So if you've been on Steam lately you'll have probably seen Pete & I on Demigod. I believe Pete has already done a blog on the gameplay in more detail so I'll be glossing over those details here. What I'm interested in is the community who play the game & how they interact with a thick skinned n00b like me.
First off a bit of background. The game was released in 2008 and pirated to hell and back in about 30 seconds... As I understand it this caused the dev's to take a step back, throw a two fingered salute at the internet and created no DLC for the game at all. So we're left with eight playable characters, 5/6 maps, four years and very few changes. The few who've stuck with the game over this period have used the time 'wisely' to polish their tactics to a mirror shine. Enter the n00b.
Getting a game in the first place is where the fun starts, it normally runs something like this. A lobby is joined, character selected and then someone says "kick n00b". I have no idea how they know I'm not one of them. None at all. I've clicked on rankings and stats buttons and learnt nothing aside from the fact I'm not at the top of the leaderboard. It's like they can smell my n00bishness through the damn screen... Or maybe the 30 sexless individuals (sorry chaps) left playing all know each other so well that being not instantly recognisable is enough. I've never actually been kicked though. My theory is, given that it can take anything up to a month for a game to fill up, any player is considered better than no player. Or it could be down to my tendancy to chirp up with "It's true! I'm one the worst people ever to have logged onto these servers". Honesty counts you know. Then the game begins.
The level of expectation around what to do, when is extremely high. Want to purchase something to buff the team? Better make sure its the right thing at the right time and you're the right character to be doing it. Thinking of upgrading your skills? Better to ask one of your fabled team mates what to get. They'll be cross with you otherwise. Ooh an item shop! Time to sit down with a calculator and do a full cost/benefit analysis to make certain you're maximised. This is Demigod you chimp. We eliminated all margin for error back in 2010 and then you fucks came along after a cheap weekend on steam and bought it all back again. We hate you.
At this point you might be thinking that this isn't a recommendation for joining in. You're dead wrong. I love it, absolutely love it 'cos here's the thing. It's actually such a well balanced game that once you've mastered the basics (see Pete's blog for what a massive pain in the arse that can be), that you can be reasonably effective with any old half chucked together plan. I'm 50/50 on the win loss ratio atm and in spite of my seemingly randomist ways I get kills. I don't die more than anyone else on my team and hold territory as well as anyone. One time I committed to cardinal sin of buying clerics (mob based healers) "TOO FUCKING SOON." Imagine my surprise when we won two minutes later with the mobs cheerfully beating down the enemies house.
All that brings me onto what really does annoy me about the game, unfulfilled potential. This is really solid, well balanced and good fun to play. It's also quite small and much more limited in scope than it should be. If ever there was a title crying out for some DLC its this one. Piracy can be really bad kids. That said you would have thought that the steam release and associated influx of new blood would be welcomed with open arms by the vetrans of the arenas. As discussed above, quite the opposite is true and that's also a real shame. Speaking as a man who doesn't give a shit what most people who I've met in the flesh think of me, the crap I get playing this barely registers. I dread to think how many people have been put off by all the faeces lanched in their general direction though.
All of this contrasts with the multiplayer Space Marine experience. Now there's a game you can join in with any of it, be utter and absolute tart for the entire game and no-one bats an eyelid. Should any eyelids start to twitch then most often the twitcher finds themselves outgunned on all sides. And it's a better game for it.
Comments
It wasn't just the piracy that sunk this ship. When it was initially released it was seriously broken such that it was impossible to play in multiplayer (which for a mainly multiplayer game is a pretty big flaw). They fixed that and a whole host of other issues that came out as people started playing in the first few months but it was blindingly obvious that the game should never have been released in the state it was in it hadn';t been tested properly and was nowhere near ready (a mistake the producers stardock repeated with elemental war of magic a few years later which nearly sunk them for good they ended up selling off impulse their digital distrubution service to gamestop).
The end result of this was a lot of bad feelings many people demanding refunds and a game that was essentially dead on arrival for anyone who didn't have the patience to wait for the devs to get round to fixing it. Given all this hoopla its not surprising the devs wanted to sweep this one under the carpet and never did any more work on it. I suspected the steam relaunch might give it new life but I guess we shall see.
That's just foolish on their part. Bed Devs! Again, enormously frustrating from my POV as a bigger community would (I suspect), accomodate a wider skill range better. As it stands I only go on there if I'm in the mood for irritating people by my very presence.
I think another issue with it is the extremely tough learning curve. The manual tells you nothing, and there is no tutorial, it's literally in at the deep end. It was only becasue Nibbler and myself picked it up at the same time we've been able to get semi-decent...from the various descriptions I've had the PvP game is very different to the PvE game I play...it does sound a bit like the game has been "solved", and deviation from the proscribed path is tantamount to losing (and this is where DLC etc would make a big difference).
Issues with the dev's 4 years ago aside, it's a shame this game is not better supported, as there are virtually no DOTA-style games that can be bought in their entirety...they are very much associated with "free-to-play". Demigod is (now, on Steam) a pretty good game...it informs me I've racked up 77 hours, for about £6 purchase (equivalent to the time I have played DoW:Soulstorm for).