Dragon On Wheels

Join Date 07/2006

September 2009: End of an era, and what we can do to prevent it

Demigod gets more competition......further loss of player base.

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On September, if you have not yet been informed, is the official launch date of what many consider Demigod's main competition in the strategy-action genre, League of Legends (yes, I'm aware its acronym is LOL). Some of us, from what I'm hearing round these forums, are just transiently playing Demigod to fill the void until the release date of League of Legends. I can see that many demigod players currently frustrated by issues with Pantheon, Skirmish, buggy netcode (although semi-fixed), and overall small player base will be extremely tempted to make the switch between games. Although these players may, in actuality, be few and far between, I can easily see a couple hundred US Demigod regulars transition into LoL. This will further increase the problem of Demigod's shrinking fan base (most games that pop up on Customs are EU/RUS/FR now), causing more people to switch. Essentially, what may start out as a relatively small, low-key transition may acculmulate in magnitude, which does not bode well for us Demigod stalwarts here.

Personally, I believe that we (not us, we, grammar nazi here) fans here on the Stardocks boards should push for IGN, Gamespot, 1UP, and PC Gamer (the biggies in PC gaming media) to conduct a post-mortem on the state of Demigod after the massively improved multiplayer experience in Demigod. Mobbing a decent amount of well-written, paragraph long suggestions to these websites' inboxes should generate a response of some kind. Hell, maybe we should even get the good folks at SD to submit a few requests for a post-patch summary. I honestly believe that anything SD asks for the gaming media will oblige to, since EVERYBODY loves SD so much . Honestly, that 65 from GS, C from 1UP, and 75 from IGN were totally not fair, and advertising Demigod's awesomeness on PC Gamer won't hurt much either. To all IGN readers out there, maybe we should get Matt Casamassina to beg his readers to buy the game again.

So, in short, break out your typing hands and get writing! A letter to Gamespot, 1UP, IGN, and PC Gamer are in order, for the good of Demigod and the entire world! (No, that was not a joke) Maybe a letter to Frogboy as well to also encourage him to follow suit, because hey, who doesn't worship him?

Let's go out and help Demigod!

demigod

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September release

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The assessments I read of Demigod in the reviews were fair...kind even (especially the PC Gamer one). They rate games at launch and they never go back to re-rating a game after it has been out. If the game has serious problems at launch (Demigod had that in spades, still has problems to this day) then it deserves to be called out for it, regardless of who is backing it. Let's face it, Demigod was a buggy mess at launch and still is (though it has gotten slightly better). If anything, Demigod is a modern example of how not to launch a multiplayer based game.

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Well I agree some people may be transiently playing this game till LoL comes out, but I think it may take more of the DotA base than Demigods. The aesthetic of that game, and simple hero builds is more akin to DotA than Demigod.

I definitely would like to see GPG/SD take the issue of content a bit more seriously. Whilst our DG's may be more complicated than LoL's or DotA's, the percieved lack of content in DG will only be further exaggerated by LoL's massive lineup prepared for launch. I don't want to admit it, but I see their amount of content as the primary cause for threat to DG, and a serious one at that.

I will almost definitely be sticking to DG, I simply adore it, I prefer its aesthetic and style (though I'd love to see some earth/nature based maps), to LoL's previews. I sincerely hope we see a boost in DG's (beyond the 2 coming soon) before LoL's release. For SD/GPG's sake, and our sake as a community that honestly loves this game and want to see it succeed above others.

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An indirect way to get a re-review is to release an expansion pack.

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September release. IGN has the date wrong. LoL developers confirmed that IGN is wrong.

personally, I think Starcraft2's release in November or whenever will have a much bigger impact.

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I agree with woppin. The best way to recreate this game's reputation will be to introduce a content-packed expansion and a solid demo(not that multiplayer only stuff). Basically get sites talking about the game again.

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Also, those who actually read the written text in the review may be misled by their comments of the multiplayer experience of Demigod. Not all who patronize those sites are smart enough or care enough to actually find out the state of the game.

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Quoting Blitz64,

reply 5

September release. IGN has the date wrong. LoL developers confirmed that IGN is wrong.

personally, I think Starcraft2's release in November or whenever will have a much bigger impact.

Starcraft 2 and Demigod exist to cater different demographics. I personally abhore the intense micromanagement that Starcraft requires. Either let me micromanage a single unit, as in Demigod, or let me command units and let them do battle unaided as in real warfare, I say! That's why I'm excited for Supreme Commander 2 in 2010! (SC2 > SC2, lol)

But I can still see Starcraft's release affecting the sales and playtime of all games. Starcraft really is the lone bastion of PC Gaming.

Double post, damn. *facepalm*

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this look kind of cartoony to anyone else? A little girl with a teddy bear, a big ape with a smiling child on top of his shoulders...wtf

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Quoting Dragon On Wheels,

reply 7

Well, I honestly think that the 50%, the 65%, and the 75% given by 1UP, Gamespot, and IGN respectively don't show Demigod's true potential for fun and action. While the reviews they gave may be borderline "nice" and empathetic, but the cold reality of people who read these websites and magazines is that they merely glance at the scores and immediately make a snap decision to either buy the game or discard any thoughts regarding it.

Also, those who actually read the written text in the review may be misled by their comments of the multiplayer experience of Demigod. Not all who patronize those sites are smart enough or care enough to actually find out the state of the game.

1UP didn't give it 50%, they gave it a C - metacritic interprets a C as 50%, but the reviewer has said his C rating is more like 70-75%

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Quoting verspunken,

reply 10

Quoting Dragon On Wheels, reply 7Well, I honestly think that the 50%, the 65%, and the 75% given by 1UP, Gamespot, and IGN respectively don't show Demigod's true potential for fun and action. While the reviews they gave may be borderline "nice" and empathetic, but the cold reality of people who read these websites and magazines is that they merely glance at the scores and immediately make a snap decision to either buy the game or discard any thoughts regarding it.

Also, those who actually read the written text in the review may be misled by their comments of the multiplayer experience of Demigod. Not all who patronize those sites are smart enough or care enough to actually find out the state of the game.

1UP didn't give it 50%, they gave it a C - metacritic interprets a C as 50%, but the reviewer has said his C rating is more like 70-75%

Which Demigod still does not deserve, and it's still bad publicity. School pounds in your brain that a C is not good. This is translated to the grading of games as well. The grade C--50% or 75%--is still considered as bad to most people, and should be change.

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Well I hope that SD or whoever is responsible for the game contents and getting this stuff fixed would speed the process up a little. Pantheon is in shambles, customs is a shambles, I mean i agree with all I LOVE THE GAME and will keep playing it, but this stuff has got to get fixed. I played a 2v1 today on the pantheon I mean come on!!!!! and the day before that I played a 3v2 and I had two AI teammates against 2 human COME ON!!!! I mean is this company even taking this seriously? I am not being negative I just dont want to see this game go down. Yes I think alot of people will be lost once LOL comes out! I dont want to see that happen either, and this talk about an expansion pack, so I need to go out and spend more money on a game that should of been fixed before they released the thing. Like I said I like this games look and feel.

DeaDChaoS

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Quoting DeaDChaoS,

reply 12

Really agree with you there. This was the whole point of the topic, to spread the word of Demigod's improved state and hopefully spur Stardock and GPG to speed things up a bit, as connections could use more tweaking, and new content is DESPERATELY needed to get out the news and bring back old fans.

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Option #2: get modding tools out asap so we can make the content ourselves.

And RE: Starcraft 2; it has no specific demographic, nearly every gamer is going to try it out for a while. During the first few weeks after the SC2 release EVERY game is going to take a hit in player numbers. I don't think that many people will stick with SC2 as a long term game if they are into DG, since SC is more of a hectic paced clickfest, but theres no denying the period where people are playing SC2 is going to be difficult.

I'd like to see a December or January expansion pack as a preference, but as I said, we need proper modding tools pronto. You could even combine the two and make a CEP-style thing, like NWN did.

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Quoting woppin,

reply 14

Option #2: get modding tools out asap so we can make the content ourselves.

And RE: Starcraft 2; it has no specific demographic, nearly every gamer is going to try it out for a while. During the first few weeks after the SC2 release EVERY game is going to take a hit in player numbers. I don't think that many people will stick with SC2 as a long term game if they are into DG, since SC is more of a hectic paced clickfest, but theres no denying the period where people are playing SC2 is going to be difficult.

I'd like to see a December or January expansion pack as a preference, but as I said, we need proper modding tools pronto. You could even combine the two and make a CEP-style thing, like NWN did.

That's what I said. Starcraft has been the bastion of PC gaming for quite some time now, and will continue to be in the future. An expansion pack would not help, since that would just make the small fan base of Demigod even smaller, and discourage new players from joining with the high entry price. Not everyone who has a copy of Demigod will pick up an expansion pack, and I doubt the adoption rate would be higher the 60%. A large, free content patch like the 2 demigods patch w/ more modes, better pantheon, etc. would attract the press and generate free publicity. Personally, I believe that will be the difference maker.

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Realistically - do any of you think people will still be playing demigod a year from now? 6 months from now? I've found that I loved the game and have been willing to put up with its faults. I bought the game AFTER the crap connectivity reviews and I had no illusions about single player excellence... but I'm just finding that the game just doesn't have the staying power. I'm less interested in playing than I was a week ago (check my stats to get an idea of how much I play if you like - I've played a few games http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/search/player/pacov). Adding those 2 new demigods would spice things up, at least for a little while, but frankly, that would buy another month of my attention span. And we aren't getting those 2 demigods any time soon... 1.1 is due out this month per the pubs (but no guarantees regarding that) and some of the changes threre will spice things up a bit (a week or so). 1.1 will come... there will be a bunch of bug reports, the AI will work better in some instances and worse than before, pantheon will still be hosed, no one will understand EXACTLY how favor works, no one will understand the pantheon matchmaking system, billybob will still drop from pantheon games at the connect screen because his buddy didn't make it in or he doesn't want to play with someone (and that's ok because he paid the $40 bucks for the game), frogboy will tear some 14 year old a new one for being a prick, and we'll probably get some more info on the 2 new demigods coming out. And that's it. Modding tools would obviously add to the the staying power of this game, but frankly, if there aren't ALOT of people shelling out the dough for this, there isn't going to be any fan service past the 2 new demigods.

So, my rant aside - OP, I do think that it might help if ANY of the low metacritic scores were addressed and if they would be willing to conduct an additional review AND submit that score to metacritic. I have no idea what the incentive would be for them to do so, though. I will, however, check out the metacritic reviews and send at least 1 email and see if a new review can be published. Be aware, though, that someone testing this game today will say "custom games work great, pantheon and skirmish do not for blahblah reason. Ai is a joke." Its a hell of a lot better than "you probably won't be able to play a game online in this multiplayer online game," but I really doubt its going to draw anyone new into the game...

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Make an expandalone then.

...

God I hate that word.

More seriously, the purpose of the xpack would be to get a re-review, which will bring in players, whereas DLC won't get the publicity of a review from all the major gaming sites. It's a broader issue, but people associate money with quality in many cases, so by giving something away for free people are less likely to consider it valuable than if you sold it as an expansion pack.

For all the hate for what GPG did to vanilla supcom by releasing FA, it did generate more press. By releasing an Xpack that is compatable with the original, or an expandalone that can play against the original (see Company of Heroes, I think Relic did this) you get all the publicity you will need and a new review score. Don't let people play AS the new Demigods, but let them play against them, maps are a trickier issue, no idea how CoH did it since i don't play.

Demigod also has the problem that its current review scores are poor, and don't reflect the current state of the game, I really do think a re-review via exapndalon or xpack is the way to go for these reasons.

By releasing DLC, you don't get the free publicity you're talking about, you have to generate it yourself.

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Fallout3 also had a very short attention span for me. It was a long and great game but you get the idea and basically you have a few cookie cutter builds that will win you this game. DLCs didn't get me back into the game because I was already bored of it. Demigod is slowly dying off IMO. The depth is too shallow. You only have strategy/tactics in this game and not that much emphasis on personal skill (in DG that is).

Writing on the forums will not bring the game back. I think that GPG/SD have moved on to other projects and I sadly don't expect this game to live more than 2-3 months. Even 2 more demigods will not change this. The game is just too empty.

I used to recommend this game to my friends and I even got one of them to buy it and we play a lot. But now I just can't recommend this game at all. Beyond the connection issues (which aren't so bad, except for splits), crashes to desktop and broken game (so many little bugs that take 30 seconds to fix in the LUA files, such as item/buff documentation) - the game is just boring to heck and GPG have very disappointing support. Most of the other players that I had on my friends list (which is basically useless anyway) have already split and taken off. They havent played game since the beginning of June (checked via pantheon).

I am deeply disappointed. I would've rather GPG/SD get their asses in gear and give us a solution. Be it via free downloadable content or even 5$ a month for maintenance. The current situation is grim and I'm already looking towards other prospects. This will be the last GPG game I purchase as of this time.

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i think demigod will be dead before sept come on can anyone tell me that they would be happy playing with the same 8 demis and the same maps for another 2 weeks or more im already sick of playing these dudes

and with out it being a find out how to play of the demis it has lost the man point

there isn't even a campaign mode i thought there would be atleast a campaign mode for a demi that is the major deterent no campaign and that the demis are coming out too slow

for a game that is sheerly for mp there needs to be alot of things to play as and then it becomes repetertive

i think it deserve to have those percentages it is fun to play for a while but as all games i have played it gets boring

maxxy i bet you found the game great when it first came out and and for about a month but now it is boring and it is going the way of the dodo

i think they should have also go the idea of the marketing better of how long they fought it would be good for better and to have the 2 demis on stanby for when the game starts to get dry

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The game was very refreshing compared to different games. I still learn something new each time about how to play better and better.

To be honest, I feel a bit cheated. In the beginning with all the connection problems we had a lot of feedback (even too much) from SD. Now that the game is more or less the way it should've been WHEN IT WAS RELEASED and we get near zero feedback about content, balancing, game fixing... I mean come on, do we need to wait for Bman to release mods so that GPG can lazily copy-paste them into the LUA? That is so pathetic. We found the idol exploit in the first week of the game. How long has it been to issue a fix? Do they have like 1-2 coders on this thing and that's all?

I keep sending in bug reports all the time, but you know what? F**k it. I am sick and tired of having support@stardock.com be my penpal buddy. I mean what the heck? Ingame bugs, design flaws, inconsistencies, crashes to desktop... I wouldn't even mind doing all that stuff if I was getting some kind of feedback from the company. I feel like I am wasting my time reporting these things because I don't believe I will be even playing the game in 1+ month time.

To sum things up, I think it's a waste of time to even try to support this game on the forums. I don't believe SD/GPG will do anything about it. Like Brad/Frogboy keeps saying "it is all about sales" while on the other hand not pushing sales or giving us, the people who play it, a reason to push sales. I won't lie to my friends. This game has no future at the current state.

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I don't give a damn about League of Legends, I have seen the trailers and it looks like crap.

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Btw, I would just like to add that I love this game and would love SD/GPG to prove me wrong. I won't be moving to LOL because it does look like a crappy version of Demigod.

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I feel a little bittersweet on this.

On the one hand, I've been complaining about the lack of depth, and the assortment of design flaws from WAY back in the first Beta build that was released. I got flamed to no end for my comments. Fast forward to now and looks like a lot of people are starting to share the same opinion.

However, though I don't play this game a whole lot, I do enjoy it when I have a good game. Plus, I would like that game to live long enough for it to have at least 12 demigods. I know 2 are coming down the pipe, but there looks to be 4 that have already been designed.

I'm torn between saying "I told you so" and "well damn."

However, since I prefer the hardcore DoTA-style of play, I will also probably pick up LoL to check it out.

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I have seen the trailers and it looks like crap.

Looks like a playable version of that Blender movie, Big Bucks Bunny.

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Maxxy, I think everyone here would love to see SD/GPG prove you wrong.

Demigod is just awesome, but it is half the game it could/should be (I am not complaining, I am quite patient as long as the content -does- come). The amount of people who have commented on the need for more DG's or arenas speaks for itself, however the LoL people seem hungry to do more and more, whilst SD/GPG make it feel like they consider it a chore.

At the end of the day, the competition may make DG move faster (here's hoping!). We all want to see it continue to grow and develop. Nobody wants to see it fall behind another game.

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