End User License Agreements (also known as EULAs) are a bit of a sore spot for gamers, which is why it was hardly surprising that fans of Minecraft began dubbing the developers, Mojang, “worse than EA” when they changed theirs recently. The backlash began when an employee for the company posted on Reddit that users “cannot make money with Minecraft without our permission. If you are on a server, your experience should the same as every other player”.
Fans hit back at the statement, taking it at face value to mean that server charges were not allowed under any circumstances. However, Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has responded to criticism on his personal blog. Attempting to clear up any confusion, he states that the “EULA for Minecraft says you can’t make money of [sic] Minecraft. If you make mods, they have to be free. If you host a server, you can charge for access to your hardware, but not for individual elements in the game.”
Charges in-game can include donations, advertising and sponsorship. However, Mojang wrote that it’s not okay to charge money for, “[s]words, invincibility potions, and man-eating pigs…” adding that they, “want all players to be presented with the same gameplay features, whether they decide to pay or not.”
Persson acknowledged that fans were upset over the confusion: “A lot of people voiced their concerns. A few people got nasty.” Fans have been asking him since to change back to the old license agreement, but Notch does not appear keen on the idea. “That makes me sad,” he says.
For more information about the new EULA, you can check out an official FAQ page on Mojang’s website, or get the gist of it from Notch’s Twitter page.
EDIT: Since being posted, Notch replied to the author of this article to help clarify things further:
@AHeatonWriter At the end of your article, you imply we’ve changed the rules to disallow things. We haven’t. It was never allowed.
— Markus Persson (@notch) June 16, 2014
