Tower Unite | END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA)
"We reserve the right to terminate this Agreement ( ban you ) at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you."


June 2024 I called out PixelTails moderation team for lacking proper decision-making and maturity.
I spoke in a stern voice, the same way a Father would to his Son, that they needed to take moderation more seriously.
thread | archive[web.archive.org] (edit: mods deleted comments)

A week after my post, they listened. PixelTails leadership rolled out a brand new web-appeal system.

I used this to appeal a permanent mute I'd received back on February 21st 2024, knowing full well it would be rejected - because the moderators in charge of lifting bans were the developers themselves, in this instance MacDGuy.
Somebody known in the Tower community as suppressing criticism and banning anybody opposing him.

PixelTail couldn’t produce any evidence for my mute, claiming their moderation team had lost it due to image-hosting issues.
What they did say was my mute was based on a trend of reports. Over 35 unique reports since 2019, and another 4 reports in MARCH & APRIL - with a majority coming from "Exploits".

However. I was muted in February.
Yet reports in the following months after my ban - March & April were being tallied within my total report number to justify the permanent mute. Odd.

On February 19th 2024, 2 days prior to my chat ban, MacDGuy confirmed in a forum post that cheating scores remain an unresolved problem, and any users who cheat are permanently banned from the leaderboards and their scores wiped.
https://i.imgur.com/8DghpLV.png

But that's not how it works.
I received the first leaderboard ban in 2020, and I can tell you firsthand: Scores aren't wiped.

What actually happens is sometime during the day your entry is temporarily removed from the leaderboards. Your score is still retained in their backend, but if you were play the game as normal you'd reappear naturally on the leaderboards as if you never had a ban to begin.

Leaderboard banned players would resurface and generate fresh reports for exploiting. Those duplicate reports get recycled into your record, making it look like a “pattern of abuse.”
https://i.imgur.com/3bOCe4k.png

PixelTail didn't know about this problem, or chose to ignore it.
So I told them.


During an unofficial Laser Tag weekend with an active leaderboard ban, I played a single game of Laser Tag which shot me back onto the leaderboards with 430,000 points - instantly overtaking legitimate players.
That alone triggered a handful of ‘exploiting’ reports, the same 4 PixelTail later cited in my appeal, happening months after I was chat banned.
https://i.imgur.com/jTMIehm.png

I reported this flaw on PixelTail’s forums under a thread about another player reappearing on leaderboards. I explained that leaderboard bans don’t work, showed before-and-after screenshots of my own banned account reappearing at rank #1 (unchanged since 2020).
https://i.imgur.com/73nTHSv.png

My entire report on the issue was deleted by PixelTail staff, and the thread was locked.
https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/t/1-0-0-0-suspicious-possibly-cheated-high-scores-by-a-specific-player-on-leaderboards-still-present-on-other-leaderboards/53241/7


I filed a new "bug report" with the same screenshots, offering to demonstrate to MacDGuy in-game how leaderboard bans fail, because it was technically a coding error on their end.

PixelTail staff then *edited* my new thread, deleting the "Evidence" section and removed the attached screenshots to make it appear as if I never reported the issue to begin with, because what I had done directly exposed a flaw in their system.
MacDGuy concluded that I was "discussing how to exploit the leaderboards" which is against their rules, and evidence should be reported to our moderation team - exactly what I was doing.

I understand why they did it.
It would be impossible to go through every players ban to check their legitimacy - especially now that they confirmed all the evidence is gone with image-hosting issues.
As well as not wanting the player-base to know the ban system wasn't working as intended, and for the last 5 years excess reports were being stacked and used against players multiple times- leading to repeat appearances.

So instead, it was covered up and I was banned from the PixelTail Forums for Harassment. Undeniable proof I caught wind of something.
https://i.imgur.com/VNvd1xk.png


After reporting the leaderboard ban loophole and getting forum banned for harassment, it turns out I'm also banned on the Steam forums as well for "Inappropriate conduct".
I also can’t upload workshop maps, screenshots, or artwork. I can’t even reply under my own review.
They gave me every ban to keep quiet.

Prior to all of this, I was permanently condo-banned for displaying "Transphobic artwork",
This transphobic artwork being an American flag, Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and Charlie Kirk.
PixelTail wrote in my appeal that I have agreements with public figures who are associated with transphobic beliefs and comments which is a bannable offence.
Https:/i.imgur.com/pDpDvDc.jpeg

Yet the developers have pushed a message that condos are user hosted and the rules are up to the host.
Sketchman said, "If you truly feel the need to discuss politics with other users, you can still do so in your personal condos."
Considering I'm permanently chat banned, the ONLY form of political discussion solely comes down to condo building, this being portraits of Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk.
https://i.imgur.com/2HeWWd2.png

It was their contradiction in the rules that led to my transphobic condo ban for having a "picture" of Charlie Kirk on the wall.


During the same time, I had created a poster for my condo called "dutective_debug" that just happened to appear in the background of another player's screenshot.
This player uploaded the screenshot on Discord but it was swiftly deleted by PixelTail, the user was muted for 7 days, and claimed it was “Advertising a banned user” and that bugc had been removed for “creating an unsafe environment.”
Except I wasn’t banned. They were trying to bury me.

In another example, any players that typed "free bugc" were temp banned on the spot for “Promoting Banned User.”
It was not being reported by players - but by one of the developers themselves. Because the rule didn't exist to *be* reported.
It was retaliation from the lead developer against me because of what happened.
https://i.imgur.com/Yt6lhai.png

After I exposed PixelTail for unreasonably banning my friends under undisclosed rules, it became an official rule 2 months later.


I reported core issues, tried appealing my bans and attempted to resolve conflicts - but MacDGuy has blocked me in-game and on Steam as well. He even told his wife to block me in-game.

This has been the highest-rated negative review on Tower Unite for several years, and I’ve yet to receive a developer's response under it or reach out to me privately.

I made every effort to resolve these matters quietly, but each attempt was met with bans, blocks, and outright censorship.
Because of that history, I do not want a developer to publicly respond to this review, this should have been a private matter.

Any attempt to ‘address’ it now would only highlight the very failures and overreach that forced me to speak out here in the first place. 🍿