DayZ will let (some) players charge real money on private servers

Developer Bohemia Interactive has updated its monetization policies to grant DayZ players temporary permission to charge real money for goods and services on private DayZ servers -- as long as they don't affect gameplay.

As Eurogamer notes, this follows Bohemia's move back in February to permit players of its ArmA 3 military sim to monetize private servers in a similar fashion. The shift is notable in light of the kerfuffle that erupted when Mojang changed the Minecraft EULA to allow limited monetization on private servers last summer.

At the time some players complained that, by permitting private server operators to charge real money for things like server access and in-game items, the game's developers were allowing people to "pay to win" their game. Minecraft creator Notch dissented at the time, noting that "people running servers are a huge part of what makes Minecraft so special, and they need to be able to pay for the servers."

The folks at Bohemia seem to have a similar view on the issue, as they're requiring private server operators apply to have their server whitelisted. To pass muster the servers must not sell any in-game items that affect gameplay -- but they may charge money for cosmetic items, server access, and in-game advertising or sponsorship.

Those approved by Bohemia will have their servers listed on the developer's website, and the temporary change to DayZ's licensing agreement will expire at the end of next May -- affording Bohemia six months to gauge how private server monetization affects its community of players.

It's worth noting that this applies to the standalone version of DayZ, which is currently on Steam's Early Access service and is based on Dean Hall's original DayZ mod for ArmA 2. Bohemia's ArmA 2 license does not currently allow monetization of private servers, so the developer would likely frown on people charging for access to servers running the original mod.