With the recent announcement about changes to the EULA (and in particular, how they will affect multiplayer servers), many questions have arisen. Mojang has looked over numerous discussions by you, the community, and has released a new Q&A announcement, to address some of the most frequently-asked questions to come from the announcement. More many come in the future, but for now, check out these clarifying answers, direct from Mojang!
Quote fromAre any servers exempt to the EULA?
No. It affects all servers and players equally.
Do server hosts have a grace period to implement changes to their servers?
Yes. All servers must comply with the EULA by August 1st, 2014.
Can I charge for access to my server?
Yes. How players join a server is up to you. Single entrance fees or subscriptions are both allowed.
How often am I allowed to charge players to access my server?
You can charge players as regularly as you like. You can even charge for timed access if you think it’s the best way to monetise your server.
What counts as a server? Are proxies one big server, or lots of smaller ones?
A server is something a user connects to with their client. The user is on a different server when they leave the one they are connected to and manually join another (in the multiplayer screen). Virtual servers and proxies make no difference here, to the client it’s the same server.
Can I charge access to a specific part of my server, such as a minigame or world?
No, you cannot charge for any part of a server other than the initial access. Once on a server, all players must have the same gameplay privileges. You may make a different server for the user to connect to which features “premium” areas, and charge for access to that server instead, but the benefits cannot carry over to your other servers.
So can I charge for my minigames or mods?
Yes, so long as all players on your server have access to the features.
Can I offer a limited trial period for all users?
Yes. So long as both trial and paying users have access to the same gameplay features during the trial, we’re cool with it.
Can I give paying users priority access to my server?
Yes, but you cannot restrict gameplay elements to specific users.
Does the EULA still apply for access to user-created mods?
Yes. It doesn’t make a difference who made the mods, or how they were implemented onto your server. All mods require Minecraft to run. You are not allowed to charge for Minecraft features which affect gameplay.
What do you mean by “hard currency” compared to “soft currency”?
Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including Bitcoins. Soft currency is available in-game only, and has no real-world value. The restriction in the EULA only apply to hard currency; you may unlock anything with soft currency.
Can I sell “kits” for hard currency if I provide a balanced alternative for non-paying users?
If the “kits” contain gameplay-affecting features they are not allowed. Gameplay balance is not relevant to the EULA. If the items included in the kit are purely cosmetic, you can charge real money/hard currency.
My server features a currency that you can earn through gameplay, but which can also be bought for hard currency. Is that OK?
Soft currencies that are solely earned in-game are fine, but you cannot sell in-game currency for hard currency. Hybrid/dual currency systems are not allowed.
Can I sell boosters, which provide faster gold gain, XP, or other in-game resources for hard currency?
No – boosters, item generators, and all other features that affect gameplay are not allowed.
So how do I make money from cosmetic items?
You can sell cosmetic items for hard currency directly or allow players to fund an “account” specific to your server. It’s up to the host of the server to decide how this works. Remember that capes are the exception to this rule – you are not allowed to give them away or sell them.
Can I sell ranks on my server?
Yes. Ranks are allowed so long as any perks gained are cosmetic. Coloured names, prefixes, special hats etc. are fine.
Can users purchase something that affects the entire server, such as a temporary XP boost?
Yes, but everyone who can access the server must be able to use the feature, regardless of whether they purchased it or not.
Can I award all players with a gameplay feature if I reach a donation goal within a time period?
Yes, so long as all players receive the benefit regardless of who donated then it’s OK.
Can I charge for access to server commands?
Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency.
If all players get access to a feature such as a plot of land, can I sell access to multiple plots for hard currency?
No – that would be a gameplay affecting change, so it’s not allowed. All player who access your server must have the same gameplay features offered to them. The same rule applies to items, such as potions.
How should servers deal with users who have already spent hard currency on features that affect gameplay?
Users may keep the perks they have paid for, on the condition that the same perks are available to other players on the server (directly, or purchasable using soft currency). It’s up to the server host to decide how to compensate users for previous transactions.
Do you have a question you would like answered about the EULA? Let's discuss it in the comments!
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EXTREMELY FRIENDLY REMINDER OF FRIENDLINESS AND HAPPY-JOY FEELINGS
Please keep all discussion as civil as possible! This is a very hot topic, and we understand that there are very strong feelings about the EULA. That's okay! Open discussion is a GOOD thing! However, please avoid the following:
- Name-calling
- Encouraging (or claiming to engage in) EULA violations
But according to the EULA (as I understand it), you will need to give non paying members a way to get those points.
Definitely not. That's like saying pay to enter server is pay to win but mojang obviously do not forbid that kind of server. You get the same features everyone has in-game but paying members get to play anytime they want. Gamplay fairness and server accessibilty are two completely different things.
I never assumed we are in a perfect world. If anything, it is the anti EULA people who live in a perfect world where you get to make money off someone else's game for a small cost (or no cost for cracked servers). All I am saying is you must adapt as a server owner to the size of your server in response to the projected decrease in paying players. Does it make a difference if the kid spends his money for perks or server maintenance? You speak as if the parents are getting something if the kid pays for perks. Only young adults or children would think that way about parents.
Remove the game items for donating and it should be good. The EULA clearly states that money should not equate to exclusive items to the donors no matter what that money is for. I think it would be better for the players to pay for the actual charity instead of the items and the charity is just the bonus.
Priority access-
Non-paying member:
"My gameplay is different because I can be kicked out of the server at any time without notice. It's not fair!"
Paying member:
"I have power over the newbies because I can kick people out if I need to."
Overly dramatic? Maybe.
But you could sell this as a kit right now if you wanted to. It's actually one of those hated "donor perks" on a lot of servers.
Also, you're right, pay to win is not the same thing as paying to enter a server, because you can't even lose without paying with the latter.
"Pay-to-play" > "Pay-to-win" ? Not in my opinion. Especially since quite a few of the servers people are calling "Pay-to-win" were servers where you could actually win without paying. Paying for perks or classes (often well balanced classes) isn't the same as paying for the ability to win. This is coming from someone who enjoyed playing on such servers but never sank a penny into them.
On another note:
Or maybe they were paying to support charity and the items were just a bonus?
Perspective can change quite a bit.
I feel like you are biased and like putting down folks who don't agree with you.
Are you serious right now? "This is good because we are still allowed to play Minecraft"? Being able to play was never in question, how we will be able to is.
That is for the playerbase to decide if a server lives or die not the server owners. Are server owners feel threatened that the power shifted to the community? Supporters of EULA accepts the fact mojang has the power over their own game and that is a fact. Anti EULA people believes that they own the game to make money out of it which is exactly what a perfect world is, leeching off other's work without restriction.
Think of it this way
"This server is suppose to be pay to play but the owner is kind enough to let me play as a free player when the server is not full. If I like this server, I want to play anytime so I will pay. If this server is meh, I'll just wait for a free slots to play."
Pay to play means you are paying for access to the server you like but you don't have elitists who feel special than others because they bought power. Basically, you will be paying because you actually like the server and not because you were offered with power.
Why would you need the items then if you wanted to donate to charity? There is literally no reason you will need items if you really want to help the charity. There are other ways to donate to charity other than minecraft if you are wondering.
I haven't played a faction servers for a long time since I dedicated myself in playing around with cmd blocks. I know how to defend myself from p2w players by smart location of my base and I know my limitations of being unable to take down p2w players with full diamond gears with enchantments.
You prefer small and private servers, and quite a few people prefer large public servers. It's a difference of preference, and it doesn't affect you. If these larger servers die, how do you benefit from this? People enjoy playing on these servers or they would already be dead. Why are you trying to bring these servers down? What is to gain? I understand all of the current rules and how almost EVERY SERVER ON THE PLANET has broken the rules. Now it's been decided who is still breaking the rules, and who is not. Those who are within the rules lose competition, those who are not are left to fight to keep their server alive with their players behind them.
It's amusing to see anti EULA people saying people like huge public servers but contradict themselves by saying no one is willing to pay to maintain those huge servers if there are no exclusive perks. The only one who will bring down your server is your own playerbase not Mojang. Mojang never restricted your income. It's your playerbase who is your boss when it comes to keeping your server alive. It seems you have no faith in your playerbase and they actually don't enjoy your server if not for the elitism it breeds. It's time for low quality content servers to die and actual good content servers that people are willing to keep alive survive.
Why don't you trust them? Is it because your server is actually bad and perks are the only reason it is alive? Cheap tactics like that won't work anymore and you have to make a server with good content to survive. People are not mindless creatures that you manipulate to regurgitate money by selling power. They are sentient beings capable of deciding if your server is worthy or not to spend money on. I am simply expressing my opinions that might save you from wasting your time whining and start rebuilding your server to have actual good content in it.
Gaming experience is not equal to server access. Read the EULA again where it states that gaming experience is about equality on what paying and free players can access on the gameplay. It doesn't state anywhere that every server should be free to access whether you paid or not. If anything, this is the loophole mojang left for you to use in monetizing the server.
So why use minecraft for charity? There other ways to have more generous people donate to poor people than minecraft. This is just a poor excuse in an attempt to keep selling power.
Its opposite the good content servers will fall because they the ones that need the money the most and low quality servers will be the ones standing because they dont need or care for money.
Like has been said many times, only a precious few people will donate for the cause of the server. I'm not even that type of person. Sure, if they like the server they should donate to keep it alive; but maybe people don't realize the cost or, usually, they don't think donating is worth it unless it directly gives you special features.
Where's the logic in that? Why would you let a good server you like die by not donating? Big servers =! good servers. You can have a huge low quality server that has p2w as its lifeline and medium sized good servers that live off to simple donations simply because people like the server overall and doesn't need additional benefits to give them money. Then again, maybe p2w does means good servers for p2w players.
Oh, yeah, I totally think I own Minecraft, as a multiplayer player who has never spent or received any money because of Minecraft, just to make money off of it. That's what I've been arguing for this whole time. (Read: dripping sarcasm)
Once again, you're just using a different perspective than I did. We could probably go back and forth repeating our different perspectives all day, but I think I'll just leave it at "we just kind of disagree."
You wouldn't need the items. Hence the word "bonus." Like I said.. Perspective..
And thanks for clearing that up, I thought this one server on Minecraft was the only form of charity that exists in the world, because I'm some idiot. I am so enlightened now.
(More sarcasm in case you were wondering)