People don't quit Demigod because of leavers, bugs, lag, desync, balance, or anything like that. You are missing the point.
A team game has to provide systems to make people meet, create teams, play competitions, etc.
All should be done to let people play in team. But no, we have individual stats which make players selfish and picky. People who play in team, the so-called "premades", are avoided. This is not a 1on1 game, but the ladder gives individual stats, ignoring the fact that people play in teams.
Everyone cry about details while the most important problem of Demigod is that it's a team game without any team aspect. New demigods will not make new players stay, because low demigod count is absolutely not what makes them leave.
Demigod needs (all in-game) :
- Clan creation system, with clan members grades, custom clan banner, match request from clan to clan, and whatever anyone would imagine.
- Automatic matching system between teams (premades AND clans)
- Automatic matching system for players alone
- Automatic tournament system (with rules variations)
- Team stats, or player level, instead of detailed individual stats, because this is NOT a single player game like Supreme Commander. And by single-player you know what I mean. It has sense on Supreme commander because people were playing 1on1, but on Demigod players are NOT playing 1on1 (most of the time).
- Calendar where you can find all events like tournaments, patch releases, or whatever useful to the community
- Chat channels where everyone is immediately put after having logged in
- Efficient friendlist with features like "join friend's room", "send offline message", "create group", etc
- Automatic saves of tournament matches replays, available from an in-game replay browser
- And so much more could be added...
All those features need to be available IN GAME. A new player do not want to go on the forums, IRC, or any website to enjoy his game. Demigod should not take example over first person shooters like Counter Strike or Quake, but other pvp games like Guild Wars where everything is done for team-play.
People crying about technical problems just started killing the game, because GPG/SD really has more important to do than fix details. I feel disappointed when I see people saying that new patch could bring new players and/or make players stay. Or less lag. Or game price... This is so wrong.