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The Reason The Game Is Dying.


aeres

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I love ARK and always will consider it my favorite game.  That being said, ARK is the most broken, poorly managed and technically flawed game I, myself, have ever played. Reread that sentence before making a comment on it.  Now, we can delve deep into the reasons why this game is so "broken" but that is unnecessary for the purpose of this post.

Let's start with disregarding comments about "numbers" or the very subjective phrase "the game is dying" because quite frankly both of these things are true and untrue depending on which perspective you take. Numbers and Stats are helpful but only if they are being applied relevantly and correctly.  Showing that ARK currently has a 50k PC Steam player base does not mean much in terms of whether the game is in a "healthy state", there are many more factors that go into a game being healthy/enjoyable than just the average daily player base.

Officially, as in on WildCard Official Servers, the game is in fact "dying". Just take a look through all of the Official Servers, as others have said, hundreds of servers are sitting at 0/70 or 0/100 on a daily basis.  Yes, they have done a great job at tackling exploits such as duping, meshing, etc. Could these fixes have come sooner? Sure, but we aren't the developers we cannot control when they fix issues. (HOD Gaming did help speed things up regarding Meshing though)

Unofficially, Singleplayer, Modded Servers, etc. in contrast are all thriving due to the continuous issues/exploits/mechanics of the ARK Official Servers.  Players are quitting officials and playing ARK in other means.  MTS is just one of the many examples.  This, in my opinion, is what really explains the consistent player base over the past 4 years for ARK.

I think we can mostly agree that on Official Servers the game is not in a healthy state or you could say the Official player base is declining.  Now with Genesis coming out next week player base is definitely going to spike up again temporarily but that's the same with every major DLC.

I also want to say Ced, the Community Manager, has been an awesome addition to the team.  He takes the brunt of the hate/trolls but I really believe he tries his best to relay information from us to the Developers and vice versa. However, Cluster Grenades still being in the game is UNACCEPTABLE. (If you do not know what I am talking about, you have minimal experience with ARK Official PvP Servers and probably should not comment on this post).

There are also quite a few questionable changes/lack of changes made by the Developer team but I will not discuss further as I have typed so much already to bore you with.

This was more of a subjective/informative post than anything but I will say I am an ARK Xbox and Windows 10 player who has owned the game since it was released in Early Access on Xbox One.

 

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13 minutes ago, Rumackay said:

You got to tek turrets in a week and a half and are having a whinge about losing your work?
 

110222f016f6109340a7552edfd889e8.jpg

Does not matter how quick he got his end game items, he was unfairly deprived of them plus others due to a faulty game/server mechanic that has been an ongoing issue since the game was released 4 years ago.

He has every right and more to complain about this situation.

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7 hours ago, Koola173 said:

I love ARK and always will consider it my favorite game.  That being said, ARK is the most broken, poorly managed and technically flawed game I, myself, have ever played. Reread that sentence before making a comment on it.  Now, we can delve deep into the reasons why this game is so "broken" but that is unnecessary for the purpose of this post.

Let's start with disregarding comments about "numbers" or the very subjective phrase "the game is dying" because quite frankly both of these things are true and untrue depending on which perspective you take. Numbers and Stats are helpful but only if they are being applied relevantly and correctly.  Showing that ARK currently has a 50k PC Steam player base does not mean much in terms of whether the game is in a "healthy state", there are many more factors that go into a game being healthy/enjoyable than just the average daily player base.

Officially, as in on WildCard Official Servers, the game is in fact "dying". Just take a look through all of the Official Servers, as others have said, hundreds of servers are sitting at 0/70 or 0/100 on a daily basis.  Yes, they have done a great job at tackling exploits such as duping, meshing, etc. Could these fixes have come sooner? Sure, but we aren't the developers we cannot control when they fix issues. (HOD Gaming did help speed things up regarding Meshing though)

Unofficially, Singleplayer, Modded Servers, etc. in contrast are all thriving due to the continuous issues/exploits/mechanics of the ARK Official Servers.  Players are quitting officials and playing ARK in other means.  MTS is just one of the many examples.  This, in my opinion, is what really explains the consistent player base over the past 4 years for ARK.

I think we can mostly agree that on Official Servers the game is not in a healthy state or you could say the Official player base is declining.  Now with Genesis coming out next week player base is definitely going to spike up again temporarily but that's the same with every major DLC.

I also want to say Ced, the Community Manager, has been an awesome addition to the team.  He takes the brunt of the hate/trolls but I really believe he tries his best to relay information from us to the Developers and vice versa. However, Cluster Grenades still being in the game is UNACCEPTABLE. (If you do not know what I am talking about, you have minimal experience with ARK Official PvP Servers and probably should not comment on this post).

There are also quite a few questionable changes/lack of changes made by the Developer team but I will not discuss further as I have typed so much already to bore you with.

This was more of a subjective/informative post than anything but I will say I am an ARK Xbox and Windows 10 player who has owned the game since it was released in Early Access on Xbox One.

 

I dont know where your empty official servers are coming from. Just looked and there were dozen or 2 empty servers out of 916. And those were mostly primitive, or legacy servers.

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16 hours ago, aeres said:

That’s not the point. My whole point was that the people who made the game don’t care. Yeah i set up schedules because i play this game competitively as a hobby.  I don’t talk down on you for settin up schedules at work homie. 

Facts:

1. The Game is more popular than ever at the moment 

2. Game is dying is just your childish reaction about your ingame loss 

3. Not knowing the difference between work and Game is dramatically frightening and you should REALLY overthink your life as a whole 

4. Most important: I am not your homie 

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@Koola173

We are not talking about healthy or not. The dude said the Game is dying, which is not true, if we pick the Steam numbers. Yes theres more about it but here in this very topic this guy said the Game is dead and thats simply childish bashing because he lost his stuff. In the only thing important for him: In ARK.

I Think no one is saying that the Game or the devs are perfect. We all know there are issues. But we are all still playing and most of us since early access. Just like myself.

Too many take ARK problems so deep personal and complain like it is their life. Sure I love it too but theres priorities man. 

And as Matter of fact: The Game is not dying. Not by numbers and not by issues. They are working on it since years. If you Think their job is great or not doesnt Matter. But its not dead, dying or something else.

 

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Why didn't anyone tell me the game was dying. Oh MAN!!! What I am going to do as I have just got to a point where I can  take on the Islands bosses and was looking to replace my lost Wyvren. No point now it seems.

I am 1900 odd hours into ARK and have always played on Unofficial. I am currently running a cluster with a few servers and loving the game. Sure there are some irritations  like walls placing however they feel and not what you see on the screen or the millions of stupid birds on the beach they steal your stuff or or or . Sorry to say but the amount of players speaks directly to a game dying or not. Even if a game is bug city....if people are playing its not dead. Added to that if people are coming back and playing again and again its not dying.

There is merit in what people say regarding the Official servers but again that is just one aspect of the game and not its entirety.  So I am going to completely disagree with the dying comment. Losing your stuff is a pain in the behind. When I think back to an admin that just cancelled and shut down our unofficial servers without giving us an opportunity to upload our characters or dinos or the time an Alpha Rex landed in my pen and I lost everything I feel the OP's pain. BUT that doesn't mean death and dying.

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16 hours ago, Monde said:

Why didn't anyone tell me the game was dying. Oh MAN!!! What I am going to do as I have just got to a point where I can  take on the Islands bosses and was looking to replace my lost Wyvren. No point now it seems.

I am 1900 odd hours into ARK and have always played on Unofficial. I am currently running a cluster with a few servers and loving the game. Sure there are some irritations  like walls placing however they feel and not what you see on the screen or the millions of stupid birds on the beach they steal your stuff or or or . Sorry to say but the amount of players speaks directly to a game dying or not. Even if a game is bug city....if people are playing its not dead. Added to that if people are coming back and playing again and again its not dying.

There is merit in what people say regarding the Official servers but again that is just one aspect of the game and not its entirety.  So I am going to completely disagree with the dying comment. Losing your stuff is a pain in the behind. When I think back to an admin that just cancelled and shut down our unofficial servers without giving us an opportunity to upload our characters or dinos or the time an Alpha Rex landed in my pen and I lost everything I feel the OP's pain. BUT that doesn't mean death and dying.

Well, even officials have gotten a lot of new players lately.

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On 2/20/2020 at 11:12 AM, FreelancerKnux said:

Mate if you can't see the difference between work and a game you need to take a break. Also Ark on xbox is going just fine, the game isn't dead or dying if the player base isn't solely on official servers.

A game based around prolonged grinding and even taking over a week of time to care for the equivalent of an advanced tomagachi, all-the-while setting alarms based upon this to guarantee the overall performance of your raised tomagachi, seems a decent bit like invasive work - albeit a clever guise. And on a PvP server to boot? You can't even play that without it seeming like a part-time job.


Its apparently something that has the potential to be a payed gig from what I've seen, so you tell me. I've just grown tired of the White Knights I see about. I just want the game to either succeed in an excellent manner since the idea behind it is revolutionary, or just die from the incompetence - which will come suddenly, and not over time in which people are having a laugh about right now.



 

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 The difficulty of balancing a healthy life and playing on official PvP is definitely a thing, but  personally I wouldn't want it any other way. Sorry that I'm late to the party guys, my character was caged for literally months, but I'm back now.

This game has always undergone change, both in content and also the community. Anyone remember when you could barely get 30fps while trying to run this game?  How about the biome changes that forced people to relocate massive bases and tames? Or what about release day when thousands of players who supported the game had to start from scratch again? 

Ark can be a dying game if you choose to let it die. Every single day people come onto these forums and claim to quit, while other players talk about a dead and toxic community. Imagine what a players perspective of the game would be if they came to these forums before playing it. Your words, mindset, attitude and actions both on the forums are what keeps Ark going. That is why this game won't die, there is no other game like it and the players who choose to support Ark wont stop. 

If player count on your server is dropping and there are blown up bases littering the map, it's not because of a toxic community or because of careless developers. It's because you failed to help your server thrive. Instead of working on your turrets and walls that will isolate you from everyone try to build a few bridges across the rivers for newer players. Build forges and open crafting stations near resource deposits for beach bobs to use. Lastly try to interact with your neighbors a little more, if they get raided simply helping them patch up the holes in their walls and getting their power grid up and running will save them hours of pain and I promise that they will return the favor. This is coming from a player who has maybe one hour a day to game and maybe 3-4 on weekends. 

No Ark is not dying, but it is undergoing change as it always has been. The player base is living out of small caves and crevices now, but maybe tomorrow someone will build a towering beacon of hope and that's the true beauty of this game. Every single day is different and it really comes down to what you choose to do as the player. You want it to change your way? Quit relying on the community and developers to fix your problems.

 

 

 

 

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The game isn't dying, and less...activity...?? I checked, 67k players online. The game is still very healthy. Once Genesis releases, it will surge again to 90k+. If you want a better time, go to unofficials. The developers, they do care. I'm not gonna say they are flawless, but they give a lot to us, when they don't have to.

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A lot of people commenting on this post seem to ignore the fact that OP is talking about Official Servers. Should the title of this post be named differently? Probably, but use just a bit of your intelligence to realize OP is talking about Officials.

Official Servers have in fact been declining over the years, via player count and server count.  There is no arguing that.

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10 minutes ago, Koola173 said:

It's also quite hilarious that a Volunteer Mod is facepalming almost every comment that doesn't line up with his ideals.

I have noticed it too. Most of facepalms i have taken from are made by Volunteer Mods -  @GP, @Joebl0w13
Here at FORUMS is a terrible approach to the client. Embarrassing behavior towards us. We love ark, but we are not foolish and do not bow humbly when we see a lot of errors and glithes and weak customer support service of their beloved game.

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