I'd like to respond to several issues about the launch of Demigod.
First things first, I absolutely love the game. It's a chess match and brilliantly designed from a gameplay standpoint. It's "my game" now until I get to see how Starcraft 2 actually plays.
It's also the first game that has pulled me away from WoW and my 4+ years playing Warcraft 3. It's that good.
However, I have some issues I'd like to aim at Stardock because I love them but I think they need to hear the brutal truth.
So without further ado, here goes...
1.) Demigod is a magnificent RTS that was implemented poorly. I appreciate that Frogboy and Stardock "own this" and that's why I'm still playing. They accept responsibility and give credit where it's due, GPG for a great core game w/ awesome gameplay value.
2.) Your DRM approach is kind of a zero sum game. While it is true folks like me do not like restrictive DRM hurdles, I'm not sure your lassez faire approach actually helped your paying customers. It does seem to some extent the jerks who pirated the game (yes, you are jerks and freeloaders) have at least in the short run, impaired the experience of paying customers upon launch of the game. Your stance is that you will sell no more or less copies of the game with such an approach. Maybe that's true, but it obviously has not been beneficial for people who actually paid for the game and has probably been detrimental.
3.) No matter what, we gamers will put up with a lot of crapola and an outright broken game if at it's core it is a good game. Restrictive DRM features probably wouldn't have hurt you had the launch of game been better.
4.) Getting to the "headline" point, I'd wager that what would have sold more copies of your game would have been a solid, perfect launch to Demigod with more DRM issues that would have forced people who wanted to pay the game to actually pay for it. There's two reasons I believe this is the case. The first is the simple fact that games succeed when you can tell your buddy that the new game you are playing is awesome and when he or she tries it out, it actually delivers. They get hooked and then they go on to tell their buddies. The second is that you have stated that you wanted to avoid the hassle of restrictive DRM measures and therefore avoid getting the reputation of game that hassles gamers. Well, limitind hassle is a good thing. But guess what, there's a huge hassle with this game because you didn't design and implement the multiplayer connection framework in a way that was user friendly. All this port forwarding, DMZing, and Monk guides are a good demonstration of massive hassle when it comes to jumping into games. Now, I will admit I can get MP to work but it is still a hassle and it still takes a lot of time. Frankly, had you made a DRM restrictive game with a perfect pvp launch you would have sold tons more copies than the pirate friendly, broken launch that you have offered.
5.) All hope is not lost. But you have to fix muliplayer on all fronts to the point where it is flawless and without hassle or unecesessary slowness. You also have to fix the whole "favor item" issue as well as how the pantheon leaderboard works. Then, people can start to strongly recommend this game to friends. But until then, a lot of us will be ashamed to recommend it knowing that they will encounter a lot of the "broken" aspects of actually getting a game going online.
6.) Going forward, be sure to fix what is broken before adding new content. People are already lusting for new Demigods but the last thing you want to do is blow your content wad and leave people with a broken game.
7.) There's one company that sells lot's of games and still has 10 year old + games on the Walmart shelves that sit along other popular new releases.. Only one company. Blizzard. They are not that innovative and to be honest they are jerks to their customers. Massive jerks in a lot of ways. They also have lots of ways to "get your money" and a fair share of methods to crack down on pirating, cracking, and cheating. However, they always make things work, either out of the box or eventually.
8.) That brings me to my final point, thought this is not feedback or a recommendation but rather a heads up. The point is that there are a lot of us that will pay a monthly subscription fee for an online game that runs well, has excellent gameplay, flawless execution, and ongoing content updates. The model for this is MMO's but I think think this could go well for an RTS that is constantly introducing new maps, units, heroes, and abilities/skills/spells. Basically, a lot of us are looking for an evolving experience and we are willing to pay for top notch content and implementation (servers, updates) and so forth. As it is, I feel I got my money's worth for Demigod but it needs to be a lot better but if it were I'd be one willing to pay for ongoing service.
