About ASA and Ark 2.

[TimeBomb2003]

This message is mainly aimed and Wildcard, although I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about this.

Everyone seems to be furious right now with very little exception, and I'd say for the most part, rightfully so. Everyone and their mom is saying that their quitting Ark entirely, calling for boycotts, the whole nine yards. And because I really want Ark Survival Ascended and Ark 2 to be successful and awesome games, as does everyone else who truly loves Ark, we need to be able to restore a little bit of faith in the community. With that being said, here is my guide on how to (hopefully) not lose your heads in an angry mob:

 

Thing 1: The prices.

People aren't a fan of it being paid at all (mainly in part due to Jeremy saying that it would be free), but everyone especially hates having to rebuy the DLCs. So here's my proposal to try to rectify this. Keep the current "Respawned" bundle. After all, if you're already know for sure that you're going to be getting Ark 2 and Ascended, it's practically 2 games for the price of 1. But to solve the DLC dilemma, have a second bundle. The "ASA Complete Edition" or something like that. This bundle would be around $40 to $50, and would include Ascended, with all the DLC. This way, people will be able to buy the content that they want (ASA), and not the content they either aren't decided on, or just don't want at all (Ark 2).

 

Thing 2: Official servers.

Official servers were always going to shut down. It's illogical to assume that they would stay up forever. However, you definitely shouldn't shut them down right as Ascended drops. I'm all for ripping of the band-aid sooner rather than later, but this seems a bit extreme, and all the players seem to agree. Instead, they should remain online until the day (or a short while after) Ark 2 comes out. This way, people would be able to have a somewhat more comfortable transition from Evolved to Ascended, and then either remain playing Ascended, switch to Ark 2, or play both. It would also have a potential side effect of making people see this whole operation seem less like a cash grab. Which can only be a good thing.

 

Thing 3 (the final thing, for now): Game quality at launch.

What's the thing that has the potential to ruin both Ascended and Ark 2? Well, there are a lot of things, but one of them is if you release them in a broken state. People are already on the fence about both the new games (and on the side that you don't want them to be on at that), so they need to have some heckin darn good launches, or else many people who otherwise might have liked it, will throw in the towel immediately. Definitely don't rush them, take the time to iron out as many bugs as possible.

 

And that's all I have for now. I'd love to see if anybody else has a Thing to add to this list, or just any opinions about it you have. And I know that everyone right now would love nothing more than to have Wildcard's head on a stick, but lets try to keep it civil, and try to be productive about the situation.

[DomiDarko]

Do you think I'll pay $90 again after the original game decided to randomly delete my almost max character after 10k hours + because of "reasons" couldn't play on Ragnarok and Fjordur after the char was deleted? For sure I won't! Maybe for $20 on sale, but how do I know if the UE5 version won't do all the bad things the original game did besides the updated graphics?

And no, I don't want to pre-order Schroedinger's Ark 2 where we haven't seen anything besides concept art and an average trailer as well.

The biggest issue is that they lied about ASA being free and no servers will be wiped, so why defend them over and over again?

[TimeBomb2003]

30 minutes ago, DomiDarko said:

Do you think I'll pay $90 again after the original game decided to randomly delete my almost max character after 10k hours + because of "reasons" couldn't play on Ragnarok and Fjordur after the char was deleted? For sure I won't! Maybe for $20 on sale, but how do I know if the UE5 version won't do all the bad things the original game did besides the updated graphics?

Typically when you are looking at getting a new game, or a new anything, and you're not sure if its good or not, you would wait for some reviews to come out, read/watch them, and make an informed decision from there. Like a normal person.

34 minutes ago, DomiDarko said:

And no, I don't want to pre-order Schroedinger's Ark 2 where we haven't seen anything besides concept art and an average trailer as well.

And that's the idea behind Thing 1.

43 minutes ago, DomiDarko said:

The biggest issue is that they lied about ASA being free and no servers will be wiped, so why defend them over and over again?

As for ASA being free, I feel you there. Technically that wasn't an official announcement, it probably was supposed to be free at the time. Though he definitely shouldn't have said anything before it was officially announced. Haven't heard anything about them promising not to shutdown the servers. But even if they did say that, how long were you expecting them to keep them up? The next 20, 50, or 100 years? We both know that that's unrealistic. Every online game will at some point shut down. It's inevitable.

 

Again, this is supposed to be civil. I made this post to see what people thought of my ideas, and to come up with intelligent ideas of their own. Not to just yell about how much you despise wildcard and how much you're not going to play anymore. I'm sure there are a multitude of other posts for that very thing, if what you want to do.

[Batza]

I agree with all your points, but the problem is mostly the publisher, Snail Games, and not Wildcard (though they are probably not innocent). Snail Games is an extremely shady publisher, Ark is their only successful game, and they want to milk it as much as they can to keep their stock price from plummeting and their shareholders happy. I don't think Wildcard have much leeway in the current situation.

Also, making a bundle with Ark 2 shows a complete lack of trust in Ark 2, like they know it probably won't do well on its own, unless it's in a bundle with Ascended. That's worrying. Ark 2 reveal was in December 2020, with a planned 2022 release. Yes, I understand that Unreal Engine 5 came out since, and that 5.1 and 5.2 have big changes that can affect Ark 2, but... we only got concept art since then? And now the planned release is end of 2024, which means probably 2025? What have they been doing all this time?

[DeliaHaze20]

I still can't believe they promised to show gameplay just to end up not planning on showing any they keep telling us lies and broken promises I do not know any game  studio doing this and this frequently. 

[Anonymouszks]

Time is a precious thing that WC and snail treats like nothing as if it were worthless

with wc not carrying about our precious time treating it like its nothing 

wiping 5+ years just to have us restart fresh day one, a repeat of the same thing when we were told wed be getting a brand new game new experience ark 2 just for them to drop on us that instead we are getting a re release of the same game 

has me thinking about death 

Its a scary thought knowing one day well die with no way around it so much time has gone by, anyways

instead of getting a buffer getting to able to delve into something new to experience and build into with ark 2 release and having ark one to fall back on as a thing of memories sentimentality in the future. we get UE5 update and server wipe drop on us 

they expect us to waist one and a half years to waist our time rebuilding up on the ark from day 1 going through a repeat experience the same thing once again just to have us then restart again day 1 come ark 2 

they should of focused on ark 2 purely before releasing ark UE5 

even from a financial standpoint this was a poor move they could of released ARK 2 for $69.99 and UE5 with a fresh wipe for 40-80 

time is precious I suggest spending it on something new and leaving ARK 1

 

[Anonymouszks]

that hurt moving my post to this instead of letting it be stand alone ngl

[TimeBomb2003]

7 hours ago, Batza said:

I agree with all your points, but the problem is mostly the publisher, Snail Games, and not Wildcard (though they are probably not innocent). Snail Games is an extremely shady publisher, Ark is their only successful game, and they want to milk it as much as they can to keep their stock price from plummeting and their shareholders happy. I don't think Wildcard have much leeway in the current situation.

Also, making a bundle with Ark 2 shows a complete lack of trust in Ark 2, like they know it probably won't do well on its own, unless it's in a bundle with Ascended. That's worrying. Ark 2 reveal was in December 2020, with a planned 2022 release. Yes, I understand that Unreal Engine 5 came out since, and that 5.1 and 5.2 have big changes that can affect Ark 2, but... we only got concept art since then? And now the planned release is end of 2024, which means probably 2025? What have they been doing all this time?

That's probably true as well. Though I think that them delaying is most likely genuine. Because them doing so in no way helps their image/finances. And as we know, it usually took them around 12 - 18 months to make a new DLC for Ark, so them taking quite a bit longer to design and create a completely new game from the ground up seems somewhat logical. Realistically, all of their projects should be quicker, but compared to their usual time, this seems to make sense.

[maxplanck58]

By comparison, No Man's Sky was another sandbox game from the same era with a greatly troubled launch.  It has since released over 20 major content updates, all for free for those that own the game.  That is a much different way to regard and treat your customers.  It is an unfair comparison because they are very different companies with a different vision, but I think it is worth noting the dramatic difference in vision within the industry.  Snail Games has demonstrated evidence of having a blatant disregard for its consumers for years now.

[Trikky]

Exactly this
 

Quote

Also, making a bundle with Ark 2 shows a complete lack of trust in Ark 2, like they know it probably won't do well on its own, unless it's in a bundle with Ascended. That's worrying. Ark 2 reveal was in December 2020, with a planned 2022 release. Yes, I understand that Unreal Engine 5 came out since, and that 5.1 and 5.2 have big changes that can affect Ark 2, but... we only got concept art since then? And now the planned release is end of 2024, which means probably 2025? What have they been doing all this time?

With how WC have handled updates, bug fixes and broken game mechanics I hold out very little hope for ASSended and ArkToo(bad).

 

[TimeBomb2003]

55 minutes ago, maxplanck58 said:

By comparison, No Man's Sky was another sandbox game from the same era with a greatly troubled launch.  It has since released over 20 major content updates, all for free for those that own the game.  That is a much different way to regard and treat your customers.  It is an unfair comparison because they are very different companies with a different vision, but I think it is worth noting the dramatic difference in vision within the industry.  Snail Games has demonstrated evidence of having a blatant disregard for its consumers for years now.

No Man's Sky, and Hello Game's awesomeness will forever be a mystery to me. And I don't doubt that the mindset behind the 2 studios is different. Hello Games seems fully committed to serving the players, while wanting very little in return. And Wildcard seems to be more on the side of getting a bit of money for the content they produce.

[Palenor]

All I want to know is when does the pre-purchase for Remaster on Unreal Engine 5 become available?

READY TO GO!

Personally I am getting both the XBOX and PC Versions. Cant wait till it gets here.