What should I do with DohGames?

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Bay Phillips

After I recently closed down DohGames, I had constantly been thinking about what I should do with it. If it were completely up to me, I wouldn’t change a thing; however, I can no longer safely provide downloads to the community. I do currently have DohGames listed for sale so that’s a possibility. But what if it doesn’t sell?

I’m keeping my webserver and am more than content with renewing the domain ($10 a year is something I can manage). So would it be possible to reinvent DohGames as some sort of gaming site, but without the downloads? There are already dozens, if not hundreds of gaming communities out there so there would have to be some sort of unique twist on it.

I currently don’t have many bright ideas, thus I’d like to ask you all what you think I should do with DohGames. Should I continue trying to sell the site to someone who may be able to continue providing the content? Or should we attempt to create some sort of community driven DohGames that will take the site in a new direction? Please leave a comment below, and if we can get some quality suggestions I’ll go over and compile them.

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  • Daedalus

    Is it possible to offer the downloads with overseas hosting? If you do not host the files yourself, you should not be liable or responsible for violating any cease-and-desist orders….

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    I don’t believe that would remove all of the liability on my part primarily because I live in the US. I’d imagine that because I’m the one in charge of the service, I’d be the one held responsible.

  • Daedalus

    I would look into it, as if you find a third-party download service, you would actually not be providing this service at all (much similiar to how private trackers work – hosting and linking to content are very different things.) Look at the other websites that host ROMs – they have a similiar model and can operate for years.

    This would probably cost money, however, and you would need to find a server in a country that does not have laws against the content you intend to link to. However, if you find an affordable option that the revenue of your site’s advertising can support, it may be something to consider.

    If you received an email or letter citing a violation, you can respond and ask specifically what law or terms of agreement you are violating and how you are violating it. If it is just the hosting of material or the linking to them that caused the C&D.

  • Ronald

    I think you should maybe make a game review site? Where users (like us) can review games that we have played. I think that would be kind of cool.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    The letter (that I was handed to in person) states the “reproduction and distribution of unauthorized copies of ESA member’s games…” I believe that I could still be held liable even if things were handled through a third party. Being the “enabler” would still be viewed as a bad thing.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    And what sort of games would people review? Classic, older generation systems (the emulation without providing the downloads)?

  • Ronald

    I was thinking of pretty much both modern and classic. I for one like both. Although I do play modern mostly because of my preferences. But in my opinion I would try to steer clear of emulation and just do reviews and feedback.

    • Samsimer92

      i think ur right i agree with u

  • Daedalus

    In this case you cannot host the media on a third-party site, since that would be both reproduction and distribution. You CAN, however, link to existing hosts of the media, which is neither distribution nor reproduction. This might be a direction you can go.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    What do you think would set DG apart from all of the other various game review websites?

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    So have all of the content on a host like Megaupload?

  • Ronald

    To be honest I’m still thinking about that. But I think having both classic and retro is a start. Plus the name is pretty big in my opinion and you already have a large fan base.

  • Ronald

    I’ve seen some sites that host on Hotfile, MU, RS, and other things like that. Don’t know how well that would work though.

  • Daedalus

    Well you could, but it would be better if you did not upload the stuff yourself, that way you would not be distributing / reproducing content. Do some research, find the best ROM host already out there, and link to the downloads, or atleast as close as you can to the file. Your site was a good place to browse ROMs, since other sites flood the page with popups and JS junk. It would be still worth using to browse, even if there was more hassle to perform the actual download.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    So what if it would be like the same formatting of DG but with a user system built in. On each of the pages would be the user contributions for a particular game and would also include a section where people could submit their links to places to access the game?

  • Daedalus

    That sounds like a good idea, and have links submitted attached to a vote system, if the links good, you can vote it thumbs up and it will float to the top.. when it gets bad (lots of ads, bad link, wrong link) you vote it thumbs down. Have a database with all the links and their rankings and boom, you have the community doing your work for you.

  • Chris Lavender2

    i like to say a big thankyou to you and i hope another web site like this will come out again but it is a shame that you had to closed down … what ever you think next good luck to you … bye bye

    • Samsimer92

      me too bye man and peac out

  • thekingof7

    I personally thought that most of these games’ copyrights hadn’t been renewed for example, I have started to see many snes/nes clones, often with two systems in one box. I was told that this was legal due to Nintendo failing to renew their copyrights. Could you do some research as to what is currently “owned” and what is not, Maybe specialize in just the legal ones. Or is there a slight possibility of asking the owners of the content if they would allow access if they received some sort of kickback from any revenue generated by the site or possibly ads. I know these are fairly basic ideas, but maybe one would be of some benefit to you. Oh and btw this is coming from a long time supported long time referrer (to my friends), and long time beleiver in people breathing new life into old games. Long live dohgames.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    I found this on Nintendo’s corporate page:

    “Haven’t the Copyrights for Old Games Expired?

    U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come. ”

    Now, I know Nintendo wouldn’t say “It’s okay to play these specific games” on their website, but their statement about copyrights is true.

  • Someoneoranother

    So will any downloads be available after the website is sold? will i still be able to get roms and such?

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    That’s what we’re trying to figure out now actually. One of the current ideas is to allow people to submit urls of other websites that they’ve found to work the best. You’d then have a voting system that would have the users ranking which download locations were the best.

  • ev

    your a loser what the hell are you going to do with your life what will you tell your kids how will u sleep at night

  • http://twitter.com/BitterBirdie Alex Munro

    I think this idea would actually be the best so long as it’s allowed but as more people have mentioned a review for the games why not do that too?
    Set up the game page and have reviews and whatever else (user/admin submitted) as well as links. One of the things I disliked about the old DG was that when I was going through some of the old classics I had no idea what the game was about. If you had it right on the page what the game was about and a little teaser bit. Maybe have a better search system or something that can divide by genre as wall as letters and so on. Change it into DG 2.0 or something. (Not really)

  • Mormaso

    It’s sad to see the Dohgames of old go. I can still remember all the forum regulars from before it was closed and actually had some activity. While I really don’t have any idea what you should do with it, I wish you luck!

    -Mormaso (remember me? :P )

  • Jfugate95

    it is sad u where my fav site to go to for emus or the roms i wanted if some one dose buy it and continue it wont be the same this is bad i dont like u no more D: will maby alil >.> dont sell it i think the conmu driven doh games would be cool but the old is the new biscliy dohgames was conmu driven in the first place man but was not heavy and some of the game u could not download for leeching or something like that i dont realy know wat that is but dont sell it dohgame.com must remain true to its conmu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Bochulain

    I’m still a novice at all this, but is it feasible to host a centralized emulation netplay server? No roms involved, of course, but users could point their emulators to your server, run their own roms with their friends (or ones they meet there) through your server. You might also host a voice chat server if the emu in question doesn’t support that.

    Nice thing about all this is that it would give you an excuse to keep up with the current emulation scene in regards to updates and features, recommending and picking out the ones with the best multiplayer support and checking out the various plugins. You might even charge for certain levels of service, if the workload gets too heavy or expensive.

    In fact, failing that, I haven’t seen a really good site that just keeps up with the various popular (and unpopular) emulators with details on their functionality and updates. If you’re up for that kind of thing, rock on.

  • Mr. guy

    How much dose the domain costs?

  • Eppey1

    have users upload the games. just like demonoid, add a disclaimer that says “website owner is not responsible for what users upload, if you have a complaint, contact website owner to remove uploads”

    This way, there will still be downloads.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    I don’t think that’d be possible because I’d be paying for the service that would be hosting the files. I don’t think it matters who posts them in that case.

  • Lynx_dazh24

    dont leave DOHGAMES

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    The domain doesn’t have a set price so I’m open to suggestions.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    Of course I remember you Mormaso. The community had its ups and downs, but the few people that stuck to it were definitely top-notch.

  • Samsimer92

    i think u shod keep gowing with wat u start but mack it more better make it online free games for avreone to injoy thats what i think if u have somthing eals go for it but make it the bast :D

  • Bdmclendon

    I think you should keep it the same.

  • Bommah

    UUUUMM… I don’t really know whats been going on here. I just went to dohgames to re-download visual boy advanced and I get some goodbye message and I’m really pissed because for nearly a year now, Dohgames has been the emulator site i could always turn and now I’m just lost in the cold, lonely black space that is internet.

    • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

      Yep, had to close it down back in July due to a cease and desist order from the ESA. I couldn’t risk getting in any more trouble.

  • Mateuszw

    keep on going with it

  • jeff

    man im sad to hear dohgames closed… i used to peruse ur content everyday for a while you were the best when it came to no hassle downloading and gave access to gr8 roms from almost every platform the ESA thing is a bitch it also happens to abandonware sites the esa protects the games (which some arent even on sale) and tries to shut down any site redistributing them personally i think they just wish they could force us to buy these games over again but they cant. i think dohgames could easily become a reviewing site as well or even just point people in the right direction when it comes to retro gaming or u can have a link to romstation on ur website and have ppl get roms thru that their selection is a bit more limited than ur original site but that way u wouldnt be providing the games romstation would. whatever you choose to do you have our support and the old DohGames will be missed

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Reece/100000527636545 Thomas Reece

    a lot of people will support you bay phillips if you set doh games back up

  • Browndavidma

    You have very good points. I would love it if you kept it and still allowed game downloads. As you said all good as to come to an end. If their is some way you could work out and make it safer for your customers to get downloads I would say go for it. If their is also ways for you to profit more from the site go for that too. I wish you luck though.

  • Browndavidma

    You have very good points. I would love it if you kept it and still allowed game downloads. As you said all good as to come to an end. If their is some way you could work out and make it safer for your customers to get downloads I would say go for it. If their is also ways for you to profit more from the site go for that too. I wish you luck though.

  • Browndavidma

    You have very good points. I would love it if you kept it and still allowed game downloads. As you said all good as to come to an end. If their is some way you could work out and make it safer for your customers to get downloads I would say go for it. If their is also ways for you to profit more from the site go for that too. I wish you luck though.

  • Jordan

    Please Just keep it its my number 1 site

  • Anonymous.

    I wish you had kept the site. It became my #1 site for finding all of my games. Now it’s hard to find a reliable site with working games. The only other website I can rely on is coolrom.com.