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
Exactly. Getting something in return is buying something.
Servers like that will die.
What? I will no longer be playing vanilla, downloading any games from Mojang, or update vanilla MC further. The mods are at the point of quality (for me) that they've surpassed the original game in terms of enjoyment.
They are not going far enough. They allowed this mess, they now must clean it up. If they really want to turn into pure evil by enforcing these changes, trust me, they can do it easy. Legal action would not be needed either, for all it would take is a little bit of tweaking to the authentication system.
Make way of the old, lead to the new. It is time for some of these large servers to fade away a bit and quit casting an shadow on the smaller lesser known good servers rising. When you are selling in-game items and so, you can easy buy advertisements to cast a shadow over your competition easy. Or even pay people to go destroy/grief that server. It all works the same.
This is just the start, let the drama soar and the tears create great rivers.
Because people were selling things that are the property of Mojang, that's why.
Minecraft was never meant to be a business venture on the part of the players, like it became. This is definitely Not a negative move against the community, and here's why:
1. Pvp servers that give out perks like fly and godswords for "donations" (i use the word lightly because donations is giving and not getting anything so it's more like a sale)
2. any server that restricts a part of Minecraft that would be accessible even in singleplayer (like anvils or enchantment tables) because they want to reward the "donators"
3. Having donators with speical abilities/kits encourages hacking because of financial troubles that would otherwise let the hackers donate for the perks.
Minecraft was never meant to be your "job" it was meant to be a game. I won't be sad to see these p2w servers go.
Since the dawn of online mmos, there has always been a big rule that was always there. NO RWT. RWT stands for real-world trading if you don't know (ie, trading in-game money or items for real-world cash). It was such a no brainer when i started playing MC I thought everyone would figure that you can't do it.
"If you don't like what a server is doing, don't play on it." - I challenge you to find a server w/o donation ranks, I'll bet you 50 in-game dollars you can't do it.
"Eventually the server will survive or die by the players." - Wrong. The players will pay to win on pay to win servers, and if they want to keep winning, they'll keep paying. That's what will keep pay to win servers alive. As long as they pay, they win, and as long as they win, they stay.
"no one gives a darn about cosmetics" OF COURSE NO ONE DOES! As long as there is at least one p2w server no one will care about cosmetics. after august 1st the generous will donate for them.
Generous people donate with money, Greedy people donate for money.
I currently don't take donations since I can pay for the server myself, but if I ever upgraded I would need to. I would wonder how I could possibly get donations without the ability to market plugins. If we can't, I feel like this took survival servers into consideration but did not think of creative servers.
There's a difference between running a server as a business and maintaining a state of homeostasis through donations. Mojang loses no money from servers doing this; in fact, it probably generates positive feelings for the game and sells more copies of the game. As for servers that make money/sell things for unreasonable prices, I agree, they should be condemned. But the server I play on uses donations purely to keep the server running; I fail to see why Mojang should get their proverbial panties in a knot because of things like that.
The Clinical view: People won't help pay for my server if I don't make them better than everyone for paying. People hate being equal.
The Doomsday View: Now I can't pay for my server!
The rational view: I'm not screwing people, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing to pay for my server. Mojang probably won't come after me... probably.
Players with no $: Woo! Now we are all equal!
Players with lots of $: Crap!.. now we are all equal...
You forgot one, Players who only tend to play SSP - Don't care but find all of the hate over this funny as hell.
I am curious as to what will happen if someone doesn't implement changes by this time, are we going to be getting a email saying our account was locked out until we comply? Just what is their plan for this?
YES! Like me.
Crap you're right!
The SSP recluse: Dem peoples in the interwebz be crazy! Look at 'em all freak out!
Its still doable. Guude and the Mindcrack guys did it without special ranks or any of that. Don't underestimate the power of having a good group and publicizing it. Now they are an extreme example but it just goes to show that a good group of people who are public about having a good time can be a very powerful marketing tool.
Have fun cutting your nose off to spite your face.
Probably noting right away. Hosted servers, Mojang can contact the host and have the server suspended. People running the server from home, they can lock accounts.
This is likely only going to effect hosted servers, though.
The community is already split between those who have (the donators) and those who don't have (non-donators)