The main problem, in my mind, is that the SD guys don't view the game as competitive, or rather that more basic matchmaking features are perceived to be outside the interest of the casual player.
No, the main problem is that SD doesn't see it as the role of the game publisher to have to develop this sort of thing. If GPG is interested in building an extensive MP match making system (ala bring GPGNet back) or what have you we're all over that.
Stardock is the publisher of Demigod. We were the publisher of Sins of a Solar Empire. When you play Sins of a Solar Empire online, you play via Ironclad Online.
I agree that from a competitive scene perspective, Demigod could benefit from vastly more match-making features. But those are not features that publishers normally provide.
If you want to see what Stardock itself develops for multiplayer games, you'll need to try Elemental. Once Elemental is done, there is always the possibility of licensing some of that back for use in Demigod.
I'm sorry some of you aren't satisfied with Demigod's multiplayer experience. There's not a lot that we, the publisher, can do. Having the Demigod design document on hand, I can say that the features you request were not part of the design. They were never discussed during the beta process nor ever promised to users.
I happen to like Demigod a lot, I play it pretty much every day. I think Gas Powered Games did an outstanding job crafting an excellent game. It is a very high quality game. From a competitive stand-point, however, the game does not have the kind of multiplayer match-making features that will satisfy many competitive players.
Those who were part of the beta from the earliest times know that Stardock's preference was for Demigod to be more single player focus but there simply wasn't budget available to do the kind of single player experience that GPG felt Demigod needed to do the game justice.
In my opinion, Stardock went far beyond the call of duty to step in and at its own cost develop, largely from scratch, a worldwide proxy and networking system for the game. Stardock's own games won't even make use of what we developed for the game since our games are client/server.
Anyway, my point is that those of you who are waiting for Stardock (the *publisher*) of Demigod to step in further to create some sort of competitive multiplayer match making system for Demigod then I say to you that you are addressing your requests to the wrong party. We don't code Demigod. It's not our game. We have no rights to the game beyond our publishing agreement.
