Here, I'll discuss some of the rules AOE players set up. Some of these rules have benefits, but many times, I'm prefer not to play under these rules.

1. No Rushing.

This is one of the rules I dread the most. Many newbies play under this rule since they don't want to be eliminated very early by people who attack early. If they are new and don't get eliminated early, they WILL almost always later lose the game anyways. So basically, if you play "No Rushing", then you're just wasting everyone elses time unless EVERYONE's a newbie. Still, everyone must agree to "No Rushing". If you ever join a game, and the creator declares the game "No Rushing", just simply leave. If they declare "No Rushing" after the game had already started, don't feel bad about disobeying it. :) However, one of my pet peeves are people who join a game I created, and they all agree to "No Rushing" without my consent (usually AFTER I start the game.) If they all agree to "No Rushing" before you start the game, just ask them politely to leave and kick them out if they don't want to leave. If they declare "No Rushing" after you start the game, then simply ignore it, and if they start bad-mouthing you for rushing, just tell them that YOU are the creator and the creator gets to decide on the rules.

2. No Offensive Towering.

I don't see this rule very often, but still, it's just as pointless as "No Rushing". What this rule states is that you cannot build towers to attack your enemy's town. Why?? Towers are fairly easy to destroy before they are completely built up in YOUR town (in the usual cases).

3. Specific CPU/Bandwidth Requirements.

I can't believe it!! These people don't want people who use modems join their games!! They can't stand the lag that occurs when playing with people who have modems??? I have a 28.8 modem, and I played a 6 player game where everyone had a modem. The lag was minimal in the game, the lag was caused by an overloaded CPU, NOT a high latency/low bandwith/modem connection!!! Before I liked playing AOE, I played Warcraft 2 over the Internet. Man, the lag was much more horrible in War2 and I rarely saw "ISDN and above only" games of that sort. If you ever see a game labeled "ISDN and above only", "T1+ only", "T3 only", etc., then just join the game and lie to the people and say that you've met the criteria. They'll never know even if you only have a 14.4 modem. Then if YOU are lagging and they question you, just tell them that you have a slow CPU. It's that simple and (again), they'll never know.

CPU requirements are just as bad. I've seen games that only allow "Pentium 2 Only", "Pentium Pro Only", "MMX only", etc. Unless you're CPU is very primitive (486 and below), it's possible to lie about your CPU speed and the game creator won't find out. Look at the following example i saw in IRC. It portrays the typical AOLer/lamer :

<_mgd_>Game @ 207.21.143.145 ; If you have at least a P166 with 32MB RAM, you're welcome.

Now, if I had the time, I would have joined this game and lied that I had like a P2. (I have a P133 with 32MB of RAM. It's very close to his requirement and he'll never find out I'm lying.)

4. NO RULES!!.

This is perhaps the only rule I prefer to play under. Usually, if the game creator does not declare any rules, then THIS rule is assumed. Don't worry; fortunately, 90% of the games are under this rule.