Tldr: Politcally biased power tripping mods killed their own game.

June 2024 I called out PixelTails moderation team for lacking proper decision-making and maturity. I brought up that they needed to take their job more seriously.
thread | archive[web.archive.org]
(edit: 2025 // mods deleted comments)

One 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 treating criticism towards his game as harassment and banning anybody opposing him.

PixelTail couldn’t produce any evidence for my permanent mute, claiming their moderation team had lost it.
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 earlier in the year.
Yet reports several months later were being used to justify my permanent chat ban.
I figured out why.


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 officially reported it. Big mistake.


During a Laser Tag weekend with an active leaderboard ban I played a single game which shot me to rank #1 on the leaderboards with 437k points - instantly overtaking legitimate players.
That one game 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 the 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.[forums.pixeltailgames.com]


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 receiving a forum ban - It turns out he also banned me on the Steam forums.
Banned me from uploading workshop maps, screenshots, artworks, from replying under my own review, kicked me from the PixelTail Games Steam Group,

and the biggest twist; Forum banned from their Elevator Demo the moment the store page went live.

In another retaliatory response, any player typing "freebugc" in-game were automatically given a temp ban on the spot for "Promoting Banned User".
It was not being reported by players because the rule didn't exist to *be* reported. It was an immature retaliation by MacDGuys towards players supporting bugc.
https://i.imgur.com/Yt6lhai.png

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

During the same time, a condo advertisement poster of mine had appeared in the background of another player's screenshot that was uploaded to discord.
The screenshot was removed by PixelTail claiming it was "Advertising a banned user" and that bugc had been removed from the game for "creating an unsafe environment",
Except I wasn’t banned. They were trying to bury me.

The worst part is, the user was muted for 7 days for simply associating with bugc.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/id/Caleegi/recommended/394690/


Prior to all of this, I was permanently condo-banned for displaying "Transphobic artwork", This being posters of 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.
Developer 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 including artworks of Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk.
https://i.imgur.com/2HeWWd2.png

Their contradictory rules turned a simple display of conservative political figures into a transphobic offense that warranted a permanent condo ban.


I reported core issues, appealed 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 is the highest-rated negative review on Tower Unite and I’ve yet to receive a developer's response under it or reach out to me privately.

I've 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 anymore, this should have been a private matter.

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


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