Seriously? I mean, that game has little more than a skirmish mode as its solo component! For chrissakes, it's a Defense of the Ancients clone! Games like that don't roll well solo.
But hey, people can do what they like with their money. As for how we came across that info, Stardock released its regular public report, hyping the success of its Impulse digital platform, but the big shocker to folks not interested in knowing about how Stardock are cool folks (shame, since they really are cool) were the usage statistics for Gas Powered Games' Demigod. Only 23% of people who bought the game - even after accounting for piracy, since Demigod was released sans DRM - actually tried to play online.
And by "tried" we mean something as little as going to the multiplayer menu and logging in. Just 23%. And it's not as if the game is a flop either (despite what Heroes of Newerth players insist), since the report notes that thousands of copies still continue to sell weekly, enough to keep the game on shelves through the holidays. Stardock had this to say regarding the observation:
Our conclusion is that strategy games that we make and publish in the future will support multiplayer but will not sacrifice the single player experience to do so. Developer Gas Powered Games has continued to update and provide support to Demigod despite its work on Supreme Commander 2. At the time of writing, two new demigods are nearly completed along with a couple of significant updates.
That's a conclusion I can definitely get behind. I'm really not a multiplayer sort of person, and all the talk about singleplayer being a dead (or dying) thing frankly scares me at times. At the same time, someone could go and fling games like Starcraft in the face of this, since that's still going strong. Then again, even Starcraft had a pretty great campaign, and Blizzard promises Starcraft II will as well.
Let's hear you strategy gamers sound off. Are you in the 23rd or 77th percentile? How important is the campaign to you?
Contest:
7:20 PM on 11.19.2009
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I love SC2, rise of nations, DoW, CoH, TA....I HATE HATE HATE playing it multiplayer. My friends are all either much better or much worse than me, so there's always an unbalanced asswhooping going on. We frequently played RoN co-operatively against the computer...eventually it just became a joke as we would add more and more regular computer players to the game and my friend would crush them while i fended off 1, or we'd add 2 hards and i would die before he could get over to save me. Tends to kill the gaming sessions when I'm just a shackle around my more skilled friends.
Im sure as hell not going to dive into the pool of unwashed masses online, who will either bend over and anally violate me or quit the game before i can actually win.
If i want a "skirmish" experience, usually ill just throw a computer player or two on the screen and go at it.
That said it's still pretty strange Demigod players aren't interested in multiplayer. I thought that was the main selling point of the game?
In a FPS, you die, you respawn, maybe your opponent has a bigger gun that was hidden somewhere on the map, but the playing field is pretty much even.
In a RTS, you lose your army, you build a new one, but now your opponent has an extra large army with upgrades and better technology, you already lost.
I rather a game with a solid singleplayer component over a strong multiplayer component with a weak single player. And to be realistic people gravitate towards a handful of games for their multiplayer enjoyment. Most games with tacked on multiplayer no matter how good they are rarely survive to make a real community.
All my other games CoH, DoW, DoTA, COD4, BF2, S8, ET:QW, L4D/2, RiseofFlight, TMUF ... play great low ping and great game-play and I know I'm not alone.
As for me, I only play singleplayer and coop... I just don't enjoy versus multiplayer, it feels more aggrivating and stressful than fun or relaxing, or mentally stimulating for that matter. Give me a fun FPS storyline or a compelling RPG experience and I'm good to go.
I bought Sins of a Solar Empire from Stardock because everyone raved about it... it has no campaign and could REALLY use one. Bothers me everytime I play it that they have this great world and great gameplay but no real story what-so-ever.
If you want DotA clones then sign up for the Heroes of Newerth beta. It's the same game with new graphics.
It says tried/attempted multiplayer... logging on once and seeing horrible performance problems means you tried it.
This is all people who bought the game and never even once hit the multiplayer button.
its like playin cs vs bots on single player...
this type of game isnt meant for sp
Really? Not from the reports I've heard. It's a lot better now, but still has issues. No doubt you're seeing survivor-bias as well -- those that it isn't working for simply stop trying, leaving only those who it does work for.
@SilverArdjet
GPG wasn't responsible for Impulse nor the matchmaking / connection issues.