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
Yeah, but Mojang had the right to end whatever that is, people are using their property to make money, no matter where it goes.
And I'm confused.... Why are you saying entrepreneurial and Free Enterprise Systems? It implies that people are trying to make a profit rather than non-profit, which is something people have been arguing about.
Perhaps there's a reason that good, well popular servers can have pay to win features while still retaining players. Perhaps people in those communities don't actually mind it for the most part?
Hard, but not impossible. I found a server 2 years ago that isn't p2w, and it's still a good server. (First server I played on)
Not even close.
"Open Source" does not mean "not copyrighted". It does not mean "Unrestricted". So your first assumption is dead wrong.
Minecraft is NOT "Open Source". Mojang is protective of their code. So you don't even have your first, wrong, assumption to work with.
And, Mojang cannot be in violation of their own EULA -- they make the EULA to tell you how you can use their product.
Also false. Your code, if you run it entirely without anything from mojang? Sure. But if you want to use Mojang's code / engine as an environment for your code, then you have to follow Mojang's rules for use of their code/engine.
In short, every thing you said is just plain flat wrong.
Who knows, I was on the server and everyone who wasn't a donor seemed to act rather... young.... Maybe younger users are not aware of the p2w fairness issue. While people who are discussing on this thread are.
I don't know much about iConomy eithter, but the unbanning is a vague thing. I would think it is ok because it auto-unbans after 2 weeks for free players, and my advice to you would be to risk it; you'll probably receive more complaints from the playerbase than from Mojang in that case.
Entrepreneurial, at least how I used it, means that it's "business-smart." Free Enterprise just means people can do what they want in the economy, without the threat of governmental interference; except for the fact that this is hypothetical because Mojang is bearing down on us.
But is it for good reason? Like Mojang is the FDA of Minecraft.
If they are still enjoying themselves, does it honestly really matter? So what if they don't understand that so and so is more powerful, if that ignorance allows them to still have a ton of fun along those that enjoy the extra power, who are you to tell them the should change it?
To go along with this a bit, what's going on with Minecraft here would be like if the US government decided to ban free to play games in America. Of course it's different because Mojang can technically do what they're doing here and the US government probably can't ban pay to win games, but...similar, right? Telling everybody they can't do business a certain way, even though playing free to play games or pay to win servers is completely optional.
I assume you're referring to whether the bearing down on us is for good reason? If so, then I say it's not for good reason.
I'm not sure what you mean in your second statement, as FDA is the Food and Drug Administration.
Yes, the FDA is preventing people from just gaining a profit at the expense of others while Mojang is preventing people from buying their way into a game.
TLDR: Mojang get your *stuff* together. Stop complaining about Pay to win, it usually isn't and if it is just go play on another server, there are plenty out there. Hats in minecraft won't sell like hats in TF2 or Dota 2.
Should they?
When I donate to a server, I'm not "buying my way into the game." I'm contributing both to help the server and for an enhanced and/or different experience. This by no means that other people can't get what I have without good time and effort, and certainly doesn't cause a shift in balance (At least the server I'm on)
To further the debate, when you say "buying your way into the game" are you referring to all servers, survival servers, pvp servers, or Survival Games servers?
Why not?
The server community essentially is a collection of different communities that all want to play their way. If the majority of servers are P2W currently (and honestly, I think we disagree on what exactly P2W is), then wouldn't it stand to reason that the majority of the community is supporting that style of play? If there is a large enough group of people that dislike this style of play, they will create their own community over time and as such create their own play style.
Who's to say either is wrong as long as both are enjoying themselves?
Most servers need to be "pay to win" to exist. So while most people would obviously prefer to not need to pay for things on a server, that's just not how it works. Massive, expensive servers that so many like to play on will be gone before giving away their services for free. Why? Because they can't be expected to maintain these huge servers out of the goodness of their hearts.
I believe those are fine.