Front Page Steam Reviews (A wake up call to the Devs)

[Voidstar]

this game is awesome and still has amazing potential...I just hope the devs realise the mistakes they make and act faster...

[Titus]

5 hours ago, PuffyPony said:

Like an earlier guy said,

1- Reviews from players with hundreds of hours really strike me as entitled and whiny. If you can get 200+ hours from a game (especially an early-access game), then your "negative" review means nothing to me because your gameplay shows me that the game has a lot to offer! Never mind the reviews from people with 1000+ hours... That's Skyrim-level time investment, and we all know how popular Skyrim was/is. If you can get that much time before submitting a negative review, maybe it's not that bad

2- When the bulk of negative reviews appear to stem largely from people playing on Official servers, it's hard to take it as reflective of the game. Seriously, the vast bulk of "issues" with the game can be very simply solved by playing Unofficial servers. If anything, the majority of reviews should be considered commentaries on the Official servers, and I do think it's fair to say that Wildcard needs to make sure that they're making an effort for that part of the game, but Official servers are far from the totality of ARK.

3- Generic criticisms like "the devs are ruining the game" mean nothing. That tells me that they made one change that you're butthurt about. It could even be an exploit that they patched that you were abusing! Who knows? If you can't be specific, then what are you even saying? Even something as "Official servers suck!" is better than "muh awful devs."

4- While the community certainly has input, people who say stuff like "the devs ignore what the community wants!" strike me as blowing a lot of hot air. Again, it's non-specific, and because it's non-specific, it's whiny and pretentious because it doesn't seem that this guy can actually tell us what the community wants. Double down with the consideration that what the community wants isn't always best for the game (i.e. I'm not sure of the popularity of the Rocket Launcher nerf, but it sure gave defense a leg up in a meta that overwhelmingly favors offense), and it's really hard to take statements like that seriously

5- See @GP's point about the private profiles. It's not an automatic disqualifier, but when someone comes and says, "ARK sucks! I'm never playing again! blah blah blah!" on their private profile, I can't really take them seriously. I just get this feeling that they don't really mean it

6- Single-item reviews tend not to be very meaningful. All the one-star reviews over the flyer nerf were a big joke to me because it was literally just butthurt over one change. A major change, to be sure, but it's only one aspect of a far larger game. And it happens for all sorts of nonsense. "muh giga nerfz," "no auto turrets on platforms? THE DEVS SUCK!" "mindwipe nerf? BROKEN GAME!" Stuff like that, you know? It honestly makes me chuckle a little that people get so up in arms over a single change, and it's also related to my earlier point that what the "community" (read: the angry reviewer) wants isn't always good for the game.

There are people who submit totally legit reviews that criticize the game. These tend to be comprehensive, specific, and, most importantly, a fair assessment of both the positive and negative elements of the game. Unfortunately, it seems that for every one of those you get, you find at least three times as many that are just "muh devs" or "muh lagz"

200+ hrs is nothing in ark. You can't even raise a giga in that time. This game starts for you around the 1000 hr mark. If you put in the time and gave the game a chance to develop and you feel the devs came up short you have the right to be critical and it should be respected. I respect the opinion of someone that has put the time in rather than a rage quitter or wasn't down for the grind.

[Ganelon]

5 hours ago, Zeonx said:

First, these are not my reviews. Second, your entire argument is based on the assumption that one cannot play something for more than 1000 hours and not like it (this is an absurd concept btw). Third, if the Devs wish to have every post that is adverse to them deleted it will be there own downfall. People learn from mistakes and failures, people who choose to hide from their mistakes and failures remain failures themselves.

Aw, bless your heart...

1) I got that... but you posted it as a support to you're own proposition..ie "Start responding to what the players want, and stop sucking so much at your job. MAKE TEST SERVERS FOR PATCHES.". In no way did you express contradiction to the review, which was used to support your own inflammatory statement. The ONLY logical inference is that the review is a proxy for your own opinion. Claiming otherwise is a surrender of your own rhetoric.

2) Please cite alternatives to the logical conclusion that 1000 hours played must assume pleasurable entertainment? Are you suggesting the reviewer was in a state of displeasure in the preceding hours, each one accumulating over the other, until the player bled from the 1000 cuts of each hour of a video game, finally realized he/she was in a toxic codependent relationship from which only a licensed therapist can properly assist with moving on from the resulting CPTSD and cognitive dissonance?

3) Actually, about three weeks ago the forums were overrun with the kind of preposterous and over-the-top pronouncements as "stop sucking at your jobs". Ranting and 'getting it off your chest' is the bible for narcissistic consumerism, and the myth of 'the customer is always right'. Deleting the majority of such posts is like cutting away community cancer. The last week, it really struck me how interesting and informative the posts have been... because they've been about playing the game. I stand by the conclusion that giving free reign to people that hate the devs, wildcard, and ARK is bad for business and the enjoyment of the forums.

Now... had you posted "Devs would really benefit from a live test server" and cite the need to turn around some of the bad reviews, I would have been right there with you. But, you didn't, did you? Your post was sh**y and without merit... so the subject of it is lost. 

 

[Ganelon]

16 minutes ago, Titus said:

200+ hrs is nothing in ark. You can't even raise a giga in that time. This game starts for you around the 1000 hr mark. If you put in the time and gave the game a chance to develop and you feel the devs came up short you have the right to be critical and it should be respected. I respect the opinion of someone that has put the time in rather than a rage quitter or wasn't down for the grind.

So, wait... my 3x nothing of 623 hours isn't enough to judge, is that what you are suggesting? If I quit now, am I a rage quitter who hasn't put the hours in? Oh, dude. I so love this line of thought. When is my cut off? So, if I quit today... and say I don't like the game... but your iron clad logical argument, I would have no right to make that judgement because I have only played ARK 3x nothing under 1000 hours, which just isn't enough to really KNOW the game. Wait wait wait... does that mean if I play over 1000 hours, and I still say the game is a blast, does that mean I am worth listening to... or am I just a 'fan boy' kissing WC a**? 

I feel for you, really... In logical rhetoric, this is known as the "argument from authority" fallacy. 

My Logical argument is

Proposition #1: Given free choice, we play games for enjoyment.

2) Proposition #2: Given free choice, we do not play games we do not enjoy

3) Conclusion: The player who plays a game +1000 hours enjoyed the game, until he/she does not.

 

 

[Titus]

6 hours ago, Ganelon said:

I consider any negative review that starts with hours played over 1000 to be the product of over inflated entitlement and consumer narcissism. It is not possible to play a bad game over 1000 hours, unless you are threatened to do so over pain of death. To not recommend the game is the expression of personal and irrational spite, using the only avenue of 'power' you have.

And in doing so... you devalue your opinion and the legitimacy of these reviews.

Now... I expect this thread to be deleted. I've noticed of late all negative threads of THIS kind... specifically, those that use ad hominum attacks against the devs and WC... get deleted. I support this, because it makes these forums toxic and distracts from the actual enjoyment a player who plays more than 1000 hours clearly would have if he/she was not caught up in the unending poo fling. The lack of crap rants makes this place more enjoyable.

But I wanted to get my 2 cents in.

This is a forum not a fan club. Forums are open to opposing views opinions and ideas. The devs have invited us to do so! This not your fan club.

[RaiderofthelostARK]

Stick to the topic do not argue.

[Titus]

3 minutes ago, Ganelon said:

So, wait... my 3x nothing of 623 hours isn't enough to judge, is that what you are suggesting? If I quit now, am I a rage quitter who hasn't put the hours in? Oh, dude. I so love this line of thought. When is my cut off? So, if I quit today... and say I don't like the game... but your iron clad logical argument, I would have no right to make that judgement because I have only played ARK 3x nothing under 1000 hours, which just isn't enough to really KNOW the game. Wait wait wait... does that mean if I play over 1000 hours, and I still say the game is a blast, does that mean I am worth listening to... or am I just a 'fan boy' kissing WC a**? 

I feel for you, really... In logical rhetoric, this is known as the "argument from authority" fallacy. 

My Logical argument is

Proposition #1: Given free choice, we play games for enjoyment.

2) Proposition #2: Given free choice, we do not play games we do not enjoy

3) Conclusion: The player who plays a game +1000 hours enjoyed the game, until he/she does not.

 

 

I didn't say that. You said if someone had played a thousand hrs they have no right to complain. That was my rebuttal.

[Ganelon]

7 minutes ago, Titus said:

This is a forum not a fan club. Forums are open to opposing views opinions and ideas. The devs have invited us to do so! This not your fan club.

Sorry, Chachi... This isn't Rome and we are not entering the Algonquin Round Table. Fair to say it is both a fan resource and discussion community. 

 

8 minutes ago, Titus said:

I didn't say that. You said if someone had played a thousand hrs they have no right to complain. That was my rebuttal.

I most certainly did not discuss "rights" or "complaints:". You are either not paying attention or deliberately misrepresenting my argument. I attacked the credibility of the supporting quotation to the OP claim that the Dev's "suck at their jobs". I put forth the logical argument that a person who has played a game for over 1000 cannot be logically consistent to say the game is not fun. Until you can rationally  attack my propositions, my conclusion is rock solid.

[PuffyPony]

39 minutes ago, Titus said:

I didn't say that. You said if someone had played a thousand hrs they have no right to complain. That was my rebuttal.

I don't think anyone was saying that they don't have the right to complain. We're saying it's hard to take their opinion seriously when they've clearly gotten enough positive experiences from the game to put 1000 hours into it. Heck, even someone with 200 hours is clearly enjoying the game (and the entire Giga argument is nonsense because that's by far from the only thing people do, it's not as if you log on and immediately start breeding Gigas after purchasing the game, and it completely ignores the large proportion of people on boosted unofficial servers), enough so that they're willing to put a pretty solid amount of time into it. Not every single person is a crazy 1000+ ARK grinder, nor should they be to have an opinion on the game. Like Ganelon said, if the game is truly bad to the point of being unenjoyable, it's very unusual that someone would continue playing it even for 100 hours, not thousands and thousands of hours. So when someone says "muh 1300 hours says this game is terrible!" It's like... okay dude. Whatever you say

[Titus]

7 hours ago, Ganelon said:

I consider any negative review that starts with hours played over 1000 to be the product of over inflated entitlement and consumer narcissism. It is not possible to play a bad game over 1000 hours, unless you are threatened to do so over pain of death. To not recommend the game is the expression of personal and irrational spite, using the only avenue of 'power' you have.

And in doing so... you devalue your opinion and the legitimacy of these reviews.

Now... I expect this thread to be deleted. I've noticed of late all negative threads of THIS kind... specifically, those that use ad hominum attacks against the devs and WC... get deleted. I support this, because it makes these forums toxic and distracts from the actual enjoyment a player who plays more than 1000 hours clearly would have if he/she was not caught up in the unending poo fling. The lack of crap rants makes this place more enjoyable.

But I wanted to get my 2 cents in.

 

7 hours ago, Ganelon said:

I consider any negative review that starts with hours played over 1000 to be the product of over inflated entitlement and consumer narcissism. It is not possible to play a bad game over 1000 hours, unless you are threatened to do so over pain of death. To not recommend the game is the expression of personal and irrational spite, using the only avenue of 'power' you have.

And in doing so... you devalue your opinion and the legitimacy of these reviews.

Now... I expect this thread to be deleted. I've noticed of late all negative threads of THIS kind... specifically, those that use ad hominum attacks against the devs and WC... get deleted. I support this, because it makes these forums toxic and distracts from the actual enjoyment a player who plays more than 1000 hours clearly would have if he/she was not caught up in the unending poo fling. The lack of crap rants makes this place more enjoyable.

But I wanted to get my 2 cents in.

Yes you are correct in no way did you discredit or devalue anybody's opinion here regardless of hrs played

my mistake .

[Cowgirl]

8 hours ago, Ganelon said:

I consider any negative review that starts with hours played over 1000 to be the product of over inflated entitlement and consumer narcissism. It is not possible to play a bad game over 1000 hours, unless you are threatened to do so over pain of death. To not recommend the game is the expression of personal and irrational spite, using the only avenue of 'power' you have.

And in doing so... you devalue your opinion and the legitimacy of these reviews.

Now... I expect this thread to be deleted. I've noticed of late all negative threads of THIS kind... specifically, those that use ad hominum attacks against the devs and WC... get deleted. I support this, because it makes these forums toxic and distracts from the actual enjoyment a player who plays more than 1000 hours clearly would have if he/she was not caught up in the unending poo fling. The lack of crap rants makes this place more enjoyable.

But I wanted to get my 2 cents in.

Considering HOW much this game has changed since it first was created I can understand it, it is entirely possible that people played the game BEFORE the change that made them decide it sucked, especially back before kibble happened, it took 24+ hours to tame a 120 bronto.

[Dracul]

21 minutes ago, Cowgirl said:

Considering HOW much this game has changed since it first was created I can understand it, it is entirely possible that people played the game BEFORE the change that made them decide it sucked, especially back before kibble happened, it took 24+ hours to tame a 120 bronto.

Yeah my 5k hrs on PC pretty much amounts to hockey puck all when you consider the sheer amount of grinding to build , running around my base waiting for eggs to drop, spending 4-6hrs watching netflix/youtube and occasionally tabbing back into ark to narco up a plesio/spino/rex/whatever. Don't get me wrong there was fun in there some where, but the hours tanked into ark is hardly indicative of how much fun that actually was (honestly most fun I had was the first three months after it hit steam originally, and then the first year or so before stuff got real weird up in here). Ark offers huge potential but honestly, it sorta feels like wildcard is trying REALLY hard to encourage people off official servers and generally I would recommend new players find a unofficial or host their own even with the problems that brings it allows the players to fix some of the issues with the game. (Course hard part then is balancing effort to reward, im looking at you 30x servers.)

[ciabattaroll]

I wouldn't say that the negative reviews of people who have put in a significant amount of time  should be discounted. Things can and do change with people which can give them cause to reconsider. I mean, if everyone were assured satisfaction from a lenghty period of contact then divorces would not be a thing.

Ultimately people that make these reviews are similar to that. They enter into this game, but as time goes on the dynamic between these users and the game change, and unfortunately in their case reach a negative point where the "attraction" so to say comes to an end.

[Lewiatan]

I understand those people who spend hundreds or more hours and then they write negative reviews. Some of them were EA players waiting for WC to fix their game and polish it and they simply ran out of patience when they character got deleted during transfer again for example. Truth is, this game represents beta quality for 60$ with some core issues that exsist since the beginning and redundant features. Then you add to the mix pathetic customer service and lackluster communication and you have an equation of constantly growing frustration that is released in Steam review.

Presonally, I will not touch official servers with a stick. Mods and a private server of my friend are main reasons why this game is still on my hard drive (and I wouldn't feel like download over 110GB of data again). ARK has some awsome moments, but low technical quality of the game ruin immersion and experience quite a lot.

[Cowgirl]

2 hours ago, Dracul said:

Yeah my 5k hrs on PC pretty much amounts to hockey puck all when you consider the sheer amount of grinding to build , running around my base waiting for eggs to drop, spending 4-6hrs watching netflix/youtube and occasionally tabbing back into ark to narco up a plesio/spino/rex/whatever. Don't get me wrong there was fun in there some where, but the hours tanked into ark is hardly indicative of how much fun that actually was (honestly most fun I had was the first three months after it hit steam originally, and then the first year or so before stuff got real weird up in here). Ark offers huge potential but honestly, it sorta feels like wildcard is trying REALLY hard to encourage people off official servers and generally I would recommend new players find a unofficial or host their own even with the problems that brings it allows the players to fix some of the issues with the game. (Course hard part then is balancing effort to reward, im looking at you 30x servers.)

Definitely, it really depends on how much time was spent having fun, not spent just playing because the game is SO time consuming. Raising babies you're practically on 24/7.

[IamTANK]

11 hours ago, Ganelon said:

I consider any negative review that starts with hours played over 1000 to be the product of over inflated entitlement and consumer narcissism. It is not possible to play a bad game over 1000 hours, unless you are threatened to do so over pain of death. To not recommend the game is the expression of personal and irrational spite, using the only avenue of 'power' you have.

And in doing so... you devalue your opinion and the legitimacy of these reviews.

Now... I expect this thread to be deleted. I've noticed of late all negative threads of THIS kind... specifically, those that use ad hominum attacks against the devs and WC... get deleted. I support this, because it makes these forums toxic and distracts from the actual enjoyment a player who plays more than 1000 hours clearly would have if he/she was not caught up in the unending poo fling. The lack of crap rants makes this place more enjoyable.

But I wanted to get my 2 cents in.

to be fair many of us stuck with the game believing the problems would be fixed as promised by this point. that is why u see people with many hours giving bad reviews now that its released and many parts of the game have not been improved.

[ducttapefixeseverything]

I have five times the number of hours logged playing Ark than any other game in thirty years.

Was Ark fun in July of 2015? 

Yes. 

Was Ark fun in September 2015 with Chinese cross Ark wiping all servers and selling duped explosives on eBay for 5$?

No.

Was Ark fun again in December 2015 with Winter Wonderland and Gigas and no more Cross Ark?

Yes.

Was Ark fun with 50 ping or less on your favorite server?

Yes.

Did we all enjoy the special events that would happen, few and far between, so that events meant something to us?

Yes.

Did we like having paid DLC that gave people who purchased it OP dinos against the rest of the servers who could not even fight back because transfers were one way?

No.

Was it a good idea to reenable transfers between all the servers of same type without fixing the rampant duping problem that was STILL possible due to transfer mechanics?

Hell to the no.

Was it fun when the awesome Center map got picked up and added to the clusters with promises that the creator would be able to fix bugs and listen to feedback on glitches?

Yes.

Did WildCard actually make good on that promise, or did they force Ben to work on a map for the failed SOTF mode and Ben only get a couple of days to work on bugfixing six months later WHILE HE WAS ON VACATION?

Yes to the second part.

Did the devs neuter and gut over a year of breeding fliers on many people's part in a sad attempt to fix failures in their own coding because autoturrets could not track fast enough, and still do not?

Yes.

Do dinos and players still render before walls and destructible terrain, allowing a nasty raider to render snipe your tames? 

Definitely still in the game.

Do wild dinos still waste points in movement speed and oxygen, despite them not receiving any benefit from those two stats, and Wildcard devs know how to fix it?

Yuppers.

Is there a system in place to voice complaints and ask for assistance and report problems?

Welll.... There used to be, but now there is a robot automatically round files all ticket submissions. And you, the submitter, have to continuously keep reaching into the garbage to drag your ticket out and rehand it to the robot that scans it again and throws it away. Repeat process until your number is called in a month or you get tired of digging it out of the trash.

 

 

So for anyone who dares say, You cant possibly play for so long and leave bad reviews...Yes you can.

 

Ark is this. A man marries a beautiful funny, quirky woman. Over time, the woman becomes abusive, and apologizes, and things get better. Then she cheats, you go to counseling, things get better. One night, she gets drunk, and burns your house down. Poor Fluffy.

You spend some time apart. She calls, texts, is genuinely sorry. 

You go back. And things are like they were at the beginning. 

And then one evening, she slaps you in the face at some perceived slight.

Repeat process.

 

This, in a nutshell, is Ark.

Swap male/female parts accordingly so no one is triggered.

[onetwothree]

On 15/10/2017 at 5:03 AM, Lickimus said:

At alpha stage I played for 4.5k hours, since full release I have not played much. Maybe I had bad luck chosing servers but impossible to play on laggy servers. Miss target etc etc. First thought the problem was going to be fixed fast but develooers and server company dont fix it. Instead of fix game I read alot of future expansions. 

I used to love the game but even on PVE its hard to play with lag so as the game is right now there is no chance I would have bought it.

Really sad cause the game could be great with good servers.

Pretty much this.

Once my ping rose above 120+ all day every day the game wasnt really playable anymore from a technical standpoint.

That was 4 or so weeks ago and i pretty much havent played more than 10min sessions of ark since.

You cant play a realtime fps game and be competitive with that kind of serverside latency. The worst part is while it SAYS 120 its more like 500 and you wait like half a second between pressing the button and the action to occur ingame. I had heard bad things about nitrado but never played a game hosted by them before. Now i see why they have a bad reputation.

There were already a LOT of basic problems with ark that should have been fixed in early access. Stuff like clipping, pathing, characters falling through the world or dissapearing in transit between maps etc... the person above who said ark pinoneered Early access might want to wake up and realize they wildcard did nothing except take people for a ride and their game still doesn't work a lot of the time.

My review was changed to negative when WC told us 10% of low pop legacy servers would be wiped and then wiped 50% including active servers.. when you do something negative to your community like that there are repercussions: if i am considering buying a game and the front page is all negative reviews I DONT BUY THAT GAME

 

[Shadex]

Player doesn't like game.

Rather than stop playing game they make it their life's goal to make everyone else stop playing the game they are still playing. 

No one listens and continues to play game because they didn't agree with the first person's reasons. 

First person insists anyone that doesn't agree is dumb, blind, or a fanboi. Insists that any dev that doesn't make the changes they want is not listening to the "majority" of players. Meanwhile majority of players continues to play game.

Book of the Internet

Chapter 5, verse 7

[Z0mbie]

On 10/14/2017 at 11:15 AM, GP said:

Although a lot of reviews have fair and valid points, I tend to find those that tell people to stay away from the game are usually profiles that are private. Take the first review you listed for example, that is a private profile. They have stated they have quit the game and do not recommend anyone plays it, however, there is no evidence whatsoever that the person has actually stopped. I see so many people tell others to stay away from ARK and that they themselves have quit but either have private profiles which block access to see if they've quit or they are still actually playing because their review was just blowing off steam.

Private profiles I take with a pinch of salt tbh, many of them have unlikely quit even if they say they have.

Unfortunately in today's society it's just plain SMART to make your profile private. Way too many psychos out there and frankly around here. Writing off people with private profiles is just a just like sticking your head in the sand. Not a real good idea.

[ciabattaroll]

1 minute ago, Z0mbie said:

 Writing off people with private profiles is just a just like sticking your head in the sand. Not a real good idea.

Neither is taking those private profiles at their word if they actually were just blowing off steam with their negative review.

But surely there should be a happy medium.

[Z0mbie]

1 minute ago, ciabattaroll said:

Neither is taking those private profiles at their word if they actually were just blowing off steam with their negative review.

But surely there should be a happy medium.

I agree. I wish there were a happy medium. Too often they just get attacked though and the cycle just rages on and gets more toxic on both sides.

[ChargingParacerParacer]

It's worth pointing out that just as many 5 ane 4 star reviews out there that can and should also be ignored for trying to petend like this game really comes with zero flaws. There is still plenty of glitches, lag, and crashing in this game, and trying to discount a complaint based off of too many hours played holds no weight when the game was being played in alpha and went through several large changes along the way. Besides some people trying to dismiss a criticism because the critic played "too many hours" will then turn around and try to dismiss other critics for not playing enough hours. It's just empty strawmanning to try to silence a different opinion.

[RoyHess666]

They can discuss as much as they want, there is still a hint of truth in these negative reviews.

[GMLlefutur]

My personnal opininon (long story short lol):

I do agree with many negative reviews, but I do love Ark and I am still playing it (more than 2.2k hours), I am not a big fan of all the Tek stuff but I knew it, since day 1, that someday the Tek will be added. I am not a big fan of the ''optimization'' done to the game. I still don't understand why the devs are not making short videos explaining why they are doing this stuff instead of this stuff etc. I still don't understand why the communication level between the players and the devs is so low right now.

I know since the official launch officials servers are worst than ever and I don't really know why, the only reason I see = lot of new players. I think test servers should be implemented really soon! Because now the game is officially launch! The Alpha stage is over! Adding test servers will add a lot more stability to all the officials servers.

So if Ark is getting negative reviews right now I don't really care because I know how great this game is! But I do understand why players are giving bad reviews and I am pretty sure this is because of the lack of communication between the devs and the players. So if WC can find a new way to communicate better with all the players I am pretty sure the reviews will go the other way!

 

In conclusion Ark devs are working extremly hard for us everyone know that. But communication + lack of test servers are the reason why Ark is getting negative reviews atm!

My personnal suggestions: making short videos explaining new stuff, stop communicating ONLY on twitter, I mean post stuff on Steam forums, on your official web site, on Facebook at the same time! Hire someone if necessary! Also a good start would be to make a short video explaining why you are adding test servers or why your not adding them, post the video on your Youtube channel, on Facebook, on Twiter and on Steam forums so everyone playing Ark can see it!

 

Thanks for reading  have fun playing Ark!