Terms & Conditions

1. Who you are contracting with

EMPIRE is operated and sold by Lacey Oldfield ("we", "us", "the seller"). By accessing or using EMPIRE — a browser-based business strategy simulation — you enter into a contract with the seller and agree to these Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

2. Acceptance

By continuing to use EMPIRE, you confirm that you accept these terms, that you are of legal age in your jurisdiction (or have a parent or guardian's consent), and that any information you provide is accurate.

3. The service

EMPIRE is an educational business strategy game. A free scenario is available in every business category; additional premium scenarios are unlocked with an EMPIRE Premium subscription. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service for personal, non-commercial purposes within your plan. You may not reverse engineer, resell, redistribute, or circumvent technical limits of the service.

4. Payments and billing

Payments are processed securely by Stripe. We never see or store your card details. Sales tax, VAT or GST is calculated and collected at checkout where it applies.

The EMPIRE Premium subscription renews monthly until cancelled. You can cancel at any time through the subscription management portal on the pricing page or from the link in your payment receipt; access continues until the end of the paid period. Refunds are governed by our Refund Policy.

5. Acceptable use

You must not misuse the service. In particular, you must not:

• use the service for any unlawful purpose, fraud or spam;
• infringe intellectual property rights of the seller or third parties;
• interfere with the security or operation of the service, including introducing malware, probing, scanning or scraping the service;
• attempt to bypass payment, access controls or premium scenario restrictions.

6. Intellectual property

The seller retains all ownership of EMPIRE and its intellectual property, including the software, simulation content, documentation and branding. Nothing in these terms transfers any ownership to you.

7. Service level, warranties and liability

The service is provided "as is". We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free performance, and we disclaim all implied warranties (including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose) to the fullest extent permitted by law. EMPIRE is a game: its scenarios are for general educational purposes only and are not financial, investment, legal or tax advice, nor a recommendation to take any real-world business action. Decisions you make in real businesses are your own responsibility.

To the extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability is capped at the fees you paid in the 12 months before the claim, and we exclude liability for indirect, consequential or special damages (including loss of profits, data or goodwill). Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, including for fraud, death or personal injury, or your statutory consumer rights under Australian Consumer Law.

8. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access for material breach of these terms, non-payment, security or fraud risk, or repeated or serious violations of these terms. Because EMPIRE stores game progress locally in your browser, ending access means premium scenarios will no longer unlock on your device; local progress may remain in your browser until you clear it.

9. General

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and the courts of Victoria have exclusive jurisdiction, except where mandatory consumer law provides otherwise. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control. You may not assign these terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger or acquisition. If any clause is unenforceable, the rest remain in effect.

10. Contact

Questions about these terms: contact the seller, Lacey Oldfield, via the support link in your payment receipt.