Mojang's Official Statement On Monetisation Of Servers

[501warhead 1796]

This is a followup on my earlier post as seen here -

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/111600-the-minecraft-eula-storm/

 

There I outlined (in conjecture) what, essentially, was happening. Now, at this time, Mojang has (Finally) released their OFFICIAL statement on the matter, as seen here -

 

https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation/

 

Now, this finally addresses this situation and it's an official 'rule book' of sorts. For those of you who don't like reading or don't really get what the above says, I'll go in detail here and point out how certain portions of this relate to LotC.

 

Mojang has made an EXCEPTION for making money off of Minecraft Servers. This is significant and a relief for large servers, and paused them in their packing. However, as one might expect, this DOES NOT come without some changes being made in order to create what Mojang feels like a fairer environment. So, let's look at this a bit more in depth even still, and figure out what Mojang is saying, and why we care.

 

You are allowed to charge players to access your server
So long as the fee is the same for all players...

 

The first point covered by Mojang,  and while it may apply for some, it does not happen to apply in our case which I will admit I'm rather thankful for.

You are allowed to accept donations
You are allowed to accept donations from players. You can thank them publicly or in-game, but can’t give preferential treatment for donating. You are not allowed to restrict gameplay features in an attempt to make money.

 

Now this is, on the surface, seems to be OK... but this is actually the Most Pressing Issue with this Update. What does this mean? Minecraft servers are allowed to have a 'Donate!' button. You can click it, fill in the blank with some cash from your paypal, and send it to them. They can pat you on the back, shake your hand, or do whatever, but only Specific Things can be given out for donations. What are these things, you might ask?

You are allowed to sell in-game items so long as they don’t affect gameplay
We don’t mind you selling items in game, but they must be purely cosmetic. Pets, hats, and particle effects are OK, but swords, invincibility potions, and man-eating pigs are not. We want all players to be presented with the same gameplay features, whether they decide to pay or not.

 

Cosmetics! As mentioned above, a pretty good list of what is and isn't is listed there. Now, one might wonder 'what about LWC? Custom plugins? We made these ourselves!' Well, ripping a page out of the minecraft EULA; 

what we have made includes, but is not limited to, the client or the server software for our Game. It also includes modified versions of a Game, part of it or anything else we‘ve made.

 

Bukkit, and plugins made with Bukkit, are counted as Modified versions of the game. So, to sum this all up nice and simple; 

 

Our current system has been blacklisted by Mojang, Giving out things that require one to donate that make an impact in game is now considered Illegal - LWC, Items, Donator 'Ranks', etc, are all subject to this change.

 

There are additional things on the official Mojang statement if you desire to look further into this for your own eyes, and countless videos have cropped up on the subject that explain it in easier to understand statements.

 

Thanks for your time,

Kalen

 

EDIT:

Step 1: Open mouth
Step 2: insert foot

 

Ok, this came out wrong and perhaps I should have put more thought (or atleast another kind of thought) into this subject. I came off as harsh, trying to kick the muck and ruin a lot of good ant homes for no real reason. I did not desire to do so, but rather wanted to shine a light upon recent actions of mojang and perhaps allow people to notice the donator system we have now and put some thought into perhaps changing it or to create a brainstorm of things that could be done instead of the system we have now.

 

And yes, the general consensus will probably be 'Eh, **** mojang they won't do anything about it' but I'm a good, southern american who clings to his moral values and clicks his tongue when I see people breaking the law I have to follow.

[MediocreGamer 838]

gg lotc.

[Space 2335]

None of this matters. There will be no following of this. There will be no servers taken down, or at least very little. It means **** all.

[IrishPerson 693]

None of this matters. There will be no following of this. There will be no servers taken down, or at least very little. It means **** all.

^^^^^^^^

Calm down mate

[Cyndikate 2303]

Can we please just stop stirring the pot and just wait for Tythus?

 

LWC is not covered by Mojang's policy as it's a plugin, not part of MC's mechanics.

[paulie 181]

Literally none of this affects us considering non of the limited plugins hinder the full experience (Of RP and MC) plus all/most of the plugins are personally coded.

[Kardel 1054]

What Mojang is trying to pull is a pay to play move. they know this **** move of theirs will force big server to go bankrupt and shut down. This will lead players to turn to minecraft realms, so Mojang can make more money.

 

I remember in Mojangs documentary on the creation of minecraft, and how Notch said that he was not in this for the money. Maybe Notch isnt, but everyone else at that crappy little company that I could probably get away with suing is. **** you Mojang. **** you.

[Shorsand 2006]

Implying Mojang will hunt down every single Minecraft server that goes against these rules. Implying there aren't hundreds of thousands of Minecraft servers, LotC being inconspicuous as hell anyway.

[Space 2335]

^^^^^^^^

Calm down mate

 

Please point to the line where it indicated I was not calm :^)

[SirSnowMan 318]

I feel oppressed. 

[TeaLulu 1783]

 sell in-game items 

 sell in-game items 


 sell in-game items 


Until they actually make a firm statement about plugins, everything is up in the air imo. And don't think the plugin makers may not fight back against Mojang trying to claim ownership over their plugins. Makers of plugins for Minecraft will sometimes make them privately for a server solely for the sake of making money off donations; If Mojang tries to claim any sort of "ownership" over the code of these plugins and what they can be done with them, even if they own the base game, it's bound to cause some issues. That's like mojang claiming they can take any plugin any user has made and integrate the exact code into their game whenever they want, which unless I'm mistaken, they can't bloody do. Even if that plugin was made for Minecraft that original code still belongs to the original plugin maker.

[Treshure 5817]

LWC is not an issue because the plugin wasn't made by them.

[Praetor 1550]

[501warhead 1796]

 

 

 

Bukkit, and plugins made with Bukkit, are counted as Modified versions of the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this seems to be an issue, let me explain this way.

 

If I were to make a mod for skyrim and then begin to sell that mod, Bethesda would have the local authorities come knocking at my door for copyright infringement. this is the same for the server - we have made things and then given them to players in exchange for money - conducting a transaction. We aren't making anything unique with our plugins - we're adapting the game. We're still in the game, and so we are still subject to it's EULA.

 

I'm really not certain why we still cling to the archaic system of donator ranks we have - I'm not saying 'no more money to the server' i'm saying 'change the way we ask for donations, 'cause the current one is illegal.' We've had 'Donator' ranks for three years, are we that clingy to our colored name badges?

[Haribo 385]

Don't care, server shouldn't care either.