by other players, or harassment of a player.
• Disrupting another host's game.
• Use of offensive or foul language.
• Lack of participation in Host Forum.

If at any time you are powered by a Guide or Caretaker, the following penalties apply:
1st offense: 1 month suspension
2nd offense: 3 month suspension
3rd offense: Removal from sponsorship

If at any time you are force ghosted, the following penalties apply:
1st offense: Warning
2nd offense: 2 week suspension
3rd offense: 1 month suspension
4th offense: 3 month suspension
5th offense: Removal from sponsorship

Forums
Participation in the VZones Host Forums (http://forums.vzones.com) is a requirement for sponsorship. You will need to register a forum account and submit your forum user name and registered e-mail address when applying for sponsorship. Hosts who do not have a VZones forum account will not be accepted for sponsorship. Current hosts will need to register in order to maintain their sponsored status.
Please note that Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail addresses will not be accepted for forum registration due to spam and abuse from these services. Please use your home ISP e-mail address or a different web mail service, such as Gmail, for your forum account.

Participation includes:

1. Posting cancelled or missed games in Game Cancellations threads in the Host Forum and nH Official Public Forum.
2. Posting Event winners lists in Winners thread in Host Forum.
3. Posting Monthly winners lists in Progressive Games in Host Forum.
4. Posting Daily winners lists in Winners thread in Host Forum if your sponsor requests it.

Scheduling Your Regular Games
Game Times
You cannot host the same game at the same place or time as another host. Your Guide/CT Sponsor will send all scheduling information in for you to be added to the schedule.

Missed Games
Hosts make a commitment to host a minimum of one game a week. If you find you are consistently unable to make the time slot you set aside, please adjust your game times to better fit your schedule. Continued missing of your games will result in the removal of your sponsorship until you are able to fulfill your commitment.

If you are not able to commit to a regularly scheduled weekly game, you may also have the option of being sponsored as an unscheduled host. Unscheduled hosts can host impromptu games, substitute for regularly scheduled hosts upon request, substitute for no-show hosts, and host in events.

Prizes for Regular Games
Guide and Partner (Game Dome and DelphiZones) Prizes used in the Regular Daily/Weekly Games can be viewed here.

Prize Delivery
Your prizes will be delivered to you by your Sponsor. You will have a turf with your Sponsor and his/her other hosts. You will have your own locker in that turf. Do not give anyone other than your Sponsor your combination. Do not change your locker combination. Do not invite others into the Host Turf or add anyone, including alts, to the turf lease without your Sponsor's permission.

Prizes for Regular/Daily Games
You will get 1st-4th place prizes (main prizes) and 4 door prize coupons. The same type of prize set is used for all regular Guide/Partner Games (non-event games). Roulette is an exception; prizes for 8 spins are allowed, though not required. Each prize set is dated and that prize set must be used only on those dates.

The prizes are not marked specifically as 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th place. You may award the prizes according to the placements designated on the official prize page, or you may allow winners to pick prizes. If you are allowing winners to pick prizes, this must be announced before the start of the game. Prize boxes should never be placed on the ground to allow players to choose their prize.

Adult Games
Adult Games are no longer allowed in public locales nor can they be sponsored. All games must follow ToM/ToS Guidelines.

Missing Regular/Daily Game Prizes
This applies to regular game prizes only, not to event game prizes. If you do not have prizes at the start of your game, page a Guide for a set and e-mail your Sponsor that you are without prizes. If you cannot contact a staff member to get your prize sets, take a list of winners and contact your Sponsor to get your prizes. You are responsible for distributing prizes to the winners once your Sponsor has delivered them.

Monthly Prizes for Regular Games (Progressive Games)
Once you have hosted for 2 months, you may start hosting a Monthly Prize Game (progressive game). Monthly Prize Tickets are awarded to winners that have won progressive games. Monthly ticket winner names must be posted in the Host Forum immediately after the tickets have been awarded, or you may lose the option of doing progressive games.

You must hold at least 75% of your games in order to award the monthly ticket (i.e. at least 3 out of 4 games that month).

The Monthly Prize Tickets may be awarded in two different ways:

1. The prize winners from each of your weekly games play a short playoff game at the end of the month. The playoff winner gets the Monthly Prize Ticket.
2. You can keep a running total of points or scores for each of your games during the month and the top total scorer wins the Monthly Prize Ticket of each progressive game.

Each game you host every month can have one Monthly Prize Ticket, but is not required. For example, if you host Trivia twice a week and Bingo once a week, you could get one Monthly Prize Ticket for each Trivia game you host in one month and one Monthly Prize Ticket for each Bingo game you host in that month.

Once a player has won a Monthly Prize Ticket, they cannot win it again from that scheduled game for 3 months. For example, if a player wins a Monthly Prize ticket from your game at the end of October, November would start the 3 month wait, which would go through January. That player could win again at that game at the end of February.

A player who has won a Monthly Prize Ticket from one of your games can still win one at a different progressive game that you host.

Hosting Your Regular Weekly Games
Players
All sponsored games must be free to all players. To award all prizes in a game, you must have at least 5 players attending. If you do not have at least 5 players, at this time you have the option to hold the game with a minimum of 4 players in attendance. If you have only 4 players, you can award only the 4 main prize placements. If you have fewer than 4 players, you must cancel the game for that day. One door prize may be given to each of the players who did show up if you do not meet the minimum of 4 players and your game is canceled. Left over prizes should be returned to your locker for your sponsor to pick up.

Awarding Prizes
If a player is unable to get the prize from you because they have poofed, leave them ESP mail to contact you, the host, to get their prize. Hosts must hold a prize for a winner for a week. If the prize has not been claimed by then, return the prize to your Sponsor with an explanation. If Host poofs before the prize can be handed to the winner, follow the same guidelines if you are not able to return in time to hand it to them directly.

Hosting in Events
If you are looking for information about hosting your own event, please see the Events Guidelines page. Only sponsored Hosts who have been sponsored for 6 months or longer may host or co-host their own events. The following section is about hosting in events.

Only Sponsored Hosts are allowed to sign up to host in Events. Hosts in good standing that have hosted for at least 2 months, and whose Sponsors agree they are ready, may host in member and staff events.

An Event is not the time to learn or practice hosting a new game. Please sign up for Event hosting only with games that you are already experienced and comfortable in hosting for what will usually be a larger group than your regular games.

Event Game Scheduling
When signing up to host, please check the Daily Schedule and make sure you do not conflict with the same game already on the Daily game schedule.

Event Prize Support
E-mail your Sponsor whenever you are added to an Event schedule; make sure to send this e-mail no later than the closing date of the Event schedule (Wednesday before the event). Include the day(s)/time(s) and type of games you will be hosting. If you are converting a regular daily schedule game to an event game, regular prizes can not be used in addition to event prizes. The regular prizes should be returned to your locker for your sponsor to pick up.

Your Sponsor must request the prize sets you need from the Event staff, and if he or she is unaware you are signed up for an event, your prizes may not be delivered in time for your game.

Your Sponsor will deliver Event prize sets to your locker usually by Friday evening before the Event. Event prize sets all include: 1st-4th place prizes, 4 Event Door Prizes and 1 Host Credit for the host to keep as a thank-you for hosting in the Event.

In addition to regular games, during an event you can also host contests such as a Costume Contest, Turf Contest, Poem Contest, Story Contest or Recipe Contest. For these contests you may award 1st - 4th place to the contest winners, and raffle off the door prizes to players who did not win a main place prize in the contest. You may also give one entry prize to each entrant. Staff Judges must be used for these types of contest.

Door prizes may be used to give out for attendance to Plays during an Event.

Missing Event Prizes

If Event prize sets were not delivered to you before your game:

1. E-mail and ESP your Sponsor to get your missing prize set(s).
2. If you do not get a response from your sponsor, ESP and email the Event Caretaker: Caretaker Caro (nhevents@vzoners.com) or
   World Managers: Witchy (WM) (nh_witchy@btinternet.com) or
   Pyewacket (WM) (pyewackt@comcast.net).
3. If you are unable to get Event prize sets before your game, host your game and keep a list of Winners. When you do receive your Event prize sets from your Sponsor or other staff member, deliver prizes to your winners as soon as you can.

Event Winners List
Event game hosts must post winners lists in the Host Forum under the thread for that Event. Please do this in a timely fashion, preferably right after the game, particularly for team events.

Unused Event Prizes
These must be returned to your Sponsor. They cannot be used in Daily games or at other Events. Failure to handle unused sets correctly can prevent you from running future Events or hosting in Events.

Event Players
You must have at least 5 players to award all prizes. If you do not have at least 5 players, at this time you have the option to hold the game with a minimum of 4 players in attendance. If you have only 4 players, you can award only the 4 main prize placements. If you have fewer than 4 players, you must cancel the game. One door prize may be given to each of the players who did show up if you do not meet the minimum of 4 players and your game is canceled. Left over prizes should be returned to your locker for your sponsor to pick up.

Awarding Event Main Placement Prizes
Hosts can not award more then one main placing prize(1st-4th) to any one player during a single game slot.

Example: Host A is hosting a game and Player Z wins the third place prize. Player Z cannot win any other main placing prize during that particular game time slot from Host A. Player Z is still eligible to win jackpots and door prizes at Host A's game. However, if Player Z leaves Host A's game and goes to Host B's game, Player Z can win one main placing prize from Host B's game.

Event Games in Private Turfs
If you choose to host an Event game in your private turf, please have someone else on the lease that can host the game for you in case you cannot make it, particularly if your game requires a special turf setup (i.e. Match Game). If you are a no-show and none of the other turf leaseholders can be contacted to sub the game, the game will be canceled if it requires a special turf setup. A game requiring no special setup may be subbed by any sponsored Host in the sub lobby locale for that turf.

Contest Judges
When hosting contests requiring Judges, do not reveal the identities of your judges! Staff members (CT's/Guides/Welcomers/Engravers/Storytellers/Festival) must be used as Judges in contests held during events. Hateful e-mails or in world text to Judges will not be tolerated. You should have a minimum of 3 judges.

Substitute Hosts/Sub Hosted Games, Cancelled Games and LOA's
Substitute Hosts & Sub Hosted Games:
If you need to miss a game, you may find a substitute host to fill in for you. You cannot hold the game at another time. Only Sponsored Hosts in good standing can sub a Sponsored game. It is your responsibility to supply the sub with the set of prizes for your game. If you are unable to locate a substitute host, please post your game cancellation in the Host Forum, nH official forum Cancelled Games section and e-mail your Sponsor with the reasons that you had to miss your game.

If a sponsored daily game or event game is subbed and prizes are not made available to the substitute Host by the end of the game hour, the substitute Host will keep a list of winners. Substitute Host will post the winners list in the Host Forum in the appropriate place and e-mail the winners list to the originally scheduled Host's Sponsor. The originally scheduled Host is responsible for delivering prizes to the winners of the game as soon as they are available.

If a Host is a no-show
A Public Hosted game cannot be moved; it must be hosted where originally scheduled. If the game is scheduled to be hosted in a turf and a turf leaseholder is not available to sub, the game may be subbed by any sponsored Host in the sub locale for that turf area as long as the game does not need a special turf setup.

A game cannot be subbed until at least 10 minutes past the hour in order to allow time for the original host to show up. Games that are posted as canceled or listed on the schedule as LOA are not to be subbed.

Unused Prizes
If you must cancel a game and it was not subbed, unused prizes should be returned to your Sponsor. They cannot be carried over for use into another game hosted later.

Host's LOA
If you need a week or two off for vacation or other personal business, e-mail your Sponsor requesting a Leave of Absence (LOA). Your Sponsor will send in a request to have your games listed as LOA on the game schedules. Please contact your Sponsor as soon as you are ready to return to sponsored hosting, so that they may have the LOA removed from the game schedules.

LOA's of one month or longer require that your games be removed from the Daily Game Schedules.Your games can be re-added on your return. LOA's of two months or longer will require that your access to the Host Forum be removed; you will also be removed from your Sponsor's Host list. If and when you return from a two month or longer LOA, you can contact your former Sponsor and ask to be re-sponsored. If your former Sponsor is not accepting Hosts at this time, you may ask any of the other Sponsors if they are interested in sponsoring you.

You can sub Daily and Event games while on LOA, as long as you are still sponsored (i.e., on a LOA of less than two months). You still may not sign up to host in a Event that will be held during your LOA, but if asked, you may sub a Daily game or Event Game.

Suspended Hosts
If you are on suspension, you are not to host or sub for sponsored games on the Daily game schedule or in Events anywhere in newHorizone. This includes Partner Areas.

Handling Situations That May Arise During Your Games
Problem Players
As a sponsored Host, it is your job to handle many different personalities. Sometimes this means dealing with problem players. Above all, please try to remain patient when trying to resolve problems. If this is not something you feel you can do, sponsored hosting may not be for you.

Please be respectful in your interactions with players, and never try to publicly shame a player. Do not argue or debate with a player in public text. Please remember that you could be dealing with a new member, a member new to playing a particular game or new to all gaming in nH. Keep all this in mind before jumping to the conclusion that the member is out to cause problems.

This does not mean you must deal with harassment, however. For example: In Bingo, a disruptive player is to be warned at least twice. If the disruption continues, the host may put the player on Ignore. Repeatedly calling false bingo would be considered disruptive behavior, if it is being done over and over. Please leave room for consideration that a connection problem or lag may also be coming into play here; perhaps the disruption is not being done purposely.

Always save screen shots of text when possible, and always save text validating why you denied a member to play your game, or when a member/player is causing problems. A time stamp should be added to the text when possible. E-mail the screen shots and saved text to your Sponsor.

Each game is to be treated as a separate incident, and a problem player must be allowed to play at your next game, unless the player/member continually harasses you over a duration of time lasting several days or weeks. Save text to send to your Sponsor and support, then place the player/member on ignore. Ask the other players to also place the player on ignore. If they continue to come to your games and do not behave, you may submit a request through your Sponsor to ban them from all of your games. You may not ban a player from all of your games without first having approval from World Management given to you and your Sponsor to ban a specific player/member from your games.

Each avatar is to be treated as their own person. You have no way of knowing for sure who is an alt or other account of a member/player. You may not simply disallow an avatar to play just because you "think" you know it's someone's alt. No matter how certain you feel that someone is an alt of a troublemaker, you cannot assume this and disallow them to play. To disallow a player, that specific avatar must be giving you problems.

AFK Players
AFK Players and Awarding Door Prizes: If after 3 calls the player does not respond, the player loses the door prize. As long as the Host announces this before the game and in their rules, the Host does not have to hold the prize. Save time stamped text showing that you called the player 3 times. The Host draws replacement name and moves on.

AFK Players & Awarding Placing Prizes 1st-4th: If after 3 calls the winner of a placement prize does not respond, pocket the prize to hold for them and move on. If there is a tie involved, after 3 calls with no response, the AFK player loses the tie breaker and the prize is awarded to the player they tied with, or Host continues with the tie breaker if multiple players are involved with the tie. Players should not have to wait around for the others that have gone AFK without bothering to notify the Host.

If a player has ESP'd the Host and said they have to be AFK for just a minute (bathroom, etc), then give the player a few minutes to respond (no longer than 10 minutes). If they are not back in a reasonable time, the player they tied with is awarded the prize. If more than two players are involved with the tie, go ahead with the tie breaker without the AFK player. Always save time stamped text to back you up. Please warn players at the beginning of your games this is how you intend to handle these matters in your game.

Crashed/Poofed/Non Responsive Players During Games
Hosts are not responsible for watching cards or holding during rounds. While we understand that players may need to be away from keyboard or poof, due to time constraints to finish games on time, Hosts are not responsible for watching cards.

Bingo: The Host is not responsible for watching the numbers on cards and they are not allowed to call Bingo for players.

Slots (including Turbo and Poker) and Yahtzee: If a player should be away from the keyboard or poof, the Host can call for anchors (poofed/crashed players) 3 times. If the anchor/anchors do not respond, the Host is to then override the hold as 0,0,0 for slots and 0,0,0,0,0 for Yahtzee. Hosts will not hold anything for players that will gain points for the round.

Furthermore, if the Host chooses to override for a poofing/unresponsive player, they may only override anchors/poofed/crashed players for a total of three rounds. At the beginning of the third round, the Host is to announce that this will be the last round for holding. Following the three rounds, the Player/Players are to be deleted from the game. Disclaimers need to be run at the beginning of your games explaining how you will be handling unresponsive players. Your handling it must be within the guidelines above.

Player Alts
Weekly Games and Event Games: Each account has the right to play games. However, for any game where voting is required for points, alts cannot play. These include: Mind Game, ACRO, Yarn, PFI, LBC, and other games of these types where player votes determine the score.

Event Games: It is allowed for a host to request no Alts in Event games where there are a limited number of players. A Host cannot exclude any player from playing with an Alt at these games if the member chooses to ignore the Host's request. These include Back Off, VZatchee, Secret Word, Musical Chairs, Lucky Numbers, and games of this type. This is not in effect for regular weekly games. This is for Event games only.

Sponsored Bingo
The host may allow 1 to 10 cards at the start of game (Event Games 1 to 2 cards). Host must clearly state before game starts the amount of cards allowed for that round.

Each Bingo session will have 4 games with 1 major prize and 1 door prize for each game.

Jackpot may be used in free games for the distribution of door prizes. If 2nd Bingo is used instead, then the 2nd Bingo gets the door prize.

A token Jackpot may be held in the final game of the session, but will not take place of any prize. Donations are not mandatory.

The pattern needed to win, and the prize to be awarded is to be announced before each game starts.

The host is not responsible for watching player’s cards. Sometimes players "poof". Poofing is a risk we take in playing games on the Internet and is uncontrollable by the Host. The Host will not call bingo for a player.

A Bingo Host may award the prizes in any order, as long as it is announced before the game starts.

Questions
If there are any questions please direct them to your sponsor, or you may email nhsponsors@vzoners.com at any time.