I tried making a new user on my PC and ran Demigod and I could shift+tab all I wanted and the chat-box and connection box and all worked perfectly. It even gave me a little notification to turn it on in the lower left corner when I started then game.
I then copied my old user-settings to this new profile, but when I started playing Demigod, it gave me the same run-time error just like before. I've tried deleting my userdata from the documentfolder and making a fresh installation, but nothing has worked, so it could be some outside source affection the game and denying access to the irc. Also note that the error also occurs when I change resolution, scale the window in windowed mode or just change profile ingame. Everytime it fades to black or any that sort of matter is gives me the error and exits to windows.
Can anyone think of a solution other than starting from scrath from a new user, which it's really like to avoid, because it's a major hassle...
edit: The error is an Data Execution Prevention (DEP) error.