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DayZ paid server guidelines laid out by Bohemia, paying for access, sponsorship and cosmetics all allowed

dayz_server_monetization

With the re-rise of private servers and the greater ease with which pennies and cents can be moved around the internet, not to mention the endless modability of something like DayZ, money has started changing hands in regards to it. Bohemia have felt the need to lay down some laws regarding what is and isn’t okay and create their own list of approved sellers of server space and other bits and bobs.

DayZ, among others, features on our best survival games list.

A page on Bohemia’s website is dedicated to this process, with ARMA 3 covered as well. The basic rules are that you must apply for approval by Bohemia, you can’t charge for gameplay-effecting items and people can report you if you’re not behaving properly – either as far as the rules are concerned, or if you’re exploiting loopholes. Here’s the rundown on what’s okay:

  • Charging players to access your server is allowed. Limiting access to only paying players is allowed.
  • Product placement, in-game advertising and sponsorship is allowed. Accepting donations is allowed, but to avoid any doubts: not providing donations must not prevent anyone from accessing the content.
  • Selling of in-game items, that don’t affect gameplay, and selling of cosmetic perks are allowed. (Applicable only to servers with mods, after modding support has been added to Dayz)

There’s a few different ways this can go, and as Bohemia state, the program will only run until May 31st, when they’ll revaluate. The idea is that communities can set up premium servers that have specific rules, ones people are more willing to respect because they’ve paid for access. It also lets server costs be spread. The ultimate endgame is servers packed with mods that create their own F2P economies, of course, letting everyone make a bit of money back for their hard work. All optional.

If you want to get approved, take a look at the list here and get the process started.