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
"How should servers deal with users who have already spent hard currency on features that affect gameplay?
Users may keep the perks they’ve 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."
Is this a loophole? It is saying that players who have bought the perks that affect gameplay may keep them has long has the same perks are available to other players, meaning that we do not have to change what perks we give out for hard currency has long as players have the same perks as the perks that the past players got for donating. Am I right? I am not sure if I am just misunderstanding this(I might have explained this all wrong).
Also, who thinks that Mojang is going to stay with this EULA. I am very scared and upset for what will happen to my server. I just made a list of things I can add and remove because of the EULa, and now I have barely anything to offer donators.
As many people have explained, we (those people) believe that Mojang went too far with the enforcement, not that the enforcement is a bad thing. The details that Mojang has explained allow for only cosmetic items. Now, Pay-to-win is wrong, very wrong, but just cosmetic items is quite limiting (how many unique cosmetic item ideas can you come up with?). Some things that are perfectly ok and non-pay-to-win perks are restricted with this enforcement because "all players must have access to the same content". Coin bundles, for example, are not allowed, nor are EXP multipliers. It was a nuclear option; erasing the entire idea of paid perks instead of targeting the problematic kits and items.
The people who claim the enforcement is there to "save Realms" are just paranoid, like people who don't think the moon landing happened. I've been ignoring them for the most part myself.
It's kinda like my parents used to tell me, "we give you an inch, and you take a mile".
That's what happened with the EULA. It was strongly ignored, and theere was never any real confusion over it, until recently.
As you said, selling gameplay features was never allowed from the start. Why people decided to do it, and want to complain because Mojang finally decided to lay the cards down, beats me.
I guess I feel accomplisehed that I was clearly able to read and understand the EULA from the start.
I feel bad for those who didn't read it, or didn't fully understand it, or even ignored it,and now think the world is coming to an end.
At least now, it's wrote a little easier to understand, I guess.
RedOrion
Pirates and Cutthroats Server Owner
Link Removed
pirates.mcph.co
If your server is a good enough server, you organize and maintain it well, and people really enjoy using it, then people should be willing donate to it for no reason other than just to keep the server running.
If you can't keep a smaller server running on donations alone, then honestly, your server probably isn't worth keeping running. Sad but true.
yes because paid access to a server is allowed and the items sold are not gameplay affecting
The enforced EULA will bankrupt many servers and too extreme there really should be something that says you can't gain profit from the game
The only server I wouldnt back on is shotbow, cause it's gonna die really soon and it's mah favorite D;
Well isn't it obvious?
Mojang has finally become large enough to support their own multiplayer servers. This new revised/enforced Eula has been created for one purpose. To destroy their competition.
They know it is impossible to support a server under these terms. The first servers to go will be large Pvp/Faction servers.
Slowly even Multiplayer titans will be taken down I.E "MinePlex", "Hypixel", "UberMinecraft", and many others. Unless we fight this now The only option left will be Mojang's Vanilla style servers. This would be the future of minecraft.
My personal opinion is that there are thousands of servers out there. and not all of them are pay to win if you as a player do not like pay to win servers you do have the choice to not play them.
Honestly i think a better way for mojang to go about this would be to require server owners to pay them a percentage of their servers profits. 15% would be a good starting point.
As for children stealing their parents money well that is neither mojangs nor is it the independent server owners responsibility this would be an internal house hold issue.