ID:981423
 
I was wondering if it would be "illegal" or "against the terms" if I charged players a fee to have their own clan/attacks inputted. This way I would be getting payed for programming, not exactly them paying for an in-game perk. (Everyone would/could get the attack or clan)

Just wondering cause I know money and fan-based games are a pretty touchy subject.
You're still profiting (albeit a little less directly) from copyright infringement. Seeing as donations aren't allowed, I'm doubtful that paying for new content would be.

However, I'm not a game moderator, so that's just my personal opinion.
Donations aren't even allowed anymore? Man... o.o
It's silly isn't it xD
In response to Asakuraboy
Yeah lol. So by what DarkCompainer says, I technically can't even hire a pixel artist for a fan based game because they would be making money from copyright infringement. o.o
In response to Ganing
When I say "allowed", I mean allowed by BYOND. If you want to know what can actually be defended in court, hire a lawyer :P

Also, fangames haven't been allowed to accept donations for as long as I can remember.
That's because they aren't donations. The fan-game owners just labeled them that because they thought we ( and IP holders ) were stupid and wouldn't realize they were actually subscriptions since the players got in-game bonuses and access to more content for "donating".
People would like to work on games and have them hosted without having to pay silly amounts (in most cases), people are also generally quite young on Byond meaning they don't have a paypal etc. and have to beg parents etc. for permission to spend their own (probably feeble amounts) of money..

I don't think it's wrong to accept donations, and as an incentive give them a little something for keeping the server up
Well like private servers which are illegal get by with money by real donations. The donations go directly to keeping the server up which would not cause any earnings. However to give the players some more incentive to donate every certain amount reached in donations say when $500 bucks was reached they would add a new item to the game.

With that you could design things that are fan based for a fan based game without them directly paying for new fan content.
Well, that's not especially any more permitted than charging people. The fan-game concern, essentially, is you are developing upon someone else's Intellectual Property, and BYOND has to decide if it wants to list that or not.

The game listing rules are:

Submission Guidelines

Before you check the box making this hub visible to BYOND Moderators, run through this checklist to ensure your game is ready for review:

1) Games utilizing released or leaked source code, artwork/graphics or music/sound are subject to rejection. Having many games visible on the site that are very similar to one another is not ideal.

2) Games using free resources such as sprites, artwork or music/sound should have a footnote on the game's hub citing the free resources used. This expedites the process on our end and will see the game listed sooner.

3) Games utilizing the intellectual properties of FUNimation (i.e. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, Fairy Tail, etc.) or Square Enix (Such as Final Fantasy) will not be listed due to a cease and desist order given by their property owners.

4) Games should be playable upon submission for review. If a game is deemed to be incomplete, it will be given the status as incomplete.

5) Upon submitting a game for review, there should either be a server available for the Moderator to play-test the game or a download available on the hub. If a way to test the game isn't made available, the game will be marked as incomplete until the game is testable.

6) The game's hub must have a meaningful short description, describing the game in a sentence or two.

7) Vulgar language is not accepted.

8) If the game has a download link, it must be working.

9) Fangames are not permitted to make a profit of any kind. You cannot sell subscriptions, take donations or sell in-game benefits at all.

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So that's what BYOND's stance on these things are.
basically Byond's stance on the matter is to allow people to make their own games instead of relying (coattail riding) on intellectual namesakes for the earning of a quick buck...

In short.. There is no way you can make any type of money off of such a game, no matter what..
So if I make an original game I'm allowed to accept donationss etc.?
In response to Katsuda
Yes. As long as you have ownership of an intellectual property, you're free to do whatever you want with it, including accepting donations and utilizing subscriptions/micro-transactions.
Ok thanks