of course its dying. people are sick of waiting for 1.2

I dont play it because:

1. I've realised this game was designed for casual gamers. The gameplay reflects this.

2. For a game that is 99% multiplayer oriented, the online features are poor.

Im still finding games, dont think its time to call it just yet.

Connectivity i havent really had too many bad games, more of a problem than that is buggy lobbies wich occure more often. Refresh a slot anyone

Jerks, meh, let people know you're new in the lobby and they wont have anything to bitch about if they keep you around. Just say, i gave fair warning STFU. There are jerks out thier, exploiters, ect. Take the good with the bad, are the people you meet out in any other game different? No, this game just has a particular learning curve.

i would suggest to all new players to host their own custom game 'beginners only'
and enforce this by using http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/ to check the stats of the people that join to make sure no wolves in sheeps clothing sneak in.

that way you can have balanced games and learn how to play.

if nubs join a pro game they:
1. get raped and generally might not find it enjoyable
2. ruin the game for the experienced players who hardly find it worthwhile to rape nubs.
3. Might cause one team to be wholly unbalanced, since generally experienced players tend to check their teammates stats, and few want to play vs an avarage team with total beginners on their own side. This leads to the experienced player on the nub team to quit, which will repeat itself until the team consists entirely of nubs, further enforcing points 1 and 2.

This is outright wrong. Gameplay does not reflect the "casualness" of the game. Just because it doesn't feel as fast as Warcraft 3 hopping around doesn't make this true.

In fact, its been said straight this game was for groups of people who knew each other. The success of that is up in the air, but this game was not made for "casual" gamers and its almost an insult to imply that the way you word it.

This is so true.  What's really aggravating is when the most experienced players in a game lobby stack on one team, resulting in a totally unbalanced game.  For example, one experienced player enters the lobby on Forces of Light, but discovers that another player on Forces of Darkness has some wicked stats, so he abandons the Forces of Light team to go join the other pro player.

I've entered lobbies before, and politely requested a "balancing of teams", but you wouldn't believe some of the rude responses I get.  I'll also get bizarre, irrelevant responses like: Hey it's balanced, there's 3 players on your team, and 3 players on mine!  Or: We like to play with people we know. (you can't play against them once in a while??)  It's actually quite pathetic -- do these players really care that much about their stats that they're afraid to play an even game?

Forget premades -- they might have a *slight* advantage in an evenly matched game, but I think the point is that premades are consistently stomping teams of inexperienced players, leading people to think they're unfair.

Frogboy said this game was meant for premades. Casual games do not include fantasy strategy games made for premades. I'm just saying this game was not designed for the casual scene. Its been said exactly the opposite. GPG jut provided people with no team to play through pantheon.

This is definately a problem.  I joined a game with my friend and the opposing group told us no premades.  After chatting for a minute, they let ius play with a pickup.  We looked up their stats and they were a team with a high win %.  It was a really decnt game for 5 minutes until we rolled them and they raged by telling us to "F*** off" and "go to hell" before disconnecting.

My personal feelings are that the numbers are holding fairly steady.  The drop we see comes from 7 main things:

1) Summer is over.

2) Lots of people have short attention spans.

3) Game got poor initial reviews due to connectivity, preventing high initial player base.

4) People are waiting,.. and waiting for 1.2 and new demigods.

5) No league, ladder, team matching.

6) Too many teams who prefer pug stomp, hurting new players from continuing to play.

7) No easy way to see if teams are balanced.

Though I don't care about ranking, this is indeed a huge problem

Personally, I think is due to refinement of gameplay with good production values.  JKust because a game is laborous to learn, does not make it more strategic.

Personally im holding off until next patch.

im curently playin League of legend and I have ot say, for a closed beta it has all We want in it.

People have been saying the game is dying since I started,  a few months ago.  Don't see that happening at all.  Sorry naysayers -- just don't see the evidence of it.  

As for experienced players being rude to new players, without a doubt that is taking place.  For that reason, I go out of my way to be nice to new players and encourage them whenever I can.

I'm constantly astounded by the lack of simple human decency amongst online game players.  People with miserable lives, no self-esteem, and various mental illnesses I suppose.

Wow, I really went all curmudgeony there! 

I have noticed that Frogboy has been playing online quite a bit lately, which is nice.

This!

Dying?. Man can't have a vacation time here?. BTW, what's all that buzz about removing SP?.

^It all really boils down to this.  The game needs visible, in-lobby stats; a random-teams option; and, of course, new content.  I think that the 2 new demigods and favor items might revitalize things a bit, but boy am I tired of Cataract.  On the bright side, it appears that Stardock might provide solid modding support, but that will probably not come until 1.2 is out. And, of course, mods generally improve a game's single-player experience more than the online experience.