Based on the huge influx of players on release date to now, there is a definite decrease in players (at least on the weekends). I think it has to do with people moving on as they generally do with only the dedicated, veteran, or competitive players remaining. It's not like console games where everybody makes a mass exodus to the next big thing like Xbox players moving from Modern Warfare to World at War, then finally to Modern Warfare 2.

I don't know much about updates, since I haven't played much since release. But, other than the two new demigods, there will be some payable DLC according to the devs. As for the maps, they would get old, but considering its competition, it's not too bad at all (DoTa has one map to my knowledge and has had 1 map for years which is pretty sad).

I think the next few updates that will be free will be bug fixes and balance issues. Other than that, I think the maps and new demigods (if they do come) will have to be bought as stated by the devs.

So basically in a nut shell we are S.O.L.  It just seems odd, the game has only been out...what...a little over a year and further development to better the game and the playing experience has ceased.  That just doesn't make sense to me.  This game is so much fun, has so much potential.  Everyone is always talking about money, at $50 dollars a pop I'd say the company made a pretty penny along with their other projects?  I'm almost thinking that's just a canned response now or an excuse.

So basically in a nut shell we are S.O.L.  It just seems odd, the game has only been out...what...a little over a year? and further development to better the game and the playing experience has ceased.  That just doesn't make sense to me.  This game is so much fun, has so much potential.  Everyone is always talking about money, at $50 dollars a pop I'd say the company made a pretty penny along with their other projects?  I'm almost thinking that's just a canned response now or an excuse.

a user side map maker would have been the better way to go, less flashy but more user content would keep the community alive.

Yes, I believe that we are now playing the final version of the game (1.2).  I would be very surprised if anything else is forthcoming.

I for one feel that they owe it to us to at least fix the invalid gamestate and constant crashes with this game. It is no way to do business to not completely fix this game to a consistently playable level before moving on to the next project. It is bad business and will earn GPG and Stardock a reputation they can do without. I for one really enjoy the game and get about 65-70 % of my games completed without errors of some kind ( counting other players bugging out). Some of this may be through the players own problems, but most of it is the game. Think about it, lobbies time out, password randomly resets on me and many other things. I feel that by posting about this Im just pissing in the wind though.

I feel like I've gotten my money out of demigod.  I played ALOT of games.  I enjoyed ALOT of games.

Here's the negative.  Yes, it is right to feel that a company selling a game FOCUSED ON MULTIPLAYER should provide a good MULTIPLAYER experience.  Is the multiplayer experience great?  No.  It is not.  Is the multilayer experience good?  No.  It is not. Seriously - ask yourself if you think the MP experience is good.  It ain't.

Are MP stats easily skewed?  Yes.  Is it easy to cheat?  Yes.  Will they fix the exploits at this point?  No. 

You will not get automatic fair matchmaking with this game.  Any MP focused decent gameplay out today will provide this.  What you can get is automatic matchmaking in pantheon.  This means that if you choose forces of light, you will lose the 1v1 game you will fight against Erebus.  If you choose erebus - you will either win or likely wait a very long time to play.  In short, the multiplayer experience is okay if you have an experienced buddy willing to walk you through the paces or are experienced with MP gaming.  But only if. 

I bought demigod after reading a review that it was a diamond in the rough.  Excellent gameplay, but plagued by pirates at launch and MP issues.  I knew I was getting into a great game with terrbile issues.  I had hoped most of the issues would be overcome, but many remain... now to the point that we can't expect any fixes in a reasonable timeframe.  Eg - I expect the next patch in > 6 months at this point, if at all.  And when I say patch, I mean changes that anyone will care about.  

I really wish this was a game developed and published by SD.  Alot of this sounds like a gripe against them, but frankly, I'm really confident that this game would have been a labor of love for brad if it was his IP.  He would have turned this into something amazing.  This could have been your counterstrike.  We'd see our bug fixes at the very least.  As it is, I could fix most of the bugs in demigod in 2 hours thanks to our great community.  If only I could get the fixed version of dgdata.zip released.  So, 2 hours of my time to get a compiled dgdata.zip.  Then SD distributes that and we have our bug fixes.... but thanks to the corporate model or something... oh well.

frogboy explicitely said there will be at least ONE additional update. he didnt mention its contents though. i believe it will contain some balance and bug fixes but the gamestate error wont be fixed and the lobby will stay the same as well. my hope is that they will open up the lobby (or the whole dgdata.zip) for modding so that some of the community members will be able to fix the lobby crashes and add some new maps.

frogboy also mentioned that the next patch wont come in the near future!

his comment is somewhere in the forum. search yourself if you have time.

Via Brad:

Also read the journals.