Community guidelines and reporting
The short version
- Be decent. No harassment, hate, threats, bullying, spam or pretending to be someone else.
- Right now, nothing one player writes is shown to other players. There are no comments, chat, messages, public profiles or leaderboards.
- Reactions only ever show totals, never who reacted.
- See something wrong? Report it to hello@theplayercode.com and a person will look at it.
- Before we add comments or anything else players can post, we'll put reporting, blocking and moderation in place first.
1. What players can share today
The Player Code is built to be safe by design, especially as players can be as young as 13.
- Usernames and display names. You choose these. They're kept private: there are no public profiles.
- Reactions. You can react to a story or review (like, laugh, hug, sad, angry or love). Everyone sees the totals, never who reacted.
- Notes on saved games, like "pre-ordered", are private to you.
- No comments, chat or messages between players, and no leaderboards showing other players.
2. The rules
These apply to your username, display name and anything you share with us, now and in any feature we add later. They sit alongside our terms.
- Usernames must be fair game: nothing offensive, hateful or sexual, no swearing aimed at anyone, no impersonating a real person, a studio or The Player Code, and nothing that infringes someone else's brand.
- No harassment, bullying or threats, of other players, developers, sponsors or our team.
- No hate based on who someone is, including race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
- Nothing illegal or harmful, including anything that sexualises children, encourages self-harm, or promotes violence or terrorism.
- No spam, scams or adverts, and no links to grey-market key sites or cheats.
- Keep personal details private: yours and other people's. Never share an address, phone number or school.
- Play fair: no faked steps or locations, multiple accounts or bots (see our terms).
3. How to report something
Email hello@theplayercode.com with "Report" in the subject. Tell us what you saw and where (a screenshot or link helps). You don't need an account to report.
- A person reads every report. We aim to act on anything harmful within 24 hours, and to reply to you within five working days.
- If someone is in danger, contact the emergency services first (999 in the UK).
- We'll report illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material, to the police or the right authority.
4. What we do
Depending on how serious it is, we may change or remove a username, remove content, take away XP or codes that weren't fairly earned, or suspend or close an account. We'll normally explain why and give you a chance to respond, unless it's an emergency or a serious breach. If you think we've made the wrong call, use our complaints procedure.
5. Keeping younger players safe
We follow the ICO's Children's Code. Accounts are private by default, location and motion access are off until you choose a quest that needs them, reminders are gentle and off until you switch them on, and there's no profiling or pressure to keep playing. Sponsored content is always labelled and suitable for under-18s. Our privacy policy has the details.
6. Before we add anything new
If we ever add comments, leaderboards, friends or anything else where players can see each other or post, we'll do this first, in line with the Online Safety Act and the Children's Code:
- a written risk assessment for illegal and harmful content;
- a report button and a block button on everything players can post;
- moderation by a person, with clear response times;
- settings that are off or private by default, with nicknames only and no real names;
- an update to these guidelines and our privacy policy, before the feature goes live.