The Minecraft community was rocked earlier this month after Mojang started hinting it would crack down on “pay for perk” servers. These are servers that take donations and award special statuses, gear, and abilities in return, which Mojang said was against its policy of allowing others to make money off Minecraft.
After more than a week of controversy, however, Mojang has decided to reverse that position. Now, you can make money off of Minecraft, as long as you stay within some guidelines designed to protect players from exploitation.
The new rules, as posted by Mojang:
You are allowed to charge players to access your server
So long as the fee is the same for all players, you are allowed to charge for access to your server. You are not allowed to split your playerbase into paying, and non-paying users, nor can you restrict gameplay elements to different tiers of player.
Basically, if you’re charging for access to your server, you are selling a “ticket” and there can only be one type of ticket, regardless of how much people are willing to spend.
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.
You are allowed to provide in-game advertising or sponsorship opportunities
You are allowed to put adverts in your Minecraft worlds to help with costs. If used within reason, adverts and sponsorship can be appropriate ways to fund a server.
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.
There is one exception to this rule – capes! We have a lot of fun making cool capes for extra-special members of our community and Minecon attendees. We’d like to keep them as exclusive as possible. So, yeah, no capes please, even if you’re giving them away for free.
You cannot charge real-world cash for in-game currency
We don’t mind in-game currencies which are earned through playing, but you are not allowed to sell them for real-world cash. Remember – if the stuff you sell affects gameplay, we’re not cool with it.
Don’t pretend to be us. Provide your customers with loads of info
If you do decide to monetise your server, you must clearly state that the purchase is not associated with Mojang, declare who the money is going to, and provide a purchase history and contact details. You should also check the legality of selling digital items in your specific region.
Mojang’s full blog post on the issue can be found here.
So what do you think? Does this sound fair?
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