Portal Contracts

[Lord007]

Hi,

I'm in the middle of starting a portal for more core-type games rather then trying to compete with the big boys in the casual space. I do not have much legal knowledge though, so I am struggling with writing up a contract for devs to sign. I know they can change drastically on a case-by-case basis, but I was wondering if there's some kind of generic contract out there anybody could point me to. Any help would be very much appreciated!

[soniCron]

If you're really wanting to do this, and you want anybody to take you seriously, you really should get a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, then I think getting a generic contract is the least of your worries.

[Tom Gilleland]

We only use lawyers for defense purposes. A good one is very expensive, and they seem to complicate whatever they are involved in. I really think the legal system is mostly set up for large corporations.

A contract is a explaination of the business deal, so you must be able to totally understand and express it yourself. I would suggest reviewing one of the existing portals contracts, and writing your own contract. Then MAYBE have a lawyer review it if you don't feel comfortable.

Of course I have a tendancy to be risky in things legal. So you may want to ignore me on this one. ;)

Tom

[Andy]

Hi,

I'm in the middle of starting a portal for more core-type games rather then trying to compete with the big boys in the casual space. I do not have much legal knowledge though, so I am struggling with writing up a contract for devs to sign. I know they can change drastically on a case-by-case basis, but I was wondering if there's some kind of generic contract out there anybody could point me to. Any help would be very much appreciated!

I would suggest to make a good game, propose it to another portals around, get their contracts after that and use them as a draft of your own.
What is the problem here? ;)

[Lord007]

If you're really wanting to do this, and you want anybody to take you seriously, you really should get a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, then I think getting a generic contract is the least of your worries.

That is a very fair comment and I thank you for the input. Let me state the obvious and say we are a 3-person team trying to get this going so having a generic contract in this point in time is pretty low on the list of hurdles to overcome. Nothing is impossible though and the fact that there isn't much competition in terms of core portals on the net only pushes me harder.

A contract is a explaination of the business deal, so you must be able to totally understand and express it yourself. I would suggest reviewing one of the existing portals contracts, and writing your own contract. Then MAYBE have a lawyer review it if you don't feel comfortable.

This is the mindset we are currently going by. The problem is convincing an existing portal to show us a contract (see below). I had wishful thinking in that I could get this taken care of with at least a temporary solution to work off of in the future when we start collecting games from devs. Oh and I love how for every item that is checked off of our to-do list, two more things need to be added. Nevertheless, forward is the only direction I want to be heading so I WILL get this figured out somehow.

I would suggest to make a good game, propose it to another portals around, get their contracts after that and use them as a draft of your own.
What is the problem here?

We unfortunately are not an indie developer so making a game just to see another portal's contract is pretty unrealistic and I doubt they'd just show us a contract if there's nothing in it for them (but hey, if it comes down to it...it's worth a shot ;) ). Please kick me in the rear if the following is out of bounds, but is it too much to ask an indie to post a contract they've seen from a portal (obviously editing out any kind of sensitive information about both parties, etc.)?

If my dreams do come true and we get this site off the ground, I will NOT quickly forget who helped us reach our goals.

[electronicStar]

Go to the bookstore (or the library if you are short on money) I'm sure you can find a book to help you write a good contract and with a lot of other legal advice , look in the business section.
Most portal contracts are covered by NDA so I'm sure nobody will post one for you.

[James C. Smith]

________________________________________
You could first get started by implementing your portal using one or many of the ‘affiliate’ systems available from places like Oberon, Reflexive, Trymedia, RegNow and such. Those systems are filled with countless ‘casual’ games, but don’t let that stop you. They also have plenty of the types of games you are looking for. This could get you started without having to negotiate any contracts with any developers. Later, when you have a little more experience under your belt and a little traffic to make it worth you wile, then you can try to get a direct deal with some developers and work out a contract at that point. (if you really feel a need to do that. Don’t assume you need to do that. It may not be worth your wile but it is always an option)

When some developers talk about “affiliating” their games they are referring to one web site referring customers over to another site. That is not what I am talking about here. There are many companies that offer game catalogs as “white label” solutions that you can rebranded as whatever you want. In other words, you could set up Lord007.com and sell games under the Lord007 brand. You customers would never be directed to any other web sites and would never know that you sourced your games though a content aggregator (a.k.a affiliate system). They would be your customers on your web site and the operator of the affiliate system you used would have no rights to communicate directly with your customers.

I am not sure if that is exactly how it works for all the companies I mentioned above. But that is the general concept of how a while label content aggregator works and exactly how the company I work for works. Most of the companies work similar to this but different is some ways.

[Tom Gilleland]

..label content agitator...

And here I thought James Smith was spelling challenged like I am, but I think his usage of "agitator" might be more than a freudian slip. :)

Thanks for explaining affiliates. Which one do you think has the simplist and best deal financially?

Tom

[Lord007]

You could first get started by implementing your portal using one or many of the ‘affiliate’ systems available from places like Oberon, Reflexive, Trymedia, RegNow and such.

This is great advice that I will most likely follow to get me started. I need to constantly remind myself to start small and work my way up instead of trying to launch a fully featured website right from the start. Experience is something I am definitely lacking so this has to be a no-brainer.

So what's the biggest catch besides being limited to a certain catalog of games (and obviously making less income per sale)?

I like how using this affiliate system is pretty much unknown to the end-user.

Thanks, James Smith, for the advice!

[James C. Smith]

You might want to start by reading this recent topic: TryMedia/Reflexive style affiliation - worth it?

[cliffski]

the problem will be finding such an affiliate that stocks the kind of games you want. I do more hardcore, less casual games, and tend to shy away from even the big portals (preferring to sell direct). having both a big affiliate system AND your portal both taking chunks of the sale prize is very unappealing.
Just offering an alternative view.

[James C. Smith]

You (the developer) would still get more than if your game was on Real, Yahoo, MSN, Shockwave, Pogo or any place like that.

[Lord007]

I have tried filling out the various "Join our affiliate program" forms such as Reflexive, Oberon, Real, TryMedia, etc. but have yet to get a response. I get the feeling I am not being taken seriously (which I fully understand since we haven't even launched the site yet). It's almost like a "chicken before the egg" type situation but perhaps I should give it another couple of days. Or maybe I am getting ahead of myself here which I seem to do quite often.

Either way, I would like to thank everybody for their comments and suggestions. I really hope that someday we'll be doing business with a couple of you guys directly once we get our feet on the ground!