Cape Town Life

Terms of Service

Version 2026-11-01 · Effective 1 November 2026

Welcome to Cape Town Life, a multiplayer life-simulation game at cptlife.com, operated by [[OWNER: legal name of the person or business operating Cape Town Life]] (“we”, “us”). These terms are an agreement between you and us. By creating an account or playing, you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. Our supplier details, as required by section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA), are in section 16.

Contents

1. Who can play
2. Your account
3. Community rules
4. Safety, reporting and moderation
5. Your content
6. Our game and content
7. In-game rand and purchases
8. Billboard ads and App Store listings
9. Prices and payment
10. Changes and availability
11. Suspension and closing accounts
12. Our liability
13. Your responsibility for your content
14. Changes to these terms
15. Law and disputes
16. Supplier information (ECTA)
17. Contact us

1. Who can play

• You must be at least 13 years old, or older if the law where you live sets a higher minimum age for using online services without a parent's consent.
• If you are under 18, you may only play with the permission of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use of the game.
• Real-money purchases (in-game rand, billboard campaigns and App Store listings) must be made by someone 18 or older, or by a minor with their parent or guardian's permission. Billboard campaigns and App Store listings may only be booked by adults (18+) acting for themselves or with authority for the business they advertise.
• You can't play if we have previously banned you.

2. Your account

• Your account is for you alone. Don't share, sell, buy, lend or transfer accounts.
• Keep your password secret and use one you don't use elsewhere. You are responsible for what happens on your account. If you think someone else has accessed it, change your password or contact us.
• Your username is shown to other players. Don't choose one that is offensive, impersonates someone else (including our team), or includes personal details like your real full name or phone number.
• We don't collect your email address, so we can't send password-reset emails. Keep your login details safe.
• You can download your data or delete your account at any time in Settings → Privacy & your data.

3. Community rules

Cape Town Life is a friendly city. When you chat, message, post or play, you agree not to:

• Harass, bully, threaten or stalk anyone, or encourage others to do so; this includes continuing to contact someone who has blocked you or asked you to stop.
• Post hate speech or content that discriminates against people because of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or similar characteristics.
• Share or ask for sexual content, or make sexual advances to other players. In-game dating and partner features are light-hearted fiction; keep them that way. Any sexual content involving minors is strictly forbidden and will be reported to the authorities.
• Share other people's personal information (real names, addresses, phone numbers, photos, school or workplace), or ask players for theirs.
• Post content that is violent, graphic, illegal or promotes self-harm, drugs or crime.
• Spam, scam, phish, advertise outside the paid ad features, or post links to malware.
• Impersonate other players, real people, or our team.
• Cheat: use bots, scripts, macros, modified clients, automation or exploits; deliberately abuse bugs; interfere with the servers or other players' connections; or try to access accounts, data or systems that aren't yours. If you find a bug that gives an unfair advantage, please report it to us instead.
• Trade for real money: buy, sell or offer in-game rand, items, homes, cars, businesses or accounts for real money or anything of value outside the game. In-game rand may only be bought from us (see section 7) and sent to other players as a gift inside the game.
• Copy, scrape, reverse-engineer or resell any part of the game, except as the law allows.
• Break any law, or help someone else break these rules.

4. Safety, reporting and moderation

• Block any player to stop them chatting to you nearby, messaging you, or seeing your posts.
• Report a player or a community post from the game. Reports are reviewed by our team.
• Switch off Allow friend messages in Settings to stop new private messages. New conversations start as message requests that you can accept or decline.
• A filter masks some bad language automatically. It won't catch everything; please report what it misses.

We may review reported content (including private messages that are reported to us), and we may remove content, warn you, limit features, or suspend or ban accounts that break these rules. We aim to act fairly and in proportion to what happened. If you think we got it wrong, contact us and we'll take another look. We don't watch every conversation and we aren't responsible for what other players say or do, but we do act on reports. If you or someone else is in danger, contact your local emergency services (in South Africa, 10111 for the police or 112 from a mobile phone).

5. Your content

“Your content” means anything you create or submit: chat, messages, posts, usernames, billboard artwork and text, App Store submissions and side-gig listings. You keep ownership of it. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, copy, display, adapt (for example, resizing artwork to fit a screen) and distribute your content only as needed to run, show and improve the game. This licence ends when your content is deleted, except for copies kept as described in our Privacy Policy or that other players have already received (such as messages you sent them before deleting your account).

You promise that you have the rights to everything you submit, and that it follows these terms and the law. We can refuse, remove or hide content that breaks these terms or that we reasonably believe could harm players or the game.

6. Our game and content

The game, its software, artwork, characters, music, map and text belong to us or our licensors (some 3D models and other assets are used under open licences). We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to play the game for your own non-commercial entertainment, in line with these terms. Real places in Cape Town appear for atmosphere; their appearance in the game doesn't mean they endorse or are connected with us, and the businesses and characters in the game are fictional.

7. In-game rand and purchases

• In-game rand (shown as “R”) is game currency, not real money. Despite its name, it is not South African rand and has no cash value. You can earn it by playing or buy it from us. It can be spent only on things in the game.
• When you buy in-game rand or spend it, you receive a limited licence to use that currency or item in the game. You don't own it as property, and it can't be withdrawn, cashed out, refunded for money, or sold.
• You may send in-game rand to other players as a gift inside the game, but never in exchange for real money or anything of value outside the game.
• We may change prices and what in-game rand buys, and we may correct balances or remove currency and items that were obtained through bugs, errors, cheating, fraud or chargebacks.
• Delivery: in-game rand is added to your wallet as soon as Stripe confirms your payment, usually within seconds. If it doesn't arrive within an hour, contact us.
• Cooling-off: ECTA normally lets you cancel online purchases within 7 days. Because in-game rand is digital content that we deliver immediately at your request, the cooling-off right no longer applies once it has been delivered (ECTA section 42(2)). By paying, you ask us to deliver straight away.
• Refunds: purchases are non-refundable once delivered, except where the law requires a refund, or if you were charged by mistake, charged twice, or didn't receive what you paid for. Contact us within 30 days and we'll put it right. If you reverse a payment through your bank (a chargeback) without contacting us first, we may remove the matching in-game rand and suspend the account while we sort it out.
• If we ever close the game, we'll give at least 30 days' notice in the game and stop selling in-game rand during that period. Unused in-game rand isn't refundable when the game closes, except where the law requires it.

8. Billboard ads and App Store listings

What you're buying

• Billboard campaigns show your artwork on the digital screens you choose in the game's 3D city for the number of weeks you pay for. Each screen plays every campaign booked on it in rotation (currently a 15-second spot, on a loop). We don't guarantee a number of views, players or clicks.
• App Store listings show your app (name, description and website link) in the in-game App Store, at US$10 per week, for the weeks you pay for.
• Both start from the day a member of our team approves them. We aim to review within 24 hours.

Content rules for ads and apps

Ads and apps must be legal, truthful, and suitable for players aged 13 and up. They must not include or promote:

• alcohol, tobacco, vaping, drugs, weapons, gambling, betting or lotteries;
• adult or sexual content, dating services, or anything aimed at exploiting children;
• political or election content, or hate, harassment or discrimination;
• misleading claims, scams, get-rich-quick schemes, unlicensed financial products, or real-money trading of game items;
• content you don't have the rights to use (including other people's trademarks, photos or likeness);
• links to websites that are unsafe, deceptive, collect data unlawfully, or don't match the ad.

Links must be public https:// addresses. Advertisers are responsible for their ads, their websites and their compliance with advertising and consumer law (including the Code of Advertising Practice of the Advertising Regulatory Board where it applies). We don't endorse advertised products or apps.

Review, refunds and cancellation

• Not approved? If we reject your ad or app, you're refunded in full, automatically, to your original payment method. We'll tell you why in the game.
• Changed your mind? You can cancel within 7 days of paying for a full refund, as long as your ad or listing hasn't gone live yet (ECTA section 44). Contact us with your username. Once it's live, the service has started at your request and the cooling-off right no longer applies.
• Removed while live? If we remove a live ad or listing because it breaks these rules, or because of a complaint we find justified, there's no refund. If we remove it for any other reason, or can't show it for a significant part of the time you paid for because of a problem on our side, we'll refund the unused part.
• Deleting your account ends your campaigns and listings. Paid ones still waiting for review are refunded automatically; live ones end without a refund.
• Refunds can take 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank.

9. Prices and payment

• Prices are shown in US dollars and charged in US dollars. The rand figure next to a price is only a guide; your bank converts at its own rate and may charge fees.
• The price shown is the full price you pay. There are no delivery costs. [[OWNER: VAT statement, e.g. "Prices include VAT at 15% where it applies. VAT number: ___" or delete this line if not VAT-registered]]
• Payments are processed by Stripe, using the card and other payment methods its checkout offers. Stripe's checkout is encrypted and certified to PCI DSS Level 1. We never see your card details.
• Each purchase is a once-off payment. There are no subscriptions or automatic renewals.
• Your records: Stripe can email you a receipt. Your in-game wallet history shows each top-up, and Settings → Download my data gives you a full record of your purchases.

10. Changes and availability

Cape Town Life is a live game that we keep developing. We may add, change or remove features, places, items and prices, and reset or rebalance parts of the game. We try hard to keep it running and your progress safe, but we don't promise that it will always be available, uninterrupted, or free of bugs, or that your progress can never be lost. The server may take a minute to wake up after a quiet period. Where we can, we'll restore progress lost because of a problem on our side. The game is provided “as is” and “as available”, to the extent the law allows.

11. Suspension and closing accounts

• You can stop playing at any time and delete your account in Settings.
• We may warn, mute, suspend or permanently close your account if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect other players or the game. Where reasonable, we'll tell you why. For serious breaches (such as threats, sexual content involving minors, fraud or hacking) we may act immediately and report it to the authorities.
• If your account is closed for breaking these terms, you lose its in-game rand and items, and you won't get a refund for them, except where the law requires one.
• Sections 5, 7, 12, 13 and 15 continue to apply after your account ends.

12. Our liability

• To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of data or in-game items, or for the conduct, content or websites of other players and advertisers.
• To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims connected with the game is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$50.
• Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for gross negligence, fraud or wilful misconduct, or any liability or consumer right that can't be limited by law, including your rights under the Consumer Protection Act and ECTA.

13. Your responsibility for your content

If someone makes a claim against us because of content you submitted (for example an ad that infringes someone's trademark), or because you broke these terms or the law, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs, to the extent the law allows. This doesn't apply to the extent the claim was caused by our own fault.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the game or the law changes. The version date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the game before it takes effect and, where needed, ask you to agree again. If you don't agree, you can stop playing and delete your account. Changes never apply to purchases you made before they took effect.

15. Law and disputes

• These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
• If something goes wrong, please contact us first; most problems can be sorted out quickly.
• If we can't resolve it, South African consumers can approach the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (cgso.org.za) or the National Consumer Commission (thencc.org.za), or go to a court with jurisdiction in South Africa.
• If you live outside South Africa, you keep any protections that the consumer laws of your country give you and that can't be excluded by agreement, and you may also bring a claim in your local courts where that law allows.
• If any part of these terms is found to be invalid, the rest still applies.

16. Supplier information (ECTA section 43)

17. Contact us

Questions, refunds, appeals or legal notices: [[OWNER: contact email]], or write to [[OWNER: physical address]], South Africa. Please include your Cape Town Life username.