I can't play demigod anymore

Try again when clan wars comes out, hopefully some sort of team pantheon play will be introduced and you won't have to put up with getting stomped so much.

As for both balance and gameplay bugs, you learn to play around both of them given time, but if you're not enjoying things much I can certainly see that the game would appear poorly balanced.

So wait, you only enjoy games you are winning?

That isn't the games problem buddy that is your problem.

It's because people brought their DoTa Culture here and ruined the community in about 10 seconds. OP

It coulda been fun but everyone made it so serious that people constantly complained about every aspect of the game till changes started being made (HoL etc)

I quit playing, because the game crashes alot in comparison to other games I play, and I got a nice rig so its not hardware issues with me ever.  Also quit because the amount of complaining on the board reminded me of listening to a  kindergarten class, and I don't much car for trying to play with Children IRL that much, so I decided if Im dealing the same group online, it must be equally unenjoyable, not because of losing but because it seems everyones got an attitude problem, and everyone acts pompous and like a bigot towards everyone because apparently opinions are facts here.

This "game" will be dead in a couple of months.

The way that the game is going, it may even be dead in less that a couple of months

Just try to coordinate your efforts with your team mates to the best of your ability. You cannot expect premades to go away, that's common to every online game of this nature with good reason. People want to play with their friends, it's obviously more fun to do so. You can do the same or even arrange a premade vs premade match if you wish.

Also, 10 games isn't a large sample size, making your "test" inconclusive at best.

About being able to tell who is going to win, it does sound like you've given up even before trying. It simply isn't like that every time. If you really think you've lost, ask your team mates to concede to conclude the game early and save time. It's there for this purpose. Even if defeat is inevitable, you can reflect back, ask yourself what you could have done better and try again.

I'm sorry your experience with the game has been poor, but being more open minded about things goes a long way.

I'm afraid the game will be less likely to magically change into being "more fun" than you be changing your mentality. If you leave the community, the skill pool will increase and when you return, it might be even less "fun". Why not learn from your losses and improve your skill? I can tell you, it's satisfying to win against premades.

Guess I must be the only person for whom the game works pretty well, and who actually has fun. Weird that.

This being openminded comment is also not really fair. If you want to play against players of your skill and have fun with the game then I can see that getting crushed by arranged teams and getting lured into these games is seen as frustrating and not worthy of the time. What mentality should he adopt then? Part of the fun of the game - any game really - is being able to win now and then. If winning becomes very, very hard because of the poor mentality that a lot of people demonstrate then no amount of mentality change other than completely giving up on this game is going to help.

- If you are complaining that you are losing then this is the issue. Play with friends or people you know who are good players.

- People like to play with friends. Do you want to hold it against them?

- Regarding bugs, I agree. I wouldn't say that most deaths come from bugs but a decent % of them do.

- How long did it take SC to become balanced? Took them several patches + expansions.

- There is always a chance for a comeback unless your teammate is a complete and utter feeder. If you dont want to wait till the game is over then use the Concede feature. If they don't want to concede then quit. No one will hold it against you unless they are dumb.

In general, your post is basically a Learn to play issue. You should try to join games with people of your level or play pantheon. Also, if you find yourself getting frustrated then for your own sake just ragequit. You will feel better and enjoy the game more.

I definately second the Pantheon route. I spent the weekend playing Pantheon after a frustrating time in Custom.

Pantheon is a lot more fun, there are varied objectives and most important no pre-made groups.

I am too anti-social to join clans or make large friendship groups hanging around in chat anymore I just have time usually to play one or two games.

Pantheon is actually pretty good for it. I think that Pantheon really needs to be improved for the good of the game, it should be the mode everyone wants to play. It is a little flawed at the moment, with usually only 2v2s being created mostly and long wait times sometimes.

The problem is that against a Pre-Made (esp with comms) one n00b will ruin your whole game. Better to go play Skirmish or Pantheon, at least everyone is in the same random mismatch boat.

It's a team game. You go play any team game and guess what? It's the team that matters. The OP wants to play Demigod like it's a single player game, where his ability to win is the single most important factor in the game, and Demigod will never be that.

It's like the best football player in the world playing alone against a decent team and expecting to win. It's not gonna happen. If your team sucks, and the other team doesn't, you lose. It's the nature of the game. Best you can do to fight it is playing Pantheon or skirmish, or hey, custom 1 vs 1 games.

Otherwise, find some friends, and play as part of a team. Or go play whichever single player game he enjoys.

Same here.  I just had Demigod crash for the first time yesterday. 

Now I play mostly with friends against Nightmare AI at the moment.  Maybe when I add in some human opponents my thoughts will change.

Heh.

"This game is not balanced. I'm not going to explain why (because I have no reasons), but this game is not balanced"

Not true. Most FPS games are team games, however, you can still enjoy yourself on the losing side if you are good. Bad Teammates might make it more difficult, but one persons skill can make up for it. Also, part of the enjoyment of games like CounterStrike is maintaining a good K/D ratio, you can still lose, but if you are top of the losing side then it is still cool.

This game, if your teammate sucks, then you are just having a frustrating game of watching them make mistakes. Your skill cannot make up for it.

Even in RTS games, one player can be unbelievably good and make up for his teammate(s). I have seen this in Supcom, C&C, DoW etc.

This game, one bad teammate and it is game over, if they die 5 times how can you make up for 5000 GP? This game is very punishing for pick up groups and people who end up on the team with the guy who is playing his first game.

i played with friends in custom games, because i bought this game with having a premade in mind.  unfortunately, i found my friends and i generally just ended up pubstomping people.  this resulted in us playing together much, much less.

Sounds like pantheon/Skirmish are the solution to all your problems. Custom matches (which, according to your stats, are the only thing you've played so far) exist for one purpose: To let the host set up a game however he/she wants to.

Sucks for people who just want to run around and ba a snowflake cowboy I guess, no matter how badly you're losing, but the same rules apply to all players. It's fair.

1. Don't play against a premade if you know it is one

2. Look for games with Noob in the title

3. Play Pantheon

4. Form your own premade

5. Play Sedna and max pounce/Heal and never go blow for blow only hit and run (emphasis on the run)

It is always great to hear from new players and their experience with Demigod.  I'm sure there are hundreds of players just like the OP who will try a few games and never come back.

I think Stardock/gpg knows all the issues mentioned in the OP.  I think they will eventually fix the problem by having better pantheon/skimish, group joins, or show rankings in custom games.

I've been playing since launch and I rarely play pantheon/skirmish.  Mostly because long waits and 2v2s.  I prefer 4v4s in custom games.  I join 4v4 games that are not premade or host my own.

I agree with the OP (except for the balance, imo the game is very balanced, but you have to keep in mind that this is a team game, not a 1v1 game).

This game (and it's not just DG, it's this type of game) can be very, very frustrating when you lose. Because you depend SO much on your team members to know the game at least as good as you. And in this game you CAN NOT WIN THIS GAME ALL BY YOURSELF. It's a fact.

Premades are not the game's fault. The game's fault is that it doesn't give you tools for easy matchmacking, for people with no friends in the game (ie: no friends in real life who also like playing dg). So your only option is to gather a list of online friends and premade games with them. But the game is broken: the friends list doesn't work as it should be (if i send a msg to someone, he receives it with delay...same for offline msgs -sometimes they are not received at all). You cannot group join a game, you can't invite friends, nothing. Really, there is NO excuse why the game shipped without all these options, when the game was MP only.

The only solution in your case is to concede the game. If the other team members don't want to or they simply do not see your msg, then say GG and QUIT. It's not your fault that the game is buggy and lacks basic mp options that would allow you to play with some reliable team mates. It's your free time that you are wasting and your nerves . And this is more important then anything else.

I feel slightly responsible because I believe I played against you with a friend in one of your games and might've  made that game less than enjoyable for you. We've might have exchanged a few words during that game and I'd like to apologize for those.

On the other hand, people do have the right to play with their friends as I have said. The next time you should just ask if this is a premade, or join non premade games.

Pantheon is not the solution.  75% of pantheon games I get are vs computers because someone canceled their connection attempt (usually premades that failed to get teamed up).  Another little bit are the actual premades, and then another tiny percent are actual games vs real people that didn't try to rig the system.  Skirmish is somewhat more acceptable although if everyone abandoned pantheon for skirmish I'm sure premades would just wait till they got in game and then quit if they weren't on the same team since games less than 5 minutes don't count.  GPG or stardock or whoever should implement a 2vs2 ladder seperate from pugs and then implement some simple anti premade algorithems into the pug one, and make harsher ones if people still persist in it.  I use the online stats to see if I'm playing against a premade in customs though I think it'd be good form for people to announce it when they start a game.

Teams being stacked and poor team mates result in, more often than not, a poor gaming experience but why are you guys blaming the game for it?

DotA is like this, Unreal Tournamet is like this, I'm sure World in Conflict is the same, hell...even Gunbound is like that. It's simply the nature of competitive multiplayer online games. Players are going to do everything in their power to stack the odds in their favour in the competition. Why is the game at fault? Sure I wish to win to have fun, well so does the other team right? Does anyone expect the other team to just say "hey I'm winning too much, here, I'll die some, that might cheer you up"?

When I say keep an open mind, this is what I meant. You have to see the situation from both sides of the coin. If I lose, I either learn why and get better and just enjoy the challenge, or I wouldn't even have started playing any game where online competition is the essence.  The pay off is when I eventually turn defeat into victory.

Try rallying friends to play the game with you or build up a list of regular online players you've trusted to have a good time with. This would be a valid blame on the game though, that it currently has insufficient community oriented features.

EDIT: When I end up in a premade situation (me being in the premade team) we often shuffle ourselves between Light and Dark to even things around a little. Perhaps you can just ask the premade dudes to do it.

It's easily possible to win against a premade, but it does put you at a disadvantage. I play as a premade when I can because it provides me with a reliable ally. Without forming a premade I find that a fair amount of my matches end simply because my ally bails on me and the match.

However, I think the problem is frequently the lack of communication between most players. It's all a premade really offers that gives them any real advantage over you. When Impulse gets voice chat this won't be much of an issue, but for now typing works rather well.

Competitive online games have some kind of rudimentary clan support and the like.  Its easy to tell when you are against a premade in other games in most cases - they are in the same clan.  Or you can access stats quickly within the game and find them out even if they arent in the same clan.  If DG had this type of features (which have been standard in competitive online games over the last decade), then it would be easy to avoid most premades if you wished.  As it is you have to open a web browser and sort through games played lists for every game you join if you want to avoid premades.

I dont consider DG to be a competitive online game.  Its lacks too many features that are standard and pretty necessary for such things.  Clan support.  An ability to set up appropriate games and talk outside of lobbies to set things up with other appropriate teams.  Stats that actually mean something.  Heck, even an ability for teams to talk privately before and after a match ends.  There are other things too.  You just cant have a truely competitive game without that kind of stuff.

DG is a casual online game that you happen to play against other people right now.  Hopefully after a few major patches with lots of new features we will get to the point where the competition becomes meaningful.