Terms

These are the rules for using Pilotta — this website and the game. They are short and in plain words. By playing, you agree to them. If you do not, please do not use the game. What we do with your information is a separate page: Privacy.

Who we are

Pilotta.io is run from Cyprus. For anything at all — a question, a complaint, a problem with your account — write to pilottos.io@gmail.com. That address is the only channel; there is no phone line and no ticket system.

We answer within a month, and usually a lot sooner.

What Pilotta is

Pilotta is a card game. You can play on your own against the computer, or online against other people. It runs in a browser and as an app.

We follow the Cypriot rules of the game as they are played at the table — counter-clockwise, mandatory cutting, declarations, the Rule of 6. Where the game and your local table disagree on a house rule, the game is what the game does.

This is not gambling

There is no gambling in Pilotta and no prize of any kind. You cannot bet, you cannot stake anything on a game, and you cannot win anything that has value outside the game.

The coins in the game are counters we made up. They cannot be bought, sold, exchanged, transferred or cashed out, and they have no monetary value. You earn them by playing and you spend them on decks and tables inside the game. That is all they are for.

Your account

To play on your own against the computer you need no account at all.

The first time you play online, the game makes an anonymous account for you so that four people at a table can be told apart and so your progress survives a new phone. You can later turn it into a permanent account with an email and a password, or with Google or Discord.

One person, one account. Do not make a second account to get around something, and do not use anyone else’s.

Your account is your responsibility. Keep your password to yourself, and do not let another person play on your account. If you think someone else has got into it, write to us.

Age

You must be 14 or over to have an account or to play online. Anyone can play against the computer on their own device.

If you are under 18, ask a parent or guardian before you play online.

If we find out that an account belongs to someone under 14, we will close it and delete what is in it. If you are a parent and think your child has an account here, write to us and we will do the same — you do not need to prove anything or explain yourself.

The name you show

The name at the table is the only thing about you that other players see. Choose one that is not offensive, not someone else’s, and not pretending to be us.

If a name is offensive or misleading, we may change it or ask you to change it. We will not do it silently — you will see the new name the next time you play, and you can write and ask us why.

How to behave at the table

There is no free chat in Pilotta. You can only send the fixed phrases the game gives you, so there is very little you can say to another player. That takes most of the trouble out of it, but not all. Do not:

• Cheat. That includes telling another player at the table what is in your hand, arranging a result in advance, and playing two seats at the same table.
• Use a program to play for you, or anything else automated, and do not use tools that read the game or change how it works.
• Exploit a bug. If something is broken in your favour, tell us instead — we will not hold it against you.
• Use the phrases to needle someone, or send them over and over to annoy the table.
• Quit games on purpose to leave the other three sitting there.
• Attack the service — no attempts to break into it, overload it or take it apart.

What we can do about it

If you break the rules above, depending on how bad it is, we may warn you, change your display name, suspend your account for a while, or close it for good.

We will use the lightest of those that fits. You can always write and ask us why, and we will tell you and look at it again if you think we got it wrong.

Coins, decks and everything you unlock

What you earn in the game — coins, decks, table designs, phrases — is permission to use those things inside Pilotta. You do not own them, they are not property, and they are not yours to sell or give to anyone.

They have no value in money, they cannot be transferred to another account, and they cannot be exchanged for anything outside the game.

If your account is closed — by you or by us — whatever is in it goes with it. There is nothing to pay back, because nothing was paid for. The same is true if we ever close the game down: see the next section.

The Founder deck

People who left their email with us before the day we open get the Founder deck free.

You qualify if the address on our pre-launch list is the same address you sign in with, and we can see that address is really yours. The deck unlocks itself the first time you sign in with it. Nothing to claim, no code to type.

If we cannot deliver that particular deck — because the artwork changes, or something else stops us — we will give you another deck of the same standing instead. Like everything else in the game, it has no value in money, cannot be transferred to another account, and cannot be exchanged for anything.

What it costs

Pilotta is free to play today. There is nothing to buy in the game and no way to pay us for anything.

We plan to add a paid feature later. If we do, it will come with its own purchase terms — the price, what you get, and your right to cancel — and you will see them before you pay anything. Nothing on this page asks you for money or commits you to anything.

When the game is not there

We do not promise the game will be available at any particular moment. It can go down, and it will go down for maintenance.

We may change the game, pause a feature or drop it altogether, and we may close the whole thing down. Where we reasonably can, we will say so in advance on pilotta.io and in the game. Sometimes — a fault, a security problem, something outside our hands — we cannot.

The game needs an internet connection to play online, and that part is between you and whoever provides it.

What is ours

The artwork, the card designs, the text, the name, the logo and the software are ours or licensed to us. Do not copy them, sell them, or put them in your own product.

The rules of the game belong to nobody. Pilotta is a Cypriot card game older than any of us — learn it, teach it, write about it. What we ask you to leave alone is our version of it, not the game itself.

You may of course record or stream your own games and show them to anyone.

Stopping

You can stop playing whenever you like, with no notice. To delete your account, write to pilottos.io@gmail.com and we will do it. You do not need to give a reason.

That removes your account, your progress and your name from our records. The results of matches you already played stay, because they are three other people’s history as much as yours — but your name comes off them.

We may close your account for the reasons in How to behave at the table, or if we close the game down. If we close it for something you did, we will tell you why.

If something goes wrong

We give you the game as it is. We do not promise it is free of faults, that the computer players are any good, or that it will suit any particular purpose of yours.

As far as the law allows, we are not liable for lost progress, lost coins or unlocks, a match that ended badly because of a fault or a disconnection, or anything you lost indirectly. We do not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud, and we could not do so even if we tried.

Nothing on this page takes away the rights you have as a consumer under the law. If a sentence here conflicts with a right the law gives you, the law wins and the rest of the page still stands.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms — because the game changes, or the law does. The date at the bottom of this page always says when they last changed.

When we change them, we post the change on this page with a new date, and where a change really matters we point it out in the game. If you do not want to accept it, stop playing and ask us to delete your account.

Which law applies

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of Cyprus, and the courts of Cyprus deal with any dispute.

But if you are a consumer living somewhere else in the European Union, that does not take away the protection your own country’s law gives you, and you can still bring a case in your own country’s courts.

Complaints

Write to pilottos.io@gmail.com and tell us what happened. We answer within a month and usually a lot sooner, and we would much rather sort it out ourselves.

If that gets you nowhere, a consumer in the EU can take a complaint to the consumer protection authority of their own country. In Cyprus, that is the Consumer Protection Service.

If your complaint is about your personal information rather than the game, the Privacy page says where to go.