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
almost as bad as apple suing goolge for having "slide to unlock" on their phones
Yeah, so does the Indian employee at the tech support department.
Just so they can play on something that is costing the server owner time, money and effort... You're right, server owners are greedy.
Loophole found. I've thought up a bunch of them, and after a thorough reading of the EULA, they aren't covered.
Not all true! Some people actually want to provide fun and entertainment for other people!
Then do it without creating unbalanced gameplay.
I understand, but it's still ridiculous to have to pay to play =/ Maybe if there was some spectator or test mode, so you can have a demo to the server, but do you honestly expect new people to pay when they don't know what the server is like? =/
Youtube could show them, I guess. Still, though, after such a long time with about no pay-to-play servers, all servers starting to force their players to pay instead of just having fun is ridiculous. If you think about it, server owners may as well start finding jobs to make money instead of just relying on the money of strangers, since if they don't charge an entry fee, people may not even donate unless they're actually that generous, although a lot of people will think "If I only get things that are useless on this server, and won't make much of a difference, what's the point in paying?". A lot of people will think it's stupid to have to pay-to-play when they can just go somewhere else, play singleplayer with some mods or a map based off a server or something, etc.
Sure, we have to pay in order to get Minecraft, but that's for the whole game, and it's a reasonable one-time fee. In-game servers? That's a lot different.
I might get some flame for this, but I say it is actually your fault that you made such a risky investment.
In the end, this is Mojang's game, and no matter what you did on the servers, you and the server owners are subject to their EULA/Terms of Service, which is subject to change at any time. Again, you should have been conscience of all of this when making your purchase! When you clicked "I agree," that meant you agreed to be legally bound by these rules!
Players will be able to keep the ranks, if I read it right. But if you ACTUALLY spent over $200 for ranks on servers of which you don't know are reliable or not, then you've got a serious problem here.
This has nothing to do with mojang this is about EULA all mojang is doing is starting to enforce EULA.
Advantage - violation
the more loopholes they know the more detailed they make the eula.
1.) make your own free website on maybe wix or something similar
2.) list a bunch of random things and a price (make some minecraft items)
3.) as a donor feature lets say $50 gets you 50 credits(also give them so simple hat and particle effects) for the player to use on your wix site. The credits themselves cannot be used in server shops or anything like that.
4.) On your wix stuff just list things off like d armor, spawners, itunes gift cards, mc gift cards, ms points etc...
5.) points can be redeemed in your own personal shop not associated with minecraft.
6.) once redeemed on site, give the player the items in game via /give command
and that is how things stay the way they are.
if friend does not pay for it, it is fine