Terms of Service

1. Who we are, and what these Terms cover

1. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Pixel Glitch Studios, trading as Pixel Glitch Studios, of Postal address: to be published (business mailbox pending) — contact support@islesofcalamity.com ("we", "us", "our"). We are based in California, United States of America.
2. In these Terms:
   1. "the Game" means the Isles of Calamity online game, including the game client software, the game servers and worlds, and the in-game content we make available.
   2. "the Site" means the websites at islesofcalamity.com and its subdomains, including the account, sign-up, recovery and billing pages.
   3. "the Service" means the Game and the Site together.
   4. "Account" means the account you register with us to use the Service.
   5. "Character" means a playable character created in one of the slots on your Account.
   6. "Membership" means the optional paid status that unlocks members' worlds and content, held as an expiry date on your Account.
   7. "Membership Credits" means the one-time blocks of Membership days that add to that expiry date, as described in clause 8.
   8. "you" means the person who holds or uses an Account.
   9. "Game Rules" means the rules published at islesofcalamity.com/rules/.
3. These Terms are the master agreement for the Service. The following also apply and are incorporated into these Terms by reference:
   1. the Game Rules, which govern conduct in the Game (clause 6);
   2. the Purchase Terms, which govern anything you pay for, including price, tax, refunds, withdrawal and chargebacks (clause 9);
   3. the Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice, which govern personal data; and
   4. the End User Licence Agreement shown to you when the game client first starts (the "Client EULA"), which governs the game client software itself.
4. If a conflict arises: on personal data, the Privacy Policy controls; on payment, the Purchase Terms control; on the licensing of the game client software, the Client EULA controls; on everything else, these Terms control.

2. Acceptance and capacity

1. By creating an Account, accessing the Site, or playing the Game, you agree to these Terms and to the documents listed in clause 1.3. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
2. You must be at least 13 years old to hold an Account. We ask for your date of birth when you register and refuse registration if it shows you are under 13. That check relies on what you tell us; giving a false date of birth is a breach of these Terms.
3. If you are under 18 — or under the age of majority where you live — you may use the Service only if a parent or legal guardian has read these Terms and agrees to them on your behalf and takes responsibility for your use of the Service. By using the Service you confirm that this has happened. We do not independently verify parental consent.
4. Some countries set a minimum age above 13 for services like this one. Where they do, that higher age applies to you, and you confirm you meet it.
5. You confirm that you are able to enter into a binding contract, and that you are not barred from using the Service under any applicable law or by a previous ban of ours.
6. Registration is currently invite-only: you need a valid invite code from an existing player to create an Account. We may open, close, or change this at any time without notice.

3. Your licence to use the Service

1. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable licence to access and use the Service for your own private, non-commercial entertainment.
2. The Game and the Site — including their software, art, audio, music, text, characters, world and interfaces — are licensed to you, not sold. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership to you.
3. The licence to install and run the game client software is granted by the Client EULA, which you accept when the client first starts. These Terms do not replace it.
4. Your licence ends automatically if these Terms end (clause 11), and we may revoke it if you materially breach these Terms or the Game Rules.

4. Your Account

4.1 One person, one Account holder

1. An Account is held by one natural person — you. You may hold only one Account. Other people in your household may each hold their own Account; sharing an internet connection does not by itself break this rule. The Game Rules explain multi-accounting and ban evasion.
2. You must not share your Account with anyone, allow anyone else to play it, or play anyone else's. You are responsible for everything done on your Account, whether or not you did it.
3. You must not sell, buy, rent, lend, gift, trade or otherwise transfer an Account, or advertise doing so. Accounts are not property and are not transferable.

4.2 Names

1. Your Account display name is 3 to 18 characters, is chosen once when you register, and is normally permanent. You cannot change it. The only thing that ever reopens it is a reset granted by our staff — normally as an enforcement action against an unacceptable name, after which you choose the replacement yourself.
2. Your display name is public. It appears on hiscores and on your public player profile.
3. Each Account has 8 Character slots. Character names are 1 to 18 characters, must be unique among live Characters, and you can rename a Character yourself.
4. Names must meet the Game Rules on names. We may reset a name that breaches them. A name-offense mark is active for 3, 6 or 12 months according to severity. The expired row remains as audit history but is no longer an active mark. Non-expiring macro or botting sanctions are handled separately.

4.3 Keeping your Account secure

1. You must keep your password and any second factor secret, use a password you use nowhere else, and keep the email address on your Account current.
2. We strongly recommend you enable two-factor authentication (2FA). We provide TOTP-based 2FA, single-use recovery codes, optional security questions, a list of your active sessions with the ability to revoke them, and a sign-in history. These are available from your account page. 2FA is optional; the consequences of not using it are yours.
3. When you set a password we check it against a public list of passwords known to have been exposed in third-party data breaches. We never send your password or your email address to that service — only a short, partial fingerprint of the password leaves our servers, and it identifies nothing on its own. If a password is on that list, we refuse it and ask you for a different one.
4. We may present a bot challenge when you register or recover an Account.
5. You may optionally link a Google, Apple, Discord or Steam identity to an existing Account for sign-in. Linking is your choice and you can use the Service without it.
6. You may be signed in to the Game on up to two clients at once per Account.
7. Tell us promptly at support@islesofcalamity.com if you believe your Account has been accessed by someone else.

5. Your content

1. "Your Content" means the material you submit through the Service: your display name, your Character names, support tickets you send us, and reports you file about other players.
2. You are responsible for Your Content. You must not submit anything that is unlawful, that infringes anyone's rights, or that breaches the Game Rules.
3. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display Your Content for the purpose of operating, securing and moderating the Service. Display names and Character names are published on hiscores and public profiles under that licence; support tickets and reports are not published.
4. That licence lasts as long as we hold the content for the purposes in clause 5.3 and ends when we delete it. Deletion of your Account is governed by clause 11 and the Privacy Policy.
5. Report other players in good faith. Filing reports you know to be false, or organising others to mass-report a player, is a breach of the Game Rules.
6. We may remove or reset Your Content where we reasonably believe it breaches these Terms or the Game Rules, or where we are required to.

6. Acceptable use and the Game Rules

1. The Game Rules form part of these Terms. They are written in plain language and cover fair play, trading and real-world money, conduct, names, your Account, and how we enforce them. Read them: breaching them can cost you your Account.
2. Without limiting the Game Rules, you must not:
   1. use bots, macros, auto-clickers, or any third-party program that plays for you, reads the Game's memory, or automates input on your behalf;
   2. cheat, exploit bugs, or keep the proceeds of an exploit;
   3. buy, sell or exchange Accounts, Characters, in-game items or in-game currency for real-world money or value outside the in-game systems we operate (clause 7.5);
   4. scam, impersonate another player or our staff, or attempt to access anyone else's Account;
   5. harass, threaten, or abuse other players, or share anyone's real-world information without their permission;
   6. attack, overload, probe or interfere with our servers, or degrade the Game for other players; or
   7. circumvent, disable or interfere with any anti-cheat or security feature.
3. We may update the Game Rules as people find new ways to spoil the Game for others. Clause 16 applies to changes that materially affect your rights.

7. In-game items, currency and Characters

1. In-game items, in-game currency, Characters, progress, skills, levels and achievements are part of the Game. They are licensed to you for use inside the Game under clause 3 and are not your property.
2. They have no real-world monetary value, are not a currency, are not redeemable for money or anything of real-world value, and confer no ownership, no credit balance and no right of any kind outside the Game.
3. You have no right to compensation for in-game items, currency, Characters or progress — including if they are changed, rebalanced, removed, reversed, lost, or if a world is retired or wiped (clause 10).
4. We may reverse or remove in-game items or currency obtained through an exploit, a scam, real-world trading, or a chargeback. A reversal puts the world back; it is not itself a punishment, and any sanction is separate.
5. Transfers happen only inside the Game. You may trade with other players only through the systems we operate in the Game — including the Tideboard, the in-game player market. Transferring, or attempting to transfer, anything from the Game for real-world money or value outside our own systems is prohibited by the Game Rules and clause 6.2(c), whether you are buying or selling.

8. Membership and Membership Credits

1. The Game is free to play. Membership is an optional paid status that unlocks members' worlds and content.
2. Membership is sold as Membership Credits: one-time blocks of 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days. Buying Credits adds those days to your Membership expiry date — they stack on top of any time you have left, and if your Membership has already expired the new days run from the moment they are added.
3. Nothing renews automatically. There is no subscription and no recurring charge. Membership time runs down in real time and simply ends when it runs out, unless you choose to buy more. We will not charge you again unless you make another purchase.
4. Membership Credits are subject to clause 7 in full: they are not property, have no real-world value once applied, and are not transferable — not to another Account, not to another person, and not outside the Game.
5. We may offer Membership from time to time, and Membership may be unavailable for purchase. When it is unavailable, no purchase can be made. We may also grant Membership days at our discretion, for example as compensation or as a trial.
6. Price, tax, payment methods, refunds, your right to withdraw, and chargebacks are governed by the Purchase Terms, which form part of these Terms. Nothing in this clause 8 limits the rights the Purchase Terms or your local consumer law give you.
7. Membership time runs in real time and is not paused, extended or credited because you did not play, because a world or feature was unavailable (clause 10), or because your Account was suspended or banned (clause 11.4).

9. Payment

1. Everything about paying us — price, currency, tax, accepted payment methods, when a purchase is made, refunds, the right of withdrawal for EU and UK consumers, and what happens on a chargeback — is set out in the Purchase Terms. They are part of these Terms and are not repeated here.
2. Payments are taken by our payment providers on their own hosted checkout pages. Your card number never reaches our servers. What we do receive and store is described in the Privacy Policy.

10. The Service is online-only; availability and changes

1. The Game is online-only. It runs on our servers and there is no offline play. You need a working internet connection and a supported device, at your cost, and you need our servers to be running. If they are not, you cannot play.
2. The Game world is persistent and shared with other players. It is a live service and it changes.
3. We do not promise that the Service will be available at any particular time, be uninterrupted, or be error-free. We may take the Service down for maintenance, and it may go down without warning.
4. We may add, change, rebalance, suspend, or remove worlds, features, items and content at any time. Test and beta worlds may be wiped at any time without notice.
5. Where a change would materially and adversely affect you, we will give reasonable notice where it is practicable to do so — on the Site or by email to the address on your Account.
6. We may retire the Service entirely. If we decide to, we will publish notice on the Site and give as much warning as is reasonably practicable, and we will stop offering Membership for sale. Your rights on any unused Membership time in that event are those given by the Purchase Terms and by your local consumer law; clause 7.3 does not reduce those rights.

11. Suspension, sanctions and termination

11.1 What we may do, and when

1. We may take the actions in clause 11.2 where we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms or the Game Rules, or where we must in order to comply with the law or protect other players, our staff, or the Service.

11.2 The restrictions we impose

1. These are all the sanctions we use:
   1. A mute — you can play but not chat, for a set time or permanently.
   2. A name reset — an unacceptable display name or Character name is replaced with a temporary one and you choose the replacement. A name-offense mark remains active for 3, 6 or 12 months according to severity.
   3. A reversal — items or currency gained from an exploit, a scam or real-world trading are removed.
   4. A ban — temporary (with an expiry) or permanent.
2. A sanction has a scope:
   1. Account-wide — a ban refuses you sign-in altogether; a mute applies across every world.
   2. One world — you are refused entry to that world only.
   3. One Character — a ban on a Character permanently locks that Account slot: the Character cannot play and the slot cannot be reused.
3. Every sanction has a recorded reason and, unless it is permanent, an expiry.
4. How we choose between them — severity, intent, and your history — is set out in the Game Rules under "How we enforce these rules".

11.3 Decisions are made by people

1. Sanctions are issued by our staff, not by an automated system. We use automated signals to detect likely cheating and botting, and those signals flag Accounts for a person to look at, but they do not themselves sanction anyone. No decision under this clause 11 is made solely by automated means.
2. Every staff action is logged, with who took it and why.

11.4 What happens to Membership Credits

1. A suspension or ban does not pause, extend or refund Membership. Your Membership expiry keeps running down in real time while you are banned, and Membership Credits are not returned to you or restored when a ban ends.
2. We do not automatically refund Membership Credits when we ban an Account. We can issue a refund, in whole or in part, and can remove the corresponding Membership days when we do. Whether we will is governed by the Purchase Terms.
3. Clause 11.4 does not affect any right to a refund that your local consumer law gives you and that cannot be excluded by agreement.

11.5 We tell you why

1. If your Account is banned account-wide, you are refused sign-in and told that the Account is banned. When you sign in with your password, we also give you the reason for the ban and, if it is temporary, when it lifts. You can ask us for the reason at any time through the support form.
2. We do not publish a running history of your past sanctions, and we do not discuss one player's sanction with another player — including the player who reported you.

11.6 How to appeal or complain

1. If you think we got it wrong, appeal. Use the support form and choose the "Appeal a sanction" category, from the email address on the Account. Tell us plainly what you think happened. We do overturn our own decisions when we are wrong.
2. Appeals are handled by a person, through the same support channel as everything else. It is not a separate formal complaints body. Arguing about a ban from a second Account is itself a breach (ban evasion).
3. Complaints about anything else — including how we handle your personal data — go to support@islesofcalamity.com. Your rights over your personal data, including your right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority, are set out in the Privacy Policy.
4. Nothing in this clause 11.6 takes away your right to go to court, or to use any dispute resolution route your local law gives you.

11.7 Ending the agreement

1. You may stop using the Service at any time, and you may delete your Account from your account page. Deletion takes effect after a 30-day grace period, during which you can cancel it by signing in. After that it is irreversible. What survives deletion — including bans, and billing and moderation records — is set out in the Privacy Policy.
2. Deleting your Account does not clear a ban. A ban survives deletion, because otherwise deletion would be a way to evade one.
3. We may terminate these Terms and your Account on notice if you materially breach them or the Game Rules, or immediately where the breach is serious or where the law requires it.
4. Clauses 1.4, 3.2, 5.3, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17 survive the end of these Terms, along with anything else that by its nature should.

12. Disclaimers

1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory — including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.
2. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or free of harmful components, that defects will be corrected, or that any particular world, feature, or item will continue to exist.
3. If you are a consumer, this clause 12 does not affect your statutory rights. Consumers in the European Union and the United Kingdom keep their rights under consumer law — including rights relating to digital content and services that do not conform to what was agreed — and nothing in this clause 12 excludes or limits them. Some other jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions, in which case those exclusions do not apply to you.

13. Limitation of liability

1. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. That includes, without limitation, liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for anything else the applicable law does not permit us to limit.
2. If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you keep every right your consumer law gives you, and this clause 13 does not reduce them. Where this clause conflicts with a right you have under mandatory consumer law, that right wins and this clause does not apply to that extent.
3. Subject to clauses 13.1 and 13.2, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:
   1. we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, or data; and
   2. our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, and (b) fifty US dollars (US$50).
4. Subject to clauses 13.1 and 13.2, we are not liable for loss of in-game items, currency, Characters or progress, or for the retirement or wipe of a world, in line with clause 7.3.
5. We are not liable for failures caused by things outside our reasonable control, including your internet connection or device, or the failure of a third-party service we rely on.
6. These limits apply however the claim arises — in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise — and even if we were told the loss was possible.

14. Indemnity

1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities and reasonable expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms or the Game Rules, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of any law or of anyone else's rights.
2. This clause 14 applies only to the extent permitted by the law that applies to you, and does not apply to a consumer to the extent that consumer law does not allow it.
3. We will tell you about any claim we want to be indemnified for, and will not settle it in a way that imposes an obligation on you without asking you first.

15. Governing law and where disputes are heard

1. These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service, are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States of America, and by applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.
2. The state and federal courts located in California have jurisdiction over any dispute, and you and we submit to that jurisdiction — subject to clauses 15.3 and 15.4.
3. If you are a consumer, clause 15.1 does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory law of the country where you live. Where that law gives you a right that cannot be taken away by agreement, you keep it.
4. If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live, and nothing in clause 15.2 prevents that.

16. Changes to these Terms

1. We may update these Terms — for example to reflect changes to the Service, or to comply with the law. The current version is always at /legal/ and carries the date it was last updated.
2. If we make a change that significantly affects your rights or obligations, we will give you reasonable notice before it takes effect, by posting it on the Site and by emailing the address on your Account.
3. If you continue to use the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the Service and, if you wish, delete your Account under clause 11.7.
4. Changes do not apply retrospectively to a dispute that arose before they took effect.

17. General

1. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it is severed and the rest stays in effect.
2. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we do not waive it.
3. You may not assign or transfer these Terms, or your Account, to anyone. We may assign these Terms as part of a sale or transfer of the business, provided your rights are not reduced.
4. These Terms do not create a partnership, agency or employment relationship, and give no rights to anyone who is not a party to them.
5. These Terms, together with the documents in clause 1.3, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service, and replace any earlier version of them.
6. Headings and the summary at the top of this page are for convenience. If the summary and the numbered clauses could be read differently, the numbered clauses govern.
7. These Terms are written in English. A translation, if we provide one, is for convenience and the English version governs to the extent the law allows.

18. Contact us

1. Questions about these Terms, or anything else: support@islesofcalamity.com, or the support form.
2. To appeal a sanction, use the support form and choose "Appeal a sanction" (clause 11.6).