We actually recently did set up a proxy server in Australia. Ironically, Austraians might be better off using the proxy server because it has a direct line to the US mainland (fewer hops) than what the typical Australian ISP has.
It would be cool if someone actually ran some benchmarks as I think you'd find that an Australian playing a European, both on proxy servers, ends up with a LOWER ping than a so-called direct connect.
It's a pity that Demigod's initial networking launch was so horrible because the executed solution for it is, at the risk of being bold, possibly one of most advanced networking systems out there. There's some amazingly sophisticated stuff going on behind the scenes.
Obviously, our system can't cure people who have low upload speeds (since Demigod does absolutely need around 128 kilobits per second on the upstream consistently at less than 350ms for an ideal experience) but that's not related to the back end system that got developed, largely from scratch, in 30 days. 
