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by epsylon 4378 days ago

    * Their new terms force servers to remove perks that have already been sold to players. Many server owners are objecting to this as it forces them to "steal" things that players have bought.
The servers don't have to remove the perks, they just have to give them to everyone.

What's pretty clear in all this is that Notch does not want Minecraft to become some kind of pay-to-win game (which would inevitably damage the reputation of the game). I think he is absolutely right to stand by this. He also has stated numerous times on Twitter that Mojang doesn't care about server admins getting money for the service (if anything to pay for the hosting costs), as long as any gameplay modification that is distributed is available for all players without paying.

2 comments

> The servers don't have to remove the perks, they just have to give them to everyone.

Either way, I imagine you get a bit of an uproar - either you're giving things away for free that you sold before, so the people who bought them are upset and want their money back; or you steal the items back so no one can have them, so the people who bought them are upset and want their money back.

Or you do it the same way everyone else does it when the rules change: everyone who already has Banned Thing is grandfathered in but it's no longer transferrable or acquirable.

Or you do it the Valve way: give everyone the Thing and make existing Things the Extra Special Limited Edition Thing that's functionally identical but still confers bragging rights - this would still be within Mojang's rules.

#1 is probably easier, but #2 is probably a better user experience. Either way, you're right in that deleting the item wouldn't be necessary.
You were never allowed to sell them in the first place. This part of the EULA was being ignored so Notch clarified.
If you don't want to pay for things you can play on a different server. You don't have to buy things but if it is worth it for you then you should have the option.