New player curiousity

Most people play Custom games now. You might want to try your luck there.

This and also try pantheon, that usually has plenty of people in it (skirmish is usually empty).

4th of july, its pretty dead today.

Mostly its because of 4th of July but also the match making isn't working fully atm or something. I'd suggest jumping into custom games too.

Play custom games. 

I did a few pantheon games today and each time it said "you are the only person looking for a match" and within 1 minute it matched me in 2v2s and 3v3s with no AI, all humans.  Don't trust what it says with regards to how many are looking - it can be completely inaccurate.

This.

Somehow they recently broke the mechanism that announces to you how many players are in the queue.  It always tells me I'm the only one, yet I'm still able to get pantheon matches reasonably quickly.

You can see the true number of people in the queue on the stats page here: http://www.demigodthegame.com/opengames.asp

Also, I wish people would stop announcing to new players that pantheon is broken and that they should play custom games.  I see this spammed all over the forums and it is likely to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Pantheon is broken, so what should they say?

I get matched in pantheon games in a few minutes tops, and generally the game begins without a hitch.  Once in a while it will hang on "waiting for other players," but I don't see that as being related to pantheon. 

One time I ended up in a game that was 3 humans versus me and 2 AIs, another was 3 humans vs. 3 AIs, and another was 2 humans vs. 1 human (with no AI).  These were all stupid, but these are the only "broken" games that stick in my mind out of 45ish pantheon/skirmish games.

So please elaborate on how it is broken, because in my mind, this is still the better option for ensuring a pug vs pug experience.  I land in a broken game less often than I would expect to end up alongside a pug going up against a premade in custom.  Which of course, is equally pointless.

Maybe someone can enlighten me as to what I'm missing.

AI, uneven teams, DG just plain being on the wrong side(UB on forces of light for example). The premade thing is blown out of proportion, and in my experience you have a better chance of a broken Pantheon than facing a premade. And there are premades in pantheon who exploit the matchmaking system anyways.

Besides, what would you have a new player experience? Getting beat by a premade, or being matched in a 2v1/3v2, which indicates that the game is broken?

Pantheon works fine.

When there aren't bots in half of my Skirmish or Pantheon matches I'll be able to agree with you.

Never tried matchmaking and prolly won't 'til I hear that it's fixed beyond any shadow of a doubt.  Never have any problems getting a custom game going unless I happen to play when loads of open games are all competing for players.

My favorite part about these situations is that most of the games that are forming are a 3/6 or 2/4, and have a premade waiting (i generally look up the games history if I suspect it might be a premade).

You're right, there shouldn't be AI in the games, that is silly.  But in my experience, it rarely happens.  Certainly nowhere near "half" of my games.

As for DGs being on the wrong side, I have not seen this once in my admittedly limited sample, but I feel safe assuming it is quite rare.

As for uneven teams, how is this more likely in pantheon than in customs?  Assuming you mean skill-wise.  Unless you mean the (again very rare) 3v2 or 2v1 situations -- which I haven't actually had occur in the last 2 patches, but perhaps I'm just lucky.

I do not think it's perfect, but again, I do find it quite functional and a fun way to ensure a PUG v PUG.  I'm sure some people are trying to abuse the auto-matching to get their premade in, as you stated.  But surely this is rare.  Why wouldn't these people just play custom?  After all, they all go towards your statistics/rank on the website, and it doesn't involve you having to go through a bunch of hoops just to get your team into the game.