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
Regardless if the content is Mojang's or not, you are still using Mojang's platform to make money. I also am curious why you like the "Pay-to-Win" aspect of the game. I can easily buy "Invisi kits" or anything a server can offer, but that isn't the point whether i can buy it or not. Its based on personal preference, but also equality. Do i care if they enforce it, not really because it doesn't affect me as much as it would to a person who plays Factions and Creative servers with OP build opportunity.
Also sorry if i made it sound apart of Minecraft, but i don't see how it isn't apart of Minecraft when you have it in a Minecraft Server.
When you install a plugin/mod to Minecraft, you obviously download it from some external source, but then where does that external source download/product get used..? Take a guess... Minecraft. Yeah it's not linked to the game, but right when you add something to Minecraft, it becomes part of the game.
You may ask: If you don't care about the EULA if it is enforced or not why are you striving to prove a point?
Very fair question, and i shall answer. I dont think i should have to pay for a mod/plugin that i can get free in my own server where i can make it free to everyone else and rely on real donations. I would much prefer people donating that enjoy the server and want the server to be up, then me being greedy and forcing people to pay for perm or rank to keep my server up.
I don't know what you were trying to say, but this is what you said.
I'm completely against pay-to-win, I prefer a majority of cosmetic items to be the VIP rewards, my point in this thread has mainly been to show that you can have paid perk features without a pay-to-win element, and in my opinion, worldedit, being as powerful but relatively unimportant to your creations as it is, is one of the perks that can be paid for without the ability to "win". Granted, I'd be willing to concede worldedit as a paid feature because of the griefing potential, but it does help show the possibility of paid perk features.
Same goes for my previous examples of VIP areas an VIP-only minigame rounds; paid users aren't "winning" because they get to play a round of Hypixel's bow spleef with other paid users.
To completely defend the EULA is to assume there are no grey areas not covered by the current enforcement changes. That's completely untrue; you can have perks that are not pay-to-win that are also not cosmetic: priority, private area access, and coin bundles are all examples of this.
I like how you just reworded everything i just said. Also i am not "Completely" defending EULA as you say.
"in my opinion, worldedit, being as powerful but relatively unimportant to your creations as it is, is one of the perks that can be paid for without the ability to "win"
I do not want worldedit to be a perk of which you can purchase, my whole point in all my posts.
"That's completely untrue; you can have perks that are not pay-to-win that are also not cosmetic; priority, private area access, and coin bundles are all examples of this".
You can have perks all you want, but worldedit is pointless as a perk you have to purchase as it is a huge advantage. As for private area's and coin bundles, what is in this "private area"? Also the EULA doesn't allow purchase of soft currency for hard currency. That also includes bitcoins as a no go under the EULA.
Are there loopholes? Yeah probably, but my whole point i'm trying to make is not to make it sound like the EULA is flawless but to say that certain things shouldn't be charged for when i can make a server and rely on real donations from people who actually want the server to be up instead of forcing people to provide money to me so my server can stay up like i said in my previous post.
Perhaps we have different definitions of "defend". I'm not trying to be rude, it's ok to defend the EULA. I'm just arguing against it. You may not be defending it completely, no, you may have some issue that you have not mentioned, I'm just using those words to prove a point.
I noticed, yes.
You can have perks all you want, but worldedit is pointless as a perk you have to purchase as it is a huge advantage.
As I have been saying, I do not see it that way. It is a timesaver. I can build a giant wall in 10 seconds with worldedit, I can also build a giant wall with creative mode in 2 minutes. You cannot do anything with Worldedit that cannot be done with vanilla creative with some, often very little, effort. Therefore, because there is nothing you can do with worldedit that you can't do with vanilla, there is no advantage other than a small amount of time saved. Yes, this time saved goes up as the project becomes larger, but you can also request help from other people to shorten the amount of time. Overall, the time advantage is negligible.
As for private area's and coin bundles, what is in this "private area"?
I have detailed that in my previous posts. I'll reiterate; I believe a VIP area is not a pay-to-win advantage so long as the area has no bearing on the server's overall goal. For example, a story-based RPG server cannot have a town crucial to the plot locked by a paywall, they can, however, have a sidequest town or an area in which they can rest and socialize. Another example, a prison-based server cannot have a VIP area that houses the only shops for Lapis in the entire game without any method of giving free players to ability to sell Lapis, they can, however, have an area that houses VIP-only cells and shops. That is what I believe.
Also the EULA doesn't allow purchase of soft currency for hard currency. That also includes bitcoins as a no go under the EULA.
Are there loopholes?
Yes, that is what the EULA says, that is why I am arguing against that clause. I believe one loophole is if the items are purely cosmetic and the money is not affecting gameplay (I.E. on an economy server, you can give donors their own currency to purchase aesthetic items to their leisure, but this currency can't touch the currency used by everyone else), do not take my word for this.
Yeah probably, but my whole point i'm trying to make is not to make it sound like the EULA is flawless but to say that certain things shouldn't be charged for when i can make a server and rely on real donations from people who actually want the server to be up instead of forcing people to provide money to me so my server can stay up like i said in my previous post.
People who buy kits don't want your server to stay up? What is the difference between someone donating and someone buying a perk (provided the perk isn't pay-to-win)? One wants to give money to you without an incentive, the other wants to give you money in return for something. Do you believe that only the donator wants to see your server continue running?
See i agree with you on a lot of aspects of the server. I honestly don't have a problem charging for certain things but like you said above, worldedit isn't a big advantage which i'm starting to agree with now. But that also furthers my point on how it shouldn't be a perk you have to pay for either through priority, or any rank.
Side note: Wish i knew how to multi quote certain lines like you do.
The private areas like you made clear to me do make more sense to charge for. I think the issue i'm having is i have been on servers where they literally charge for everything... Like ranks, donator, priority, cosmetics, perks, perms. I just don't see how everything that is within the loopholes of the EULA should all of a sudden be okay to charge for.
As for the last quote there, to answer a few of your questions. Do i believe that only the donor wants to see my server running?
Well, the whole point of a donation in the Minecraft server spectrum is to provide money so the server owner has an easier way of paying for the next month. There will always be a difference between a real donator vs Purchaser/consumer. You also do have more incentive to obviously give money to someone if your getting something in return.
My honest look on it is, its your money you do what you want with it. But if we are looking at the EULA side of it, purchasing items and calling it donating is wrong.
Also EULA is a neutral idea for me, reason one would be to remove most of the pay to win aspect which is technically my biggest concern.
But also, if you want to spend your money on rank and stuff in a server you really like, go ahead. So im on the fence.
I may have contradicted myself but , i just am thinking of this from the most logical way possible now and if it effects me at all.
I copy-cut from the original quote, put some more quote tags, paste it in between and repeat.
I agree completely, there is a point where charging for things become silly. My problem is just that the EULA takes the nuclear option; instead of separating what's wrong with paid perks and what's fine, it destroys the idea of them entirely except for cosmetic items. As much as Mojang says "it's more lenient in comparison to the previous one" and so on, that doesn't justify taking the stance they did; there's only so much people can do with aesthetics; pets, hats, outfits, posters, and so on. That's the only problem I have.
Yeah exactly, im pretty much where your sitting then. I think that Mojang has taken the EULA to a whole other level and is making it not unfair but difficult. I think charging for certain items should be allowed as long as the price is reasonable.
They are enforcing it so might as well creep through the loopholes.
I currently do not run a server that provides any kind of services for me to make money but i wouldn't mind it. Message me please i got to ask you something!
Good discussion sir.
Not the way i work. People charge for things on servers that should not be charged for. If you cant agree, then disagree but stop reposting trying to be right.
Its all preference anyway, but the EULA is a good idea more then it is bad.
You guys just killed Minecraft multiplayer you know.
You would be angry too if you spent 2 years building custom plugins and custom worlds for a huge RPG server and put nothing but care into the fairness of in-game purchases and then Mojang tells you you cannot earn money to keep it afloat right before you release your 2 year long project.....
Perks like starting with a gold sword instead of a wood sword, a different handgun (as it will be in my server) (the handguns are basicly the same) should be fine, as well as starting with an item that is only slightly rarer that a regular weapon. i think this should be allowed.
However, if its like it is on the hypixel network (as we all know- is Very Pay 2 win), these servers should have to change.
Mojang should make a inspection request page for people to request inspections.I believe that mojang should have an INSPECTOR (or similar mojang rank), that has to go around to minecraft servers and determine how well they are running.
Perks like starting with a gold sword instead of a wood sword, a different handgun (as it will be in my server) (the handguns are basicly the same) should be fine, as well as starting with an item that is only slightly rarer that a regular weapon. i think this should be allowed.
However, if its like it is on the hypixel network (as we all know- is Very Pay 2 win), these servers should have to change.
Mojang should make a inspection request page for people to request inspections.
please note that as a non vip you can start with 2 bread. as vip you can start with 3 giant magmacube minions + an iron sword and armour.
that is basicly the definition of pay2win.the changes should be kept. but just tuned down.
Any server that actually cares about it's customers like we do, wont make abusive in app purchases. Server admins that sacrifice hundreds of man hours to make custom plugins and make custom builds and truly created a game that everyone enjoys should be allowed to earn some money to pay for their server because they earned it.
no money = no server. that's how it will work and how it should work.
I remember hosting a server (not in minecraft) and paying like 25$ monthly, but in my country it is like 54$ to me. never getting anything in return wasn't a problem, because games are meant to be fun. and it was fun, for me and for other players. after a year and few months my server was almost empty, and after a month my server didn't exist anymore. it was pointless to keep it going, if it was still active I would still pay monthly. if you don't have money, don't host a server. that simple. I don't care about your money problems, just because you can't abuse the game and make money on it, it doesn't mean new eula is bad. it means you are not suitable for being a server owner. stop blaming mojang for no reason, obviously you are just a little kid who doesn't care about players' opinions and just trying to make money. minecraft community and servers are utter cancer, as BuddyTheUser said.
what you are doing is wrong and soon we will get rid of worthless minecraft servers. get over it.
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "DONATE AND GET A ***" AND "HELP STARVING CHILDREN AND GET A CHANCE TO WIN A ***"
Will many big servers die off? Yes, probably. There are a ton of pay-to-win servers out there, and there's no way that the majority of them will survive without being able to charge for perks.
Will this "kill Minecraft multiplayer"? No. It won't. There will still be plenty of decent, large servers that are so well-maintained that people will be more than willing to sign up for a subscription to play on them, or that can use "donations grant server-wide perks" and other paid features that are perfectly within the terms of the new EULA. Large, high-quality, well-run servers will survive just fine, if they are run by people who are smart and can conform.
There are also the thousands upon thousands of smaller, tighter-knit community servers that aren't even going to be affected by this change. They are inexpensive enough that the owners can already afford to pay for them out-of-pocket, or their members are already donating or contributing the very small amounts of money necessary to maintain the server in a way that doesn't violate the EULA.
All this change will do is prevent the kiddies with no money of their own from playing on most of the huge servers. Though even then, I guarantee there will still be at least a few very large servers that will have free-to-play options, by getting enough money to pay for themselves via true (non-perk) donations, granting "server-wide" perks for donating (which are legal), sale of cosmetic items, or advertising, etc.
And the servers that are left will be awesome! Well-maintained and organized, because they need to keep people playing and paying. As I said in a previous post, the only servers this will kill are the bad ones. Granted, the "bad ones" may comprise the majority of the large multiplayer servers out there... But to them, good riddance.
And even with that all said, we all know that the ones that are nothing but horrible get-rich-quick Pay-to-Win scams will be the first targeted by Mojang's lawyers if they don't clean-up or shut-down by August 1st. Mojang chose to ignore their own EULA for so long, that I would be willing to bet they aren't going to be sending cease and desist letters to every server out there that doesn't conform. They are going to obviously go after the worst offenders first.
Next point: Mojang doesn't care if people say they are going to quit.
Mojang got your money when you bought the game. They don't care if you keep playing, or if you never play at all. They only reason they want people interested in their game at all is the free advertising that all of you are, in getting your friends to also buy the game. And given how much money they've made, they have already said that even if Minecraft never sells another copy, they have funding stashed away to keep the company going for another 10 years. Given that, they are obviously well-prepared to start "laying the smack down" on the people that have been abusing the system for years, and causing them no end of grief from angry parents. I'd be doing the exact same thing in their place, though I likely would have done it much sooner.
TL;DR: This is not the end of the world, and Mojang is doing the right thing.