I was probably going to make a post about this anyway, but even better that someone made one before me.
My opinion on this all over the place, and is always changing. Lemme tell you how I feel now.
It's no so much 'new terms' than it is updated terms. It was always against their terms to:
- make commercial use of anything we?ve made;
- try to make money from anything we?ve made; or
- let other people get access to anything we?ve made in a way that is unfair or unreasonable.
Selling any features in their game via donation rewards falls under these categories. The thing is Mojang were so laid back about this, that every server did it, and if ever server does the same thing, it just becomes normal and no one bats an eye.
The problem is now, is seems Mojang weren't happy with themselves that they let this slide for so long, so they're only now taking a stand against it. Apparently in their eyes, paying for advantages in the game is unfair for those who can't, and that the game was becoming a 'pay-to-win' game. Although I don't agree with this, I can kinda see where they're coming from.
My opinion.Servers are a big reason why Minecraft is big today, there's no denying that. The time and creativity server owners put into their servers is amazing, especially those large servers which can house up to 7k players at once, it's mind blowing.
I agree with the updated terms they've made,
but, I don't agree with the way they've introduced it, and the time in which they're introducing it. It seems pretty unprofessional to me for a company which strives themselves on their community, to throw this change at everyone so fast and expect them to comply after all these years of leniency. Servers such as Hypixel and The Hive base the majority of their donation store on things that now break the EULA, and will be finding it extremely difficult to pay their bills.
I created my own server so that I could bring out unique features of the game, and then reward players with some of those features, since they're helping fund the server. We're now being told these features we're giving players isn't allowed, because technically we're selling parts of the game to people, and making Minecraft become a "pay-to-win" game.
Yes, they let us get away with it for a while, and they're allowing servers to adjust to the update until August 1st, 2014, but my points still stand on this.
What's this mean for DKCraft's donation packages?The same thing it means for any other server who are breaking the terms; those packages which breach the EULA are going to be removed.
It's going to be a lot harder to fund the server, as things like in-game money and spawn eggs were a huge percentage of our overall donations.
(
as shown in these statistics)
But we will simply need to find new rewards to give. Cosmetics such at hats and disguises are fine.
I'll be making a proper post about this in server news when the time comes, but we have until August 1st to figure it out.
