The community features were the killer for me when I tried playing it. Things that I took for granted with Steam like setting up events, easy way to set up clans, finding friends,etc would have made a big difference with DemiGod. One of the reasons why we still have an active L4D community is how easy it is to set events up or just pop into chat to see if anyone is interested.
The learning curve didn’t help either most of the games I played I either tore up the competition or got wiped out quick. There wasn’t any room for learning the mechanics or trying to develop advanced strategies.
If to you, multiplayer means playing against strangers, then I suppose you could say Demigod is dead, assuming Jorune’s experience getting a game going is typical.
But if to you, multiplayer means LAN games, or setting up games with friends, Demigod is alive and kicking. You can easily set up LAN games with a single copy, and there are enough RTS aficionados around here that it wouldn’t be too hard to get occasional games going. Also, unlike League of Legends and Heroes of Newirth, Demigod is very easy to drop a new player in without overwhelming him. It’s much friendlier in terms of casual occasional matches.
As purely a game on its own, Demigod is a success. The design goal was to make a fun strategy game that you could drop a new player in without spending an hour tutoring him. Easy to learn, hard to master, etc.
But the lack of a way to easily get games going on the Internet versus strangers, no built in leagues, no tournaments, etc. Ensured its online community would be very lossy.
I wish I could say it was a matter of time or budget but I don’t remember the issue really ever coming up as being that big of a deal until we neared release.
Heck, the overlay was put in so that people could chat (originally there wasn’t even going to be an in-game public chat channel in the game).
As for Supcom 2, if I were GPG I would have used Steamworks too. As a practical matter, today, there are only 3 options that I’m aware of: GameSpy, GFWL, and Steamworks for implementing this sort of thing. GameSpy is expensive. GFWL has lots of strings attached. Steamworks is free and works well with the only downside being you lose 1/3rd of digital distributors (where all digital distributors are only 25% of the market). So I’d say for SupCom 2, using Steamworks would be a no brainer.
Well dang, I’ve had my copy sitting around for awhile but never really played it. Seems like there are enough guys around here that like it–start setting up a game night and encourage people to go. As Tom says there are probably more than enough around here.
Cool. I will keep an eye on it. I have always been intrigued by DotA type games, but have also been overwhelmed. Demigod always got good buzz for being “newbie” friendly.
I didn’t play DOTA or HoN or LoL, but i understand they are games with lots of maps, dozens of heroes (each one with a different way of playing), items, etc. One of the complaints i remember when DG was released was how meager was in content. I think one of the problems of DG, apart of the problems in the first month, was how the game seemed to offfer little to the intended core audience of the game, the DOTA players, which were accostumed to much more. And both LoL and HoN have given the players this “feature” (googling it right now :P).
I believe there are 2 maps currently for both HoN and LoL.
My sole problems with DG were network related. Getting in a game was a pain and more often than not the lag present was ridiculous, especially if you try higher than 3v3. Constant pausing and lag.
lack of maps doesn’t bother me in any of these games because these games are about the actions of the players to me and not the maps. The maps in DG were a bit simpler feeling to me though, and mostly barren in aesthetic.
HoN has a few maps, but probably 95%+ play the standard DotA map. LoL only has one map right now. It’s all about the variety of heroes. That’s the important thing.
It’s tough… Demigod is competing with two free games that have large and very active communities.
Those games are also very obviously DotA, so (many) people know what they are getting into exactly and you can build enough of a core player base just from that (and the only real downside of them is the difficulty and abusive community, especially in the case of HoN). If they don’t know DotA, and know Warcraft, it still has familiarity. Demigod seems like it falls into a category similar to Rise of Legends or Sacrifice. Great games, but lack of appeal or familiarity due to being too otherworldly?
It’s too bad Demigod is expensive to expand, because it seems like its best shot would be to go free + microtransactions. Lower the barrier to entry and sell gods, skins, etc.
As for getting the occasional game together, that’s the thing. I love the game so much that I played, on average, 3 games a night, every night. I was hooked. I just started learning Occ…I will still be playing, look me up as Jorune2112, but I just wish I could go back to playing EVERY night, you QT3’ers have no idea what a great game this is.
Even taking just QT3 as an example, Steam is used a lot here for matchmaking… the friends lists, the groups, the chat rooms. I regularly get 2-3 event invites a night when I am sitting here doing work on my laptop.
Maybe impulse has these features as well and I’ve never used them. Maybe there is a thriving QT3 community on impulse. If so, nevermind.
I liked Demigod, even if i didn’t play multiplayer a lot. Great art design, some intense matches, and a nice set of options for each Demigod. But i had some friends who tried, and the game was, in their words, stupid. Like “a RTS where you only control a unit? LOL!”. They never understood it wasn’t a RTS, but a very mixed game, part strategy, part action, with a bit of RPG. It seems there is a lot of people who don’t like to reach out and try new stuff that doesn’t come from a clear cut prestablished niche.
Of course, i also liked Sacrifice :).
I’m one of the weirdos who only plays the game single-player, but I certainly enjoy it. I also think that a massive price cut ($9.99 or less) will draw in a bunch of buyers that will include a significant number of people who will enjoy it for the long haul -and- engage in multiplayer to keep the interest up perhaps high enough for further support/expansion.
