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
I believe that allowing for access to certain areas of a server, like the mines, is against the Eula.
(capes not allowed)
Sorry for any spelllllllllling, punctuat!on; and grammer errors when this forum is typed being Yes I did thoes on purpose. Anyways.........................
I am very angry at mojang for doing this EULA but hear me out mojang, instad of restricting items etc you should set a limit but not on how much they can donatate but on how much at a time see. If you set the limit to 100$ then no player could donate more than 100 at a time and by everyones logic not many people will donate for nothing so unless they donate like 4 times for the same thing its pretty much no benefit to them hence they wouldent do that. All server donation stores would have to lower their limit if above 100$. This 100$ this purly a example but I cant see servers lowering their highest thing to say 50$ as still is alot of money. If you lower things that normally cost say 250$ thats is like super OP then the limit says "no no 100$" then the server owner will most likely remove anything over 100$ beause "this is about to be a strong example" server owners dont feel as donate 100$ and ill give you /op which is basicly what they're giving them but in the sense of items in sense decresing pay to win servers because people arnt going to say pay 5$ for effeciency 35000 picaxe, its just not going to happen. Also my idea of the 100$ limit would be much easier to implamit than your idea and heres why.
1.) Smaller servers would be fine with having nothing above 100$ in the store
2.) If smaller networks will be happy with it as the bigger servers wont get 500$ item purchases everyday and even out thhe network a little more. Take in concideration I'd say about 95% of minecraft servers are small servers. We know the big ones, also most everyone does. Mineplex, Hypixel are as i should say the biggest. Mineplex's lowest rank to buy is 80$ I think. I mean to a small server owner 80$ will pay for their server after being upgraded for about 1-3 months depening on their choise of upgrade.
3.) This is how you would legaly have to handel the "After Aug. 1st people are violating the new Eula" you would have to give them a
(a.) Waring
(b.) Consult with them
(c.) Do some JavaCoding to disallow players to connecting to said ip
(d.) You would have to majorly assume that nobody would some how make a plugin that can bypass your ban
(e.) If say mineplex ( not hunting you guys, ur just big and its a good example because everyone knows you) makes some kinda super beef computer system or super vps network where all you would simply have todo is type a command in say the ssh console and the ip for all the servers is insta changed, the domain will auto point to their said changed ip. Then easily run a python command that spams and presses enter on an interval to change their ip every "said time" implaminting a ban would be very difficult if even possible.
Also mojang, you would have to take legal action on every small server out there that does this, and if nobody follows the eula good luck because you would have to shutdown minecraft all together and onlt allow single player worlds which would put minecraft playerbase to the dirt, we would have more 100 yr old people who like my litte pony than we would people who play minecraft.
3 part two.) If you went my way all you would havetodo is contact buycraft.net and enjin.com to set their limit for when server owners make their products to be 100$. If they try to make it over 100$ it would say in red "This item cannot be over the maximum amont set by the Mojang EULA ($100).
Sorry if i wrote this to big, I think its important for Mojang come with a argreement with their playerbase.
I work in the shadows - Izaiah
Oh well... I guess it is nice that I can have the same privlages as a MVP+ even though I'm just a VIP. Also buycraft is dead.
the thing is some players (not me) have donated about 2000 to a server that Im even friends with and thats going to waste, imagine how they feel
Some servers are pay-to-win, I get that (like some KitPvP places, oh man) but if I don't like it, I leave. That's it, and I find it stupid how mojang is not fine with people CHOOSING to buy BALANCED ranks because the LIKE THE SERVER. Compared to people having to BUY there way into a server with a ticket. That's more making money of minecraft then anything else, talk about pay-to-win, thats just pay-to-PLAY, and if anything, THAT's the thing that's mean.
This is going to destroy donations and plugin makers (no sane server owner is going to give everone /fly, but you can't donate for it, whats the point?) and it will slaughter the community,
We can stop this, Minecraft isn't a dictatorship, its a democracy, and we are the people. If we can all just shout loud enough we can stop this.
Yeah but a good portion of this community is just "i support this cause I love mojang and that is the only reason I have"
Donations and purchases are trashed, as of now, Minecraft is doomed.
I fully understand how paying to win is a bad thing, and I am against it. However, there is a few things that you have made to be unfair.
I am starting a Minecraft Server as we speak, and I've spent TONS of hours working on just documents. This includes game mechanics, donation features, etc.
Just to give you a background, I am making a DayZ style server and a bunch of other RPG servers. They all require some value of XP/Rankup, and include a donator money that is accessible through achievements in game and to buy. The people that earn the money in game can get it reasonable easy if they try, and it's not some rip-off 1 or 2 coins, it's around $10 worth. This way it is balanced between the people spending extra money to get coins faster. So, I know that the EULA no longer supports Hard Cash for Soft Cash, but hell, there are a LOT of small details that you are missing. In a balanced system, it is fully functionable for everyone to have it, and buying it only gives you a small amount faster. Also, with the coins, you can purchase about any feature that Donators have for either a short period time or permanent.
Additionally, in ANY RPG Server, there should be some Experience Level (in my opinion, that's what makes it enoyable). For you to say that XP boosts aren't allowed, it makes it so people feel tedious farming, and can make donating not seem like a very good option. Like I said above, the players would have access to increased XP gain, it's just a bit easier to hold on to for donators.
I am going to be VERY upset with Mojang, if they ruin the way most RPG servers run, and they make it so it's not customizable the way I want it to be.
I understand Pay-To-Win, but there are cases where a lot of the stuff you have mentioned is NOT Pay-To-Win, so I am going to be thoroughly dissapointed if I cannot live the dream because of 1 or 2 servers breaking equality. We shouldn't have to be so limited.
If people aren't legally allowed to make money off of your minecraft, then why are you allowing pay to enter. That's not restricting a feature, its restricting a whole server. No one will support a server with hats, we were fine until EULA showed up Mojang...
If that's so, I have to say that I strongly agree with the change, because they're setting the same standards that they applied to youtubers/videomakers, I mean, now a days there's a ton of servers that take money from kids just to make them imba compared to the other players, and that, IMO, is a cheap, low, lazy way to make money, what really should be like is that you can charge a fee, literally get paid without calling them "donations", for access to your own content inside Minecraft.
And by "own content" I mean, towns, buildings, mods, markets, trade systems (not with real money though), communities, etc. because that's worth paying.
Okay, so I may get flamed a lot, but think about this, let's say, in theory AND JUST AS AN EXAMPLE, tomorrow the real actual MindCrack server opens up and starts charging money, would you pay to be in a tight, well organized, and friendly community, with all those events and fun? I think that's what Mojang is aiming at, to force servers to give back real content, something worth paying for.
And if you can't build things/design mods/organize events well enough to get paid, think about the thousands of youtubers uploading Minecraft LP's daily not getting paid just because they're not interesting enough, it's the same principle.
Btw if Mojang is actually banning charging money for events, towns and that stuff I just mentioned, that's messed up :\
I find it funny how he's morally against putting ads in his server because he doesn't want to throw ads at young kids, yet he's perfectly ok with young kids throwing tons of their parent's money at him.... *smh*
There's an old expression that come to mind. First, "Let the buyer beware." This extends to the fact that if parents can't keep track of their credit cards, then maybe they deserve to lose money.
Now one thing that went quite unnoticed is...
...this, which is like that Terraria incident all over again (Fancy developer-exclusive armor was available to everyone via console but equipping it while not being a dev gave an all-around debuff that's basically an instakill; a player who modded the game to remove said debuff got banned)
Sorry, but "m-m-muh super special customization nobody else is allowed to have" just doesn't work in a mod-heavy game.
By the way, I think staff powers are not affected by the EULA.
Mostly this...
It's practically a given that people who never donated will see this as a stupid move on Mojang's part. The fact is, you're looking at this entirely wrong. If you "donate" for perks, it's probably gonna be at least $5, probably more like $10. What if you don't play Minecraft 24/7? Maybe you play a bunch of other games? What if the 2 consecutive months that you do feel like playing Minecraft on a server cost you $2 and that includes all the perks? That seems pretty darn reasonable to me.