Private Server Monetisation Policy

Users who are viewing this thread

Private Server Monetisation

Private servers are the lifeblood of Mount & Blade multiplayer. Server owners offer a service to the community which brings players together and allows them to enjoy the game in a way in which we as a company are simply unable to. Community events, tournaments, new game modes and custom maps are just some of the ways in which people benefit from the generosity, dedication and hard work of these valued community members, and without them, the multiplayer side of the game would be a lesser experience.

This service often comes at a considerable cost to server owners and administrators. Not just in terms of the time and effort required to provide a quality service, but also with the monetary investment required to maintain a server. We recognise that it is important that server owners are able to raise funds to help with the general costs associated with running a service, however, recently we have noticed that some servers have started to move away from the traditional method of raising funds through donations towards a payment-based method which offers players in-game rewards in exchange for money.

We certainly appreciate the great contribution that server owners make and we believe that it is fair for them to ask for help with upkeep costs, however, we also strongly feel that the game should be enjoyed by all of our players in a fair and inclusive environment, and without them being subjected to any additional costs.

We think that it is time that we set some guidelines for server owners to be clear as to what we consider to be acceptable ways for them to raise funds to maintain their service, in a way which is fair to both server owners and players.


Server Owners

You are allowed to:
• Accept donations
• Charge players a flat fee to access your server (providing you have the explicit permission to use any mods, maps, game modes, intellectual property or any other additional content hosted on your server)
• Offer reserved slots for donators
• Offer out-of-game rewards
• Offer in-game custom titles as a reward

You are not allowed to:
• Restrict access to gameplay features
• Sell any form of in-game content, cosmetic or otherwise (items, perks, skins etc.) via payment or donation rewards
• Sell in-game currency for money (or any other means that facilitate the buying of in-game content through real spending)


Server Hosts

You are allowed to:
• Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

You are not allowed to:
• Lease servers which contain the intellectual property of another person or company without their explicit permission
• Act as a server owner for pay-to-access servers


Permissions

The only accepted methods to prove you have permission to use any assets (mods, maps, game modes, scripts, models, textures, or any other additional content) or intellectual property are:
• Letter (physical or scanned)
• Email
• A post or a reported personal message on our official forums

Letters, emails, forum posts or reported personal messages should be from the owner(s) of any assets or intellectual property and they should clearly state that you have their permission to use their creation. Screenshots are not an acceptable form of proof.


Given the complexity of the matter and with this being a new policy, we reserve the right to make any amendments or changes to these rules at any time. Furthermore, we reserve the right to take action against any server which we feel goes against the spirit of the community by attempting to bypass this policy in any way, poor sportsmanship in competition or racist/sexist/etc conduct.

We intend to give server owners and hosts a grace period of one month to bring their servers in line with this new policy, however, after that period is over we will add any server that breaches these terms to our blacklist. (09/06/18)

If you have any enquiries regarding this policy or you would like to report a server which is in breach of these terms then please contact us at: [email protected]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
the game should be enjoyed by all of our players in a fair and inclusive environment, and without them being subjected to any additional costs.


You are allowed to:
•  Charge players a flat fee to access your server (providing you have the explicit permission to use any mods, maps, game modes, intellectual property or any other additional content hosted on your server)
:???:
 
TommyBristol said:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
the game should be enjoyed by all of our players in a fair and inclusive environment, and without them being subjected to any additional costs.


You are allowed to:
•  Charge players a flat fee to access your server (providing you have the explicit permission to use any mods, maps, game modes, intellectual property or any other additional content hosted on your server)
:???:

Server owners/admins can already restrict access to their service simply by using a password.
 
We intend to give server owners and hosts a grace period of one month to bring their servers in line with this new policy, however, after that period is over we will add any server that breaches these terms to our blacklist.

How exactly does blacklisting work? Is it enforced by a machine ban or IP ban?
 
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
TommyBristol said:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
the game should be enjoyed by all of our players in a fair and inclusive environment, and without them being subjected to any additional costs.


You are allowed to:
•  Charge players a flat fee to access your server (providing you have the explicit permission to use any mods, maps, game modes, intellectual property or any other additional content hosted on your server)
:???:

Server owners/admins can already restrict access to their service simply by using a password.
Though that is a big difference from being allowed to then charge for your password.


Can you also define "gameplay features" and give example, please.
 
A question regarding commercial gameserver hosts:

Will you be contacting the hosts of any server that is violating this policy? We for example host a couple 100 servers and can't keep exact track of everything our customers are hosting on their server.
 
TommyBristol said:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
TommyBristol said:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
the game should be enjoyed by all of our players in a fair and inclusive environment, and without them being subjected to any additional costs.


You are allowed to:
•  Charge players a flat fee to access your server (providing you have the explicit permission to use any mods, maps, game modes, intellectual property or any other additional content hosted on your server)
:???:

Server owners/admins can already restrict access to their service simply by using a password.
Though that is a big difference from being allowed to then charge for your password.


Can you also define "gameplay features" and give example, please.
Equipment, Abilities, Cosmetics. Anything that affects the ingame experience and is not specifically excluded in the OP (f.e. custom titles/reserved slots).
 
Rainbow Dash said:
How exactly does blacklisting work? Is it enforced by a machine ban or IP ban?

Captain Conner said:
A question regarding commercial gameserver hosts:

Will you be contacting the hosts of any server that is violating this policy? We for example host a couple 100 servers and can't keep exact track of everything our customers are hosting on their server.

Our current blacklist system bans the IP address of the server (this will affect any other servers running on the same IP address). If we find someone in breach of this policy then our initial response will be to contact the server owner or host to explain the situation and ask them to resolve it in a timely manner. If that fails, we will add the server to the blacklist.
 
•  Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Just want to get some clarification on this.

At the moment, we lease scripts for Persistent World at a fixed rate. The rate covers the cost of hosting the script backend and database and the licensing cost that we pay to King Solutions, our script set provider.

By my reading of this, we will no longer be able to charge the license and hosting fee, and must provide them included in the package if we provide them at all.

Is my reading correct?
 
Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Does this rule still allow us to sell extra non in-game addons, such as dedicated resources on our infrastructure, control panel features etc?
 
althalus311 said:
•  Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Just want to get some clarification on this.

At the moment, we lease scripts for Persistent World at a fixed rate. The rate covers the cost of hosting the script backend and database and the licensing cost that we pay to King Solutions, our script set provider.

By my reading of this, we will no longer be able to charge the license and hosting fee, and must provide them included in the package if we provide them at all.

Is my reading correct?

We would consider this to be the script that is being sold and therefore not something we would allow.
 
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
althalus311 said:
•  Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Just want to get some clarification on this.

At the moment, we lease scripts for Persistent World at a fixed rate. The rate covers the cost of hosting the script backend and database and the licensing cost that we pay to King Solutions, our script set provider.

By my reading of this, we will no longer be able to charge the license and hosting fee, and must provide them included in the package if we provide them at all.

Is my reading correct?

We would consider this to be the script that is being sold and therefore not something we would allow.


So you don't allow the selling of any privately made scripts?!


That is some seriously concerning news if that's what you're trying to communicate to us.
 
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
althalus311 said:
•  Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Just want to get some clarification on this.

At the moment, we lease scripts for Persistent World at a fixed rate. The rate covers the cost of hosting the script backend and database and the licensing cost that we pay to King Solutions, our script set provider.

By my reading of this, we will no longer be able to charge the license and hosting fee, and must provide them included in the package if we provide them at all.

Is my reading correct?

We would consider this to be the script that is being sold and therefore not something we would allow.

Alright, one further question. Will this mean that the sale of scripts completely independently of the server hosting will no longer be allowed?

I'm trying to figure out now how we can continue to provide the service to our customers without outright losing money on each individual service that makes use of the scripts, or increasing prices across the board (impacting customers that have no interest in the scripts).

If independent script sales are no longer a possibility, then this will obviously impact our script provider as well.
 
TommyBristol said:
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
althalus311 said:
•  Lease servers which include script-sets (such as administration tools) or modules, custom maps and other modifications, providing that your prices are consistent across servers (with and without game related content) and you have the explicit permission of the content creator to use their creation.

Just want to get some clarification on this.

At the moment, we lease scripts for Persistent World at a fixed rate. The rate covers the cost of hosting the script backend and database and the licensing cost that we pay to King Solutions, our script set provider.

By my reading of this, we will no longer be able to charge the license and hosting fee, and must provide them included in the package if we provide them at all.

Is my reading correct?

We would consider this to be the script that is being sold and therefore not something we would allow.


So you don't allow the selling of any privately made scripts?!


That is some seriously concerning news if that's what you're trying to communicate to us.
To translate:

Currently server hosts cannot sell scripts or other content that affects the game-experience for an additional fee. They can, however, change the base pricing of their servers and offer options like script sets to all their customers for *free*. That way they can still use the content to compete/advertise their services. Server owners cannot sell anything that is or affects ingame content to individual players or donators (as rewards), but they can charge a flat fee for all players - exceptions (reserved slots for donaters, custom titles for donaters, etc.) are listed in the OP.

Edith: Sales of services unrelated to server hosting / owning will be discussed at a later point. (I.e. commission a script/model/etc.) This is specifically about server hosting/owning.
 
Callum_TaleWorlds said:
Server Owners

You are not allowed to:
• Restrict access to gameplay features
• Sell any form of in-game content, cosmetic or otherwise (items, perks, skins etc.) via payment or donation rewards
oh boy
u9reaEy.png
 
I'll have you know, Taleworlds, this is impeding on a certain server's INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and business model. Not allowing people to monetize your game with their own microtransactions ... watch out you might end up in BIG BOY COURT.


Kidding . . . this is funny
 
Back
Top Bottom