Confused! vbawol say's don't give gear for donations, then teams with someone that 'sells' in-game gear???

[BetterDeadThanZed]

I'm glad I have players willing to donate without expecting anything special in-game. It's my opinion that if you enjoy a server, you should help with the costs.

[FJack]

This "donating" to receive in game items doesn't fly with me at all. BI own every part of the ArmA portion and the mod is built by the community whom love to play the game but (with ALL due respect) have yet to create anything of their own since it's all built in a game we all purchased as paying customers.

Don't get me wrong, i'm really thinking of donating to my favourite server to thank them for months and months of quality service... but if I find out they have a site that would detail how many ingame rewards I would get for donating, I would make sure to never return to that server. It's wrong to sell something someone already owns by just restricting their access to it. BI gave us so much to enjoy in their games, they continue to go above and beyond to give the community access to all the content... i would be ashamed to be a part of a group of players that would try to profit off the back of such a good developer.

I love BI for creating OFP and continuing with the ArmA series then evolving into everything this game is today, especially when the competition / majority of developers is catering to the millions and millions of fans of fast-pace, low quality similar games. It's kinda sad to see debates about the right and wrong way to re-sell fellow players something they already own by wording it correctly.

I don't think there's a need to post the definition of "donate" since we all have google... but I strongly recommend only accepting donations for what they're worth, not a gold AK that BI created and you paid for a long time ago.

One more thing for server owners... Do advertise your site for donations! If players want to donate we often want to donate discreetly so don't make us ask how to donate or you'll lose out on all the people too shy / humble / busy to ask out loud. Maybe 5 and 1 minute before restart... during the restart warning. Right when we need to log out but enough time to write down the site address ;)

[Kenturrac]

Couldnt you find an older thread? *inside meme about reviving old threads here*

[Novuhz]

NECRO detected, a lot of misinformation around in old posts it seems, it doesn't matter if items are not from Epoch, Bohemia said they don't allow this kind of thing.

 

 

  Can I host game server and "sell or lease ingame items" or "pay to play" or similar gameplay monetizing methods?

No.

 

  Is there any acceptable way I can make money on my server/website?

Yes. Voluntary donations are allowed and are not considered to be a commercial use. Nevertheless, in any way making the “donation” as part of a condition to receive access to/or getting any part of offered content would be in breach of the License Agreement. The content you create must be available to all whether they donate to you or not.

The fact that you are getting donations is not a problem, but they must be provided voluntarily, i.e. not providing donations must not prevent anyone from accessing the content, download it or store it in another place and operating it there.

To avoid misunderstanding, all access or the content has to be free of any charge.

 

  Am I allowed to seek crowd-funding or other forms of donation towards my modding work?

Yes this is allowed, with the same rules = the access to data/content cannot be limited by any financial contribution.

In no way does this mean that Bohemia guarantees any compatibility or functionality now, or in the future for your modding work or that Bohemia endorses your project.

 

  Am I allowed to offer crowd-funding/donation/stretch rewards such as naming an island after someone, naming a campaign character after someone etc?

No this is not allowed, donation/funding or any other kind of rewards related to monetary contributions cannot be linked to any kind of in game content, the one exception to this is you are allowed to credit donators by name if you so wish in your mod’s ingame credits and/or documentation.

 

  Am I allowed to create merchandising such as T-shirts/keychains/printed maps etc. which I offer as funding rewards and/or sell separately to fund my work?

Yes this is allowed as long as it does not infringe on any of Bohemia Interactive’s trademarks/copyrights.

For example: If you create your own modification called e.g. “Black storm”, you can sell T-shirts with the name “Black storm” on it. BUT: You CANNOT sell T-shirts with the ARMA 3 or any other copyrighted logo of Bohemia Interactive, i. e. “ARMA 3 Black storm” is not allowed.

 

 

[FJack]

I would imagine that the people who cant afford to donate would still like to keep the servers up and running with the donations from others. I myself am one of those people who can't afford to donate much if any. I started a server because I was tired of slack admins on every server I played on, and our community grew from their. The size it is now; I couldn't afford to keep it up myself. And eating in front of people? I would consider custom loadouts a "pay to win" option and we don't allow them on our servers since everyone who can't donate would lose a fight on the coast.

 

Also, ATLEAST once per week we give away all types of items from our donation shop to anyone who wins events. People on our servers are all happy, even people who don't donate. We don't profit anything from donations. We only use the donations to pay for our servers and expand our community. We also give away points for things on our website for everyone to have and to trade to acquire items from our donation shop, as well as give points away in game. We keep it fair for everyone and profit nothing. We only want to see Epoch grow.

 

I respect everyone's views here, just saying. I understand that this is your creation, but all in all it is a mod of arma and dayz, yet those items are ok?

 

 

BTW. Great job to the EPOCH team, no matter your views on the subject.

 

Also, we give people the option to buy the perks from the donation store with in game briefcases. ;-)

I'm no lawyer but this seems to be acceptable since every player can buy perks using ingame brief cases or by donating. This gives players a way to all benefit from the server hosts store regardless of whether they donate or not. Great idea imo.

I have no idea if it's against BI or Epoch's policy but it seems like a great way to make good use of a "store".

I'm curious to know the price comparison from real money to ingame gold... just to get an idea of the value others give to ingame gold. I keep questioning the price of ingame gold, is it worth about 1$ per gold or more like 10$ per gold? (Only want to know for educational reasons)

[vbawol]

  Can I host game server and "sell or lease ingame items" or "pay to play" or similar gameplay monetizing methods?

No.

 

  Is there any acceptable way I can make money on my server/website?

Yes. Voluntary donations are allowed and are not considered to be a commercial use. Nevertheless, in any way making the “donation” as part of a condition to receive access to/or getting any part of offered content would be in breach of the License Agreement. The content you create must be available to all whether they donate to you or not.

The fact that you are getting donations is not a problem, but they must be provided voluntarily, i.e. not providing donations must not prevent anyone from accessing the content, download it or store it in another place and operating it there.

To avoid misunderstanding, all access or the content has to be free of any charge.

[vbawol]

Just to reiterate,  BMRF does not run any servers anymore and have not been a sponsor of ours for a very long time. Also, per BI game usage terms I do not believe even donor loadouts are acceptable either.