Terms of Service

PAUSO Online · Last revised 2026-05

The short version. You can play PAUSO for free. Don't cheat, don't grief, don't try to break the servers. You're at least 13 years old. We can change these terms or the game itself — we'll tell you when we do.

1. Who we are

PAUSO Online (the "Service") is operated by PAUSO LTD, a private limited company registered in England & Wales. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom ("we" / "us"). These terms form a legal contract between you (the "user") and PAUSO LTD. By using the Service you agree to them.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use PAUSO Online (this matches UK GDPR's information-society services consent age under Section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018). If we discover an account belongs to someone under 13 we will delete it. See the Privacy Policy for how we handle suspected underage accounts.

3. Accounts & guest play

You can play PAUSO Online without signing in (as a "guest") or by signing in via a supported authentication provider (currently handled by Clerk: Google, Apple, email + password).

Guest play is tied to a token in your browser. Clearing localStorage will lose access to the guest record.
Signed-in accounts persist across devices. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials secure.
You can request account deletion at any time from your in-app profile page or by emailing us. Deletion details are in the Privacy Policy.

4. Acceptable use

By using PAUSO Online, you agree NOT to:

Cheat, automate, script, or otherwise gain an unfair advantage. This includes modifying client code to misreport game outcomes, abusing matchmaking, or running bots against human opponents.
Harass, threaten, or grief other players via in-game emotes, display names, or any other communication channel.
Choose a display name that is offensive, impersonates someone else, contains spam, or violates a third party's trademark.
Reverse-engineer, scrape, or otherwise pull data from the Service beyond what's exposed via normal gameplay.
Attempt to overload, disrupt, or compromise the Service's availability (DoS / DDoS / abuse of rate limits).
Use the Service to break any other law in your jurisdiction.

We may suspend, restrict, or delete accounts that violate these rules. For severe or repeated breaches we may do so without prior notice.

5. Game content & rating system

PAUSO's match-history, win/loss/tie record, and "Aura" (skill rating) are computed server-side from real games played. We reserve the right to:

Adjust ratings retroactively if we find them to be the result of cheating or exploits.
Reset stats globally during major mechanical changes, with notice on the home page.
Refuse to display accounts or names that violate Section 4 from public surfaces (leaderboards, etc).

6. Free to play

PAUSO Online is free to play. Every game mode and every feature is available to every player without paying. The Service is funded by advertising (see Section 7).

At the time these terms were last revised there are no in-game purchases of any kind. We may introduce optional one-time purchases in the future — for example, a token that removes ads for a fixed period. If and when we do, we'll update this section in the same release that ships the payment code so the terms always match the live Service, name the Merchant of Record processing payments on our behalf, and state the refund policy. Your UK statutory consumer rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (including the 14-day right to cancel digital content unless expressly waived at checkout) apply in any case.

7. Advertising

Free play is supported by advertising. By default we serve non-personalised (contextual) ads only. Via the consent banner you can opt in to personalised advertising; you can change your choice at any time by opening the in-app About menu and tapping "Manage ads", which reopens the consent chooser. Contextual ads are part of how the service is funded and form the baseline experience; we do not offer an "ads off" option for the free tier. Some rewarded ads let you unlock cosmetics; watching one is always optional.

8. Service availability

PAUSO Online is provided on an "as is" / "as available" basis. We don't guarantee uninterrupted service, and we may need to take the Service offline for maintenance, updates, or to resolve incidents. We aim to give advance notice on the home page when we know a window is coming.

9. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

Our total liability to you for any claim arising from the Service is capped at £100, or the amount you've paid us in the 12 months before the claim, whichever is greater.
We exclude liability for indirect, consequential, or special damages (e.g. loss of data not caused by us, loss of profits).
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for things that can't be limited under UK law (e.g. death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or fraud).

10. Intellectual property

The PAUSO name, logo, game mechanics, board layouts, artwork, and code are owned by us (and our contributors). You may not reproduce, redistribute, or create derivative works from these without our written permission.

Display names and content you generate (custom names, emotes, etc.) belong to you. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, cache, and display them within the Service as strictly needed to operate the game (e.g. showing your name to opponents and persisting it in match history). This licence ends when you delete your account, save for cached / backup copies that age out per the retention windows in the Privacy Policy.

11. Changes to these terms

If we change these terms materially, we'll surface a banner on the home page and update the "last revised" date above. If you continue to use the Service after the change, you accept the new terms. If you don't agree, you can request account deletion before continuing.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales — except if you're a consumer in another country, you retain your local statutory rights.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@pauso.world.