This is what I think needs to be changed.
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I could see this causing issues in the future for sure, though personally, I don’t really care what people put in their condo as long as it isn’t flat out illegal.
Also, never change achievement sound, I like “sunshine day!” way too much.
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My take on the whole explicit condos being allowed thing is that they’re fine in a private setting but shouldn’t be allowed to be made public for anyone to join from the server list. There have been times in the past where I’ve seen the server list filled to the brim with “18+ NSFW [JOIN]” types of condos.
I feel like people playing Tower Unite just to create porn condos is not going to attract a great audience for the game and having porn literally be the centerpiece of the condo feature is equally bad. I know that’s blown out of proportion, NSFW stuff is not the centerpiece of condos, but considering there are days I see more porn/“18+” condos than I do other ones it slowly begins to feel that way. Requiring them to be private or invite-only wouldn’t prevent them from being created or shared, it’d just help a bit to avoid the issues I mentioned above.
If that’s somehow too extreme, I absolutely think there needs to be a requirement for the user to tag their condo as NSFW and add a feature to be able to filter these condos out from the server list if you wish to do so.
There’s also the issue of probably having a lot more to moderate on the side of the devs (like others have mentioned), which is a whole other problem. I think there are valid points on both sides, I just worry allowing it to be shared so haphazardly.
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Kudos for posting something that is absolutely an unpopular opinion. There are definitely issues that come with Condos being unmoderated, but I don’t think Pixeltail moderating condos is the solution.
That would be an never ending battle that Pixeltail would waste time and resources on, and it would start putting restrictions on the freedom users have with their condos. Who’s to say what is allowed and isn’t? If we just flat out say “No 18+ images” there could be huge backlash from the community Almost guaranteed judging by the number of NSFW Condos
I don’t think this would ever happen unless TU hit the big time mainstream. Like suddenly got lucky and streamers/youtubers blew the game up to be the next fotm like Fall Guys/Among Us. Not saying that can’t happen, but I don’t see it happening any time soon.
The real issue imo isn’t gaining notoriety via the news cycle, its scaring off potential players. I’m sure most of us who grew up on the internet and playing PC Games are pretty familiar with the kind of stuff people post and create online, and are pretty desensitized to graphic content.
However if I try to recommend Tower to a friend who I know mostly grew up on consoles and never encountered some of the more niche communities of the internet, I feel its pretty necessary to warn them about condos. Its a sort of awkward quick conversations of “Hey man just so you know I think you’d love this game, but if you go into Condos you’re going to see some weird stuff.”
I think you do make a great point that condo content does tend to harshly contrast with Tower’s colorful clean fun atmosphere so I do think it potentially makes the whole TU experience more shocking. The Juxtaposition of Pixeltail’s world design and the current NSFW Condo trends make for a pretty whacky package.
Again, not unique to Tower in any way. Second Life gave incredible tools and freedom for creation for its time, and it became overrun with much worse content. I do think its important to note there is a big difference in the culture of TU’s NSFW condos, where in other platforms there are people actually there for NSFW activities as opposed to in TU where majority of the graphic content in condos seems to be coated in a layer of selfaware irony and memes (However thin that layer may be at times) .
TL;DR
I think Pixeltail’s current approach of putting moderation tools in the hands of the player and having canvas trust off by default is the best approach. They’ve continued to do a great job refining these tools. The current playerbase knows what they’re getting into, but I do think it could hold TU back from real mainstream popularity.
I don’t particularly build NSFW condos, nor do I like that they are so common, however I think I like the implications of restricting the player’s freedoms even less.
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100% agree.
The gist here, I think, is that Tower Unite should not end up being mainly known as a “porn game”, both for legal and reputation reasons.
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if i see something that’s considered illegal for me, i just report them with screenshots
I would be very careful with that, a user recently got banned from the forums over making a report of that nature to the devs, despite the fact that the illicit content depicted in the screenshot that was submitted as evidence was redacted as necessary.
pretty sure that isn’t the whole situation as it seems this is the one you are talking about?
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And the fact of the matter is that there is actual minors playing the game, probably because they are attracted to the game for its bright and colourful aesthetic - as one might expect, in contrast to some of the filth that lies just below the surface.
I think this meme is pretty relevant right here and applies tbh…
The recent decision by the devs to display the disclaimer screen before joining condos I believe is a step in the right direction, though I still think that we should have a NSFW tag that we can use to filter out said condos. A simple checkbox to declare that your condo contains mature content should be made available on the condo server settings screen.
I don’t fully understand the point of NSFW/porn condos either. Like; if you want to go and look at porn, why can you not just use your web browser and hit up PH? You can do so at any time. It’s not as if the internet isn’t in abundance of adult content, is it?
The How To Report Condos thread also makes mention that;
Except for extreme cases, we do not moderate Condos or Game Worlds as they are player hosted servers.
As that thread is locked - and no one can reply, what does and what does not constitute extreme cases? A line needs to be drawn somewhere, and players need to be aware of what that line is.
Furthermore, if and when the game does leave early access, the devs are going to want to look in to cleaning house, cross their T’s, dot their I’s, run the game by a content ratings board (ESRB, PEGI, et. al), as well as seek full time legal representation. Ya know, the usual, as in make sure everything is above board.
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minecraft is an esrb 10 game, with unmoderated online content because there’d be too much too easily/quickly to deal with
so they do this, which reasonably is all they can do
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A few days ago, person A sent us a DM on our forums, posting edited versions (yet still illegal) of the illicit materials, which was then uploaded and hosted on our forum server. There was no new evidence provided that anything was being done inside of Tower Unite, only of the original events that transpired on an unofficial Discord and Steam.
As person A uploaded illicit materials to our forum servers, we took action immediately and reported it to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and banned person A for uploading and redistributing illegal content.
They were not permabanned for making a report. They were banned for uploading illegal content to our servers. Making a report should have been done without re-uploading illegal materials (a simple description would have been sufficient). Making a second report was also unnecessary as we had already taken action and informed them of the proper channels to report to law enforcement agencies through Discord (where the original incident took place).
And therein lies the problem when everyone has a different definition of illegal. The devs allowing NSFW condos being made available to under-18s is illegal because it puts the onus on the kids, not the adults.
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The recent decision by the devs to display the disclaimer screen before joining condos I believe is a step in the right direction, though I still think that we should have a NSFW tag that we can use to filter out said condos. A simple checkbox to declare that your condo contains mature content should be made available on the condo server settings screen.
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but what do you want them to do? a pop up that says “are you 18+” and you just hit yes regardless because it lets you in? lying is a thing people of all ages do on the internet, and the two most common are “whats your age” and “did you read the terms and conditions”
I don’t think there’s anything more pixeltail can or have to do on the matter of condos regarding canvas content unless it’s quite literally criminal, but that’s still even then more of a thing for law authorities to deal with
and officially endorse nsfw condos? rather than just “we don’t moderate these” you want them to add an official function to support the unmoderated content
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NSFW condos will continue to exist either way.
Better to have an option to filter these out and have it enabled in the Content settings by default.
I’ve said my piece, I am officially done with this thread.
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I still think that we should have a NSFW tag that we can use to filter out said condos. A simple checkbox to declare that your condo contains mature content should be made available on the condo server settings screen.
Hard disagree, because that would mean that Pixeltail is directly stating that mature content is included as a function of the game and not just as a symptom of user content. The disclaimer is the best thing they can do without either monitoring condos or directly stating that they allow mature content in them.
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Personally, I quite dislike the Altitude art pass from a while ago. I played it once since that update and then just never again.
Before, it had a very cloudy, ethereal & liminal atmosphere. Sunlight contrasting with large, shady trees on soft colors, can barely see the ground. Mysterious.
I feel like the rework gave it a more common cartoony color palette and a psuedo low poly art style that doesn’t mesh with complexity & roundness of the courses, and was executed way better by Khromidro.
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Hard agree. I enjoy the new artstyle of Altitude, but I feel it’d have worked better on a different map? I miss the old look a lot, for the same reasons you listed.
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For better reference:
Personally, I like Altitude’s current art style better. However, maybe the original’s misty theme can be reused in another mingolf map?
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that’s understandable.
but for me, the old altitude looks really dull and boring for my taste, it used to be my least played minigolf map next to kingdom.
The current one we got is something im way more satisfied, i like the vibrant colors and semi-cartoony looks (because in my unpopular opinion, TU as a whole should be cartoony in the first place.) and it became my all time favorite and most played map.
and i agree with @Rarsonic
they should reuse those concept for a new map that feels like altitude i think?
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Seconding this - Altitude was super atmospheric before, and I would love to see its old misty and washed-out style retooled in another map or setting in the game.