Minecraft EULA changes: What does it mean for the community?

Minecraft recently updated its usage guidelines and received criticism from the community pretty soon after its release. The beloved sandbox game is now causing ripples of discussion within its passionate gaming fanbase. The EULA outlines the terms and conditions for players to use the game and its associated services. It covers aspects like gameplay, server modification, and player interactions.

In this article, we will dive into the recent EULA adjustments, explore all of its points, and shed light on what it has to offer to the dedicated players as well as the content creators of the game.

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Breaking down all changes brought in the Minecraft EULA

Some of the important points that were released in the EULA guidelines are as follows:

1. Mojang and Microsoft will own all the rights, including trademark rights, copyright, and other related game rights.
2. Mojang and Microsoft will be laying out all the consent or permissions regarding the game and may revoke any of it if they do not like what one is doing.
3. If one wants to use any part of the brand name or any of its assets, then a disclaimer must be included similar to the following - "NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT [PRODUCT/SERVICE/EVENT/etc.]. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG OR MICROSOFT"

The naming guidelines are for those who are YouTube content creators, streamers, hosting events, or who have a server for the game. The Minecraft name can be used as a secondary title or in the description. To understand this, some examples are shown below:

• Kotoba Miners: A Minecraft Server for Redstone Builds (This is acceptable).
• Minecraft - The ultimate Kotoba server for Redstone (This is not acceptable).

When players decide to share their content on the internet, then it will fall under the commercial guidelines, which means any use of their name, brand, or assets that one uses and share with others.

This may be possible through video streams, merchandise, or a server host. However, this definition may be changed later as the time goes by.

In the case of domain names and websites, the name cannot appear official or cannot be used in an official manner. Furthermore, such sites must relate to Minecraft only and no other third-party games.

The section for content-creators and streamers says that people are allowed to put the game footage in their videos and streams as long as all videos are free to watch with no paywall as such, and they have added enough unique content of their own to make it reasonable for them to make money out of it.

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What do these guidelines mean for the Community?

Minecraft became the most popular game in history. A big reason behind this was the huge number of gaming tutorials and videos made by content creators. However, Mojang and Microsoft are now dictating how these creators should make their videos.

This kind of thing is dangerous to the gaming community as it can set a precedent that video game companies should tell content creators what they can and can't monetize on different platforms.

There are a whole bunch of things that one may not add to their videos or to their sites about the game that may cause harm to the brand name. So, it's totally up to the company's interpretation of what they actually mean by causing harm to the brand name.

All these guidelines do not seem very empowering to the Minecraft community because some of their content might get removed just because the owners do not like it.