Community Crunch 364: Happy 8th Anniversary, Fasolasuchus Concept, and More!

[Huntdad5]

10 hours ago, Mrkunio said:

 

2 months since the news of the official servers closing down your plans for Ark's future and there is still no mention of the servers closing down in the Ark news section on the start screen. To make things worse you put news of the ASE Ultimate Survivor Edition!. Which costs £40 and in PS store it's advertised as 'online players of up to 70 players'. and no mention that online servers will close down either.  

It's shameful the way you go about things. Do you have any respect for your player base? 

In my opinion you are doing yourself no favors. I was considering upgrading to a PS5 and buying ASA so i could play official pve again. Something i was reluctant to do as in theory your stopping me playing a game and then selling the same game back to me.  

These past two months could of been a time to win back my trust by ensuring that people are informed whats happening in August. That would of  restored my faith in Wildcard. However, the way you have gone about things absolutely stinks and tells me a lot about your company. 

So i wont be investing any money to Arks future, i will just complete as many of the maps i can before official pve closes down and continue to feel sorry for the poor guys i see setting up new thatch bases with level 50 trikes etc who have no idea there stuff will just disappear in August.     

 

 

I got the email about the ultimate edition being on sale, even though I own it. I believe that it says that the game is on sale on the startup screen for playstation users. Kinda stupid. I hate that the advertise it as an online game, yet it is shutting down in 2 months. Sad.......

[Alysson]

10 hours ago, Mrkunio said:

2 months since the news of the official servers closing down your plans for Ark's future and there is still no mention of the servers closing down in the Ark news section on the start screen. To make things worse you put news of the ASE Ultimate Survivor Edition!. Which costs £40 and in PS store it's advertised as 'online players of up to 70 players'. and no mention that online servers will close down either.  

It's shameful the way you go about things. Do you have any respect for your player base? 

 

Finally someone said that. I still see new people buying the game and starting playing, and have no idea the servers will close. They literally get so demotivated when they get to know, like "I won't waste my time then". It looks like MANEY MANEY WE NEED MORE MANEY. It's disrespectful indeed.

[ladyteruki]

I hope someone reads the comments... but even that isn't a given.

16 hours ago, ccz2887 said:

Why is this so hard for you guys to understand?

Really. At this point it's absolutely self-sabotage. Something that WildCard doesn't seem to understand is that : just because you don't address something, doesn't mean it's not being discussed.

For years now, but particularly the past few months, your paying customers have asked questions. Without any answers. It took you three months to answer the obvious question on everybody's lips "why aren't we seeing more about ARK2 when it ^supposedly releases this year ?". You didn't address most of the questions asked to you after the release of the first version of the roadmap, you just corrected the price point without discussing most of the other important parts (and failed to provide an easily digestible/visual timeline, which means that to this day, there are still people who believe that ASE will stop functioning once ASA releases).
People raised VERY important points about ASA's partnership with Overwolf. Not a peep.
People obviously raised important concerns about PvP enforcement, in ASE and as a consequence, also in ASA. Not a peep.
People asked vital questions about ASE unofficial servers' whitelists. Not a peep.
Even the more "minor" things go entirely unaddressed. As a small example, last week I asked why your own roadmap said that the last content update for ASE would be "including the Rhynio", and it turns out, that was either bad writing or bad planning, because it doesn't include it, it begins and ends with it. You see this weekend the comments here, mentioning how people expected things along the Rhynio ? There's a direct cause-to-consequence line between the two. What would it cost to phrase your sentence properly the first time, and say that there won't be anything else ? Or, after that, seeing how people asked questions or got excited, how did you not correct course as long as it was BEFORE the release of the patch notes Friday ? Can you not see how the light disappointment people feel about the last ever ASE content update could have simply been avoided ? It's just a tiny thing and yet, it leads to more negative feelings towards the game. And they compound.
Adding to that is the problem of constantly going back on your word. Releasing ASA previews every other week in Community Crunches ? This happened an exact amount of never. It went : ASA preview, ASA preview, ARK2 preview, and then nothing about either ASA or even ARK2. And now the anniversary/Rhynio/creature submission post is also ASA preview-free. Unless you count the Fasola, which people voted for, so they already know about it by definition.
...You think we can trust you with an entire game rerelease, when you can't put together a Community Crunch that follows the schedule YOU set ? Is that how you regain our trust ?
And that's to say nothing of the silence on stuff that far predates 2023. Like the suggestion forums that have been opened years ago, and nothing really seemed to come out of it, what we have here is a pattern.

Every question you don't answer, is a question that other people than you answer. And these are a very wide range of people ! People who might have guessed the answer correctly... or not. People who might have fantastic imaginations, because gaps need to be filled and 8 years in we haven't understood that yet. People who might steer others away from the game. People who might be misinforming or disinforming your customers, in a way that won't make them customers anymore. 
The things that are said from player to player (be it in the comments under videos, in the chats during streams, in the discussions across dozens of discords, or simply ingame...) are your worst enemies, and you remain silent against them.

Each time WildCard keeps silent, an army of survivors talks in your place. There IS already a conversation, you're just not part of it. Oh but surely it's no big deal, it's just your product everyone but you is talking about.

This is why, for eons, people (including me) have warned you against minimalist communication. Silence breeds dissent, and almost worse, disappointment. Disappointment is people who didn't plan on leaving, but see their optimism rewarded with the equivalent of corporate betrayal.
You have so many irons on the one Ark fire and a terrible reputation, how does it not become your number one priority to communicate not just more, but better ? I admire your confidence in thinking that all the people who are leaving will be returning to hand you 60 bucks in August. And as you have done less than nothing to promote the game to new players (which could be a valid plan ! replace us !), I am baffled that you think you are making your current playerbase happy with whatever is going on here. WildCard can't possibly think the word of mouth is gonna do all the heavy lifting.

When everything else behind the scenes is evidently chaos, PR should be more proactive than ever. The optics of all of this is your reputation. When are you finally shifting into crisis management mode ?

Quote

Two months out and we have so little to go on to make our decisions to buy ASA or not.  Many of us are looking at not only spending money on the game itself but upgrading the hardware to run it.  Since money doesn’t grow on trees people have to save for that kind of expense or at least plan for it to be able to log into a fresh new experience on day 1. 

Absof*ckinglutely.
If you want our money, give us a reason to spend it.

Quote

There are very important questions that I would like to see answered (and I’m sure others too), and those are as follows:

Are you going to release enough servers this time compared to ASE?

What bugs have been fixed compared to ASE? (I.e. weapons having to be cycled before they fire)

Are you going to spotlight new building mechanics?

Are we going to be able to have things like Maewings introduced to the island so raising tames isn’t so time consuming?

Seriously. The bugs in particular, although I'm sure more will be fixed in the next two months and they can't all be listed pre-release, is an important one. It's almost the entire value of an upgrade (...as if most PvP players were playing Ark for its visuals). And I imagine that it's also the reason why we didn't get more for the last ASE update : all the actual improvements will be in ASA.
One thing that is important : will the UI be redesigned in the servers list ? It's important because in ASA, mods will be part of the game for everyone. Will we be able to filter servers by the mods they use ? Will we preview a modlist and/or a rates list before joining ? How will it work for paid mods ?
And speaking of mods, WildCard said mod devs would have access to the devkit in advance so that we're not all forced to play vanilla on day 1. Where are we on this, again, two months from release ? 
The other day I suggested that a Community Crunch went into discussing the babies, for instance. It's a thing that WildCard has already announced, so it doesn't ruin any surprise ; it's something that can make people curious, and happy, and it feels new because it's not just visual, it's also a matter of gameplay, and you don't even really need to show anything for it to make sense to players. Talking at length about it will make players picture themselves playing ASA (isn't that what we want ?). It's positive. Bring on the babies ! Or anything else similar, I'm not pro-prehistoric babies, WildCard just needs to give us more than one image and two lines of banalities.

...And I want these things addressed all HERE. Not one time on Twitter, one time on discord, one time on Twitch. Much as I value Raasclark's work, I should not have to watch his videos to learn that the team is leaning towards a more primitive experience in ASA also (referring to cryopods and such). 
The Community Crunches (or let's be wild : posts that are provided in addition to Community Crunches ! "The ASA Chronicles" or what have you) should be the primary source of information, always. They should be PACKED with stuff to learn about the game, how it's made, what is coming, where we are on the timeline of releases (a lot of people assumed The Center would come to ASA before Ragnarok), and so on. If not, what are they for, really ?

Quote

These are just some of the questions that run through my head that really does have a BIG impact on my decision to buy the game or not, and I’m sure I’m not alone.  There are other questions that you guys can answer pretty easily if you really have as much done as you say you do.  The best thing is, IT WONT RUIN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PLAYERS BY LETTING US KNOW THESE THINGS!  Actually it would get us pumped up and excited and want to buy the game.  By what’s been going on in the last month or so that you guys STILL haven’t even acknowledged, you could use a little hype right now.  Two months until release (unless it’s delayed, which would NOT be the least bit surprised by at this point) and we literally know nothing about ASA other than a handful of things that aren’t really things that bring a lot of attention in the day to day of the game.  

Plus, addressing these questions could also appease the community. At least part of it.

For instance, discussing the future of enforcement in ASA would implicitly (and diplomatically) address the concerns people have had with Conquest after the massive ban. I understand that WildCard can't say "yes, Snail Games sucks more than a Lamprey, but we can't do sh*t about it", because you don't bite the hand that owns you.
But how better things would be by saying something along the lines of "here is our commitment for a healthy ASA, and a list of the guarantees we give to the community about it. In ASA, official will be the phrasing used for servers where our enforcement team has the final word, and slimy* will be the phrasing for the servers operated by Snail Games employees. Here is a list of all the rules our enforcement team will follow, how you can appeal if it is not the case, and after ASA releases we'll post regularly about how many tickets we have addressed/solved/appealed for transparency purposes. Additionally here is how meshing is less of an issue in UE5 and how the new technology plays a huge part in fighting cheating, something we couldn't have done in ASE. Hell, we also have organized a written Q&A with the head of the enforcement team, to address specific concerns for ASA". This is only valuable if it doesn't try to spin things, and ACTUALLY answers questions from the community. Having people leave questions the week before, and answering those precisely, is not optional at this point.
Having a Community Crunch about that would improve things a lot ! Not overnight and not without following suit, but it'd be so much better than, week after week, people pointing out in the comments of the official website how you're silent on the matter. That's the kind of thing that will get people to buy ASA despite a chaotic first half of the year.

*Ok maybe not "slimy" XD Something bland like "major", maybe, doesn't matter, just labeling them differently is the point. Snail Games can have their own servers, it just matters that people know where they set foot.

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I’m not trying to downplay the work that has gone into stuff like the smithy, mortar and pestle, sleeping bag or the tree, but in my 7.5 years of playing I have yet to see a bunch of people standing around a smithy going “man it would be cool if they refreshed the look of this”.  That stuff looks great and I’m sure a lot of work went into it, but it isn’t enough.  

But that's just the thing. It's WildCard's approach that downplays it. People go "yay, a tree, can't wait for a rock next" and it's a predictable reaction. 
Noone had "I want a new sleeping bag" on the top of their list for a UE5 upgrade ! Not even cracking the Top 100 of concerns here. These are bonus things, not hype things. We'd enjoy them if we also didn't have 712 billions of unanswered questions at the same time.

And if anyone at WildCard thinks : "we can't talk about that yet", it doesn't matter. You have to. Two months away from a major release, it's vital that you do. But even if you delay. You've painted yourself in a corner and now there is no other way to go. Find a way urgently.

Edited June 4, 2023 by ladyteruki

[ccz2887]

EXACTLY! @ladyteruki!!!!  SING THE GOSPEL GIRL! Lol.  Looking back when I first logged into the island server 68 in December of 2015, after coming from games like GTA and a hardcore COD player, I thought “eh I’ll give it a shot, but probably be back into GTA in a week.”  Not understanding the depth and the layers of this game, and after playing it for 3 days I fell in love with it and the rest is history.  This game scratched an itch that I never knew was there.  I also believe that when Ark: Survival Evolved came out, it did something to the gaming world.  Once people started really getting into it, and got that same itch scratched that I did, they realized that this is a game that was going to blow the roof off a fairly new genre in the gaming world, one that was dominated by Minecraft for the most part.  And it did, at least that’s what I believe.  In 2015-2016 there were not many open world survival games out there, where you had the freedom and the ability to in a sense build your own virtual world, life and effectively your own outcome of the game, and that is the best part about this game.  The early days were, IMO, the best.  My most fondest memories of this game are from 2015-2017, things like guarding a juvenile giga with 4 battle quetzs and 6 adult gigas as we walked it from the swamp in the south to the east side of giga mountain on the island.  Logging into the center on release night and my tribe and I getting obliterated by 2 mate boosted lvl 150 gigas, trying to get to the spot we wanted to build lol. 
 

I didn’t mean to go off topic there but I mentioned those because this summer or early fall is a chance for players who weren’t around in the early days to experience a true new start on a completely fresh and new (old)map.  I’m not talking about like the dlc releases since the center where players have awesome stat tames on another server just waiting to be transferred in 3 months, no.  We’re talking a straight up brand spanking new start, where nobody has a better breeding line that they been working on 2 years.  Also to be able to make those memories to look back on in another 5-6 years after ASA release to go “damn!  That was fun!!!”.  To tie everything together with my point, players are going to miss out on that kind of experience.  Why? Because you guys can’t come to your senses and try to truly understand what made the community fall in love with this game, and what part you at Wildcard need to play to make it all happen.  You have such a rare opportunity for lightning to strike twice and just as potently as it did the first time, if not even more powerful than the first time, and you guys are just letting the chance slip away.  With every passing week, with every info scarce crunch, with every single unanswered “716 billion” questions that would not have any effect on gameplay experience.  This position you’re in now is a DIRECT result of lack of communication.  For example, Rockstar does this in regards to a new GTA that’s in the works, but they can do that effectively because of their reputation.  They have spent 30 years developing that reputation, the difference is when they drop a product, it’s almost a mic drop, every time.  Sure it’s got bugs, but for the most part it’s a pretty smooth running game, and rockstar knows that they don’t have to release too many teasers because the game will do $150 million in sales the first week, because of their reputation.  Wildcard, you don’t have that luxury…..yet.  
 

Us players are on the outside looking in to this whole hoopla of a mess, and I can safely say, a lot of us see the way out.  Hell it’s on YouTube every day, from creators like Raasclark, H.O.D., Nooblets, LtBuzzLightBeer, GP, JadePG.  Hell I’m sure Captain Fatdog would love to get an idea of how the new build mechanics work so that the king of the trap builds(king of building period) can start messing around with new traps if need be.  Wildcard, from here on out the outcome of ASA and Ark 2 are up to you.  The road that has been the status quo, is not going to lead to the best outcome that can happen, and that’s on you. Do you want lightning to strike again and more powerful the second time around?  Or do you wanna run the risk of falling into the category of what could have been?  It already happened with Atlas, don’t think for one minute it can’t happen to Ark.

[ladyteruki]

1 hour ago, ccz2887 said:

Looking back when I first logged into the island server 68 in December of 2015, after coming from games like GTA and a hardcore COD player, I thought “eh I’ll give it a shot, but probably be back into GTA in a week.”  Not understanding the depth and the layers of this game, and after playing it for 3 days I fell in love with it and the rest is history.  This game scratched an itch that I never knew was there.

This made me smile  At the risk of being sentimental, I have a similar experience, as I had NEVER played a multiplayer game before Ark (ok, aside from a bit of TF2). I came to Ark like a shot in the dark. I was a singleplayer-only kind of gamer, who loved building and simulations and stuff like that (the first ever game I bought was Sim City 2000 !), and had bad aim because most of what I played didn't involve guns (...I still have bad aim, but less so !). But I loved dinosaurs, like a lot of us here ; I was in love with dinosaurs as a kid and I couldn't pass up the opportunity as a grown-up of riding my own in a game. I tried Ark a first time in the summer 2015, and my then-computer couldn't run it ; it was a very brief experience. I was so disappointed. I could not stop thinking about the game. Two summers later, having a slightly better machine, I tried again (...on a pirated copy ^_^; ) and it wasn't perfect, but I could run it somehow and I spent my summer on The Island. Even in SP, it was a terrifying experience for me, as I had never played anything like it ! I'd be so jumpy XD Yet, when it came out of early access, I bought Ark and joined my first ever PvE server.

Like many of us, I could tell a thousand stories about the people I met, the dinos I tamed (...and those that got away), the places I saw, the bases I built, all in the following years. About 10k hours later, nobody can accuse me of not liking this game ; I'm not even very jumpy anymore.  

And that's the thing : the people asking WildCard to do better (and in particular to communicate better, which could alleviate ALL of the other ills, if only they did this one thing right) are not haters. The haters, simply put, are either insulting WildCard... or are just long gone. There are other games out there, no studio is entitled to their attention, and I get that ; but I see the danger in that too.
The people who love the game are advocating for ways to solve the current confidence crisis before the bleed is too deadly. Because we love Ark... and because falling out of love with Ark is not something we wish on anyone. But we see it happening, all around us (and sometimes in us, after the umpteenth disappointment), and we can't blame people for having better things to do with their time, their energy, and their money. Especially their money. Have you seen how bad it is out there ?

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For example, Rockstar does this in regards to a new GTA that’s in the works, but they can do that effectively because of their reputation. They have spent 30 years developing that reputation, the difference is when they drop a product, it’s almost a mic drop, every time. Sure it’s got bugs, but for the most part it’s a pretty smooth running game, and rockstar knows that they don’t have to release too many teasers because the game will do $150 million in sales the first week, because of their reputation. Wildcard, you don’t have that luxury…..yet.

Higher-ups at WildCard seem to think that the one successful game they have will carry them to a successful franchise. Nothing is less certain. Like you said, it's not just the games (although it is ALSO that), it's the reputation. The reputation is the relationship with the community. I like Cedric and Svala and everyone at WildCard that I see on social media trying to interact with the community as much as humanly possible, but it's not a matter of being friendly, or funny, or troll-y... That is good stuff, but not sufficient stuff. This is something that happens once the community trusts the studio with its work. Community management can't repair the relationship we have when upper management isn't able to set a better, clearer course.
Every game has bugs, but years-old bugs that the studio has never acknowledged, not so much. A lot of releases are delayed, but systematically, not so much. Sometimes prices change, or plans change, and that's fine ; but if, from the get go, people assume the worst from you every time, it's clear that there is no amount of funny tweets that will save you. And in this case, people assume the worst from WildCard, every time.
Everyone assumes ASA will be delayed, for instance. Most people don't see the value in it, and how could they think otherwise, having seen nothing of it ?

Frankly I don't think WildCard should compare themselves to Rockstar. WildCard should compare themselves to small, indie studios, the ones that still have a few things to prove ; all the other games I play (when I'm frustrated with Ark's direction) are from studios that do so much more than WildCard with so much fewer employees, in particular when it comes to communication. I know a studio with 10 employees who has weekly updates that put the Community Crunches to unbearable shame ! Studios that release video dev blogs, or organize casual dev streams, or reply to ALL questions on discord, etc. Yes, sometimes they're embarrassing. But silence is more embarrassing than any other kind of answer.
Because the reality of it is that, no matter how many hours played (...in a game where by design players have to spent huge amounts of time to do most things), no matter how many releases shipped, no matter how big the cast of the explorer notes and upcoming animated series... WildCard has yet a lot to prove. The approach should be based on that of indies studios, where communication is key. When you have one main source of income, making people feel involved is vital to survival. You don't have to offer full transparency, but at least provide a widespread feeling of transparency among the customers (there are, of course, financial and technical realities that players don't always see, but overall, putting most cards on the table works). At the moment, Ark has the opposite of that.
A lot of us are emotionally attached to the game, using that bond to solidify the relationship between the studio and the players (instead of exclusively counting on it to sustain the playerbase), will only work in WildCard's favor. Silence, on the other hand ? ...When has it worked ?

The fact that we're in June and still don't know whether ASA will have different balances between PvP/PvE (some things nerfed in PvP are absolutely harmless in PvE and don't need changed there, maybe UE5 finally makes it possible ?), or how the mods will work, or if we'll even have mods at launch, or what major improvements we can expect, or what years-old bugs have finally been conquered, or how enforcement will work, or how many modes will be at launch (for our PvP friends), or... hell, is there a Steam page for ASA right now ? Where is it ? It's fine if you keep surprises, but surprises should be the exception, not the rule. The entire release can't be a surprise. Only AAA can afford surprises.

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SING THE GOSPEL GIRL! Lol.

Haha, I have a lot to get off my chest, evidently XD

Edited June 5, 2023 by ladyteruki

[ladymarina]

Oh my God thank you thank you thank you so much for saying this lady teruki. I have been saying this from the very beginning. Since they announced it in April. Thank you so much for sending this you said it even better than I did you go girl ,🙏❤️

Edited June 5, 2023 by ladymarina

[Tylerark424]

19 hours ago, Maria064 said:

Why didn't we get a dino color event? we got it last year. and since the next event will be Halloween we won't get an event before the servers shut down. 

Its only fair to the costumers / players to get one last color event 

Hopefully we will get a summer bash or an ARKdependence Day event Before the servers shut down in August 

[Zite]

Wildcard=Snail's lil bitch

 

You are a disgrace to your player base. End of story.

[ccz2887]

8 hours ago, ladymarina said:

Oh my God thank you thank you thank you so much for saying this lady teruki. I have been saying this from the very beginning. Since they announced it in April. Thank you so much for sending this you said it even better than I did you go girl ,🙏❤️

Agreed ladymarina, agreed!!  Ladyteruki gets the mic drop post of the week lol.

[DarkDraken17]

Dude, Rhyniognatha is OP! If only it was on more maps!

[Dienstbier]

13 hours ago, ladyteruki said:

This made me smile  At the risk of being sentimental, I have a similar experience, as I had NEVER played a multiplayer game before Ark (ok, aside from a bit of TF2). I came to Ark like a shot in the dark. I was a singleplayer-only kind of gamer, who loved building and simulations and stuff like that (the first ever game I bought was Sim City 2000 !), and had bad aim because most of what I played didn't involve guns (...I still have bad aim, but less so !). But I loved dinosaurs, like a lot of us here ; I was in love with dinosaurs as a kid and I couldn't pass up the opportunity as a grown-up of riding my own in a game. I tried Ark a first time in the summer 2015, and my then-computer couldn't run it ; it was a very brief experience. I was so disappointed. I could not stop thinking about the game. Two summers later, having a slightly better machine, I tried again (...on a pirated copy ^_^; ) and it wasn't perfect, but I could run it somehow and I spent my summer on The Island. Even in SP, it was a terrifying experience for me, as I had never played anything like it ! I'd be so jumpy XD Yet, when it came out of early access, I bought Ark and joined my first ever PvE server.

Like many of us, I could tell a thousand stories about the people I met, the dinos I tamed (...and those that got away), the places I saw, the bases I built, all in the following years. About 10k hours later, nobody can accuse me of not liking this game ; I'm not even very jumpy anymore.  

And that's the thing : the people asking WildCard to do better (and in particular to communicate better, which could alleviate ALL of the other ills, if only they did this one thing right) are not haters. The haters, simply put, are either insulting WildCard... or are just long gone. There are other games out there, no studio is entitled to their attention, and I get that ; but I see the danger in that too.
The people who love the game are advocating for ways to solve the current confidence crisis before the bleed is too deadly. Because we love Ark... and because falling out of love with Ark is not something we wish on anyone. But we see it happening, all around us (and sometimes in us, after the umpteenth disappointment), and we can't blame people for having better things to do with their time, their energy, and their money. Especially their money. Have you seen how bad it is out there ?

Higher-ups at WildCard seem to think that the one successful game they have will carry them to a successful franchise. Nothing is less certain. Like you said, it's not just the games (although it is ALSO that), it's the reputation. The reputation is the relationship with the community. I like Cedric and Svala and everyone at WildCard that I see on social media trying to interact with the community as much as humanly possible, but it's not a matter of being friendly, or funny, or troll-y... That is good stuff, but not sufficient stuff. This is something that happens once the community trusts the studio with its work. Community management can't repair the relationship we have when upper management isn't able to set a better, clearer course.
Every game has bugs, but years-old bugs that the studio has never acknowledged, not so much. A lot of releases are delayed, but systematically, not so much. Sometimes prices change, or plans change, and that's fine ; but if, from the get go, people assume the worst from you every time, it's clear that there is no amount of funny tweets that will save you. And in this case, people assume the worst from WildCard, every time.
Everyone assumes ASA will be delayed, for instance. Most people don't see the value in it, and how could they think otherwise, having seen nothing of it ?

Frankly I don't think WildCard should compare themselves to Rockstar. WildCard should compare themselves to small, indie studios, the ones that still have a few things to prove ; all the other games I play (when I'm frustrated with Ark's direction) are from studios that do so much more than WildCard with so much fewer employees, in particular when it comes to communication. I know a studio with 10 employees who has weekly updates that put the Community Crunches to unbearable shame ! Studios that release video dev blogs, or organize casual dev streams, or reply to ALL questions on discord, etc. Yes, sometimes they're embarrassing. But silence is more embarrassing than any other kind of answer.
Because the reality of it is that, no matter how many hours played (...in a game where by design players have to spent huge amounts of time to do most things), no matter how many releases shipped, no matter how big the cast of the explorer notes and upcoming animated series... WildCard has yet a lot to prove. The approach should be based on that of indies studios, where communication is key. When you have one main source of income, making people feel involved is vital to survival. You don't have to offer full transparency, but at least provide a widespread feeling of transparency among the customers (there are, of course, financial and technical realities that players don't always see, but overall, putting most cards on the table works). At the moment, Ark has the opposite of that.
A lot of us are emotionally attached to the game, using that bond to solidify the relationship between the studio and the players (instead of exclusively counting on it to sustain the playerbase), will only work in WildCard's favor. Silence, on the other hand ? ...When has it worked ?

The fact that we're in June and still don't know whether ASA will have different balances between PvP/PvE (some things nerfed in PvP are absolutely harmless in PvE and don't need changed there, maybe UE5 finally makes it possible ?), or how the mods will work, or if we'll even have mods at launch, or what major improvements we can expect, or what years-old bugs have finally been conquered, or how enforcement will work, or how many modes will be at launch (for our PvP friends), or... hell, is there a Steam page for ASA right now ? Where is it ? It's fine if you keep surprises, but surprises should be the exception, not the rule. The entire release can't be a surprise. Only AAA can afford surprises.

Haha, I have a lot to get off my chest, evidently XD

 

Yes everyone has their story of how they came to Ark and why they stayed so long, or not.

No, most of them are not haters.
But in my eyes some writers are rather small children who demand and buck because they are not given what they want.
This is not meant in a derogatory way, but that's how it looks to me.

Personally, I do not care that WC is more silent. You can see where it leads when they release information too early. (Free update, but now new paid heavily revised game) This is yes still topic of one or the other writer.

ARK is a very cheap game, much cheaper than others I haven't invested half the play time in. But this is also herumgegängelt and that this is not so. The complainers DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT.

Many players turn WC but anyway a rope from it. No matter what WC does. Information why it is NOT ONLY an update, there was plenty.
Certain writers ignore this info but and claim even now that it is ONLY a better graphics. (Even if, as if complete reworking of the whole models doesn't make any work).

And that some people DEMAND information that is probably not yet available does NOT make things better from the player's side. How should there be a gameplay when WC has only decided not to update, but to heavily rework? Can they do magic?

I like getting glimpses too, I'm starving for them!
But it is still the decision of the game developer. I respect their decision. Sometimes a little bit of grumbling I do but also, as long as I remain fair from my side, this is also legitimate.

Yes I expect ASA to be moved, but I don't mean that in a negative way. But WC has let see WHAT they have on their list, in addition to many other for us not recognizable points.
Probably they will discover more and more how what can be changed.
Existing plans are thrown over the pile, in favor of new better implementations.

At least I can imagine this very well. I only run one server and that's how it works for me, because I suddenly find out possibilities that were unknown to me before.
WC itself has said that they have to get used to UE5.
But this is also simply ignored by some.

My impression of some writers here is a very very very negative. They seem to me like children who have no idea about the financial world of a business and can not imagine that a revision of a game takes a lot of time and effort. (Even to me there were comments that could be saved, whether it has to do with the problems in my life or otherwise).

Even just listing that UE5 does some things themselves and you don't have much work there is ridiculous.
The game developer has to tell UE5 exactly what moves and what doesn't. Redwood trees that lean because you touch them is not something anyone would want.

No, WC is certainly not a perfect company, they make mistakes and it's all about the dear money like everywhere else.
But apparently it was already common practice in the past to communicate little, why should that change?
And just because a company communicates doesn't mean it does things the players want.

But most players/writers here have no patience anyway. They want to see a finished game NOW, while it wasn't that long ago that it was announced that ASA was coming, they even wanted that best in the announcement week. (Gameplay requirement and the like)

It is even claimed that ASA will be bug-free... WC has NEVER said anything like that. How can a game be bug free when it comes from a game that has many bugs in it.

Yes I am disappointed that there are no pictures in UE5, that the crunch turned out so puny and the update only contained the bug.
I don't know the background though.
Do they still have something planned?
Were there perhaps any problems in the company?
Or have they just had enough and are miffed, like some of the players?

But you talk your mouth off here anyway and people don't want to understand it, at least those who keep trampling on the same issues over and over again.

Yes, I hope for players of the Ofiziellen server, the WC can come up with something.
How often has it happened that WC did more than they actually wanted to do, or the community thought possible.

Already alone the current beetle... it was said before that there would be no new content. What came... a vote for an animal that will still appear in ASE. Free of charge! As is usually the case with WC.

Rockstar is the game maker who would have made a great game if they hadn't just dropped it without adding important missing content to the online mode?

So I don't know how they communicate, but RD online could have been really good... but instead of putting more work into it, they just didn't do anything. (At least that's my impression)
The story I have not played, because you can not play together there. But I know that in SP much more is possible.

And you can put a lot of money into this online mode.

Yes, maybe WC should have cut off a big fat slice.
Offer add-ons that cost real money, then they would have made significantly more revenue.
Dinos that you MUST buy, otherwise you can not use them.
Weapons that cost money, which you also could not exchange.
Additional accelerations of the breeding / higher harvest setting, which can be unlocked by real money for quite some time.(Maybe related to the Tribe).

Had WC done this though, I don't think I would have enjoyed playing Ark as much as I do now.

Then playing together would not have been so easy, the exchange of dinos would either have been suspended, or very complicated.

Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for. Because the fulfillment does not always turn out the way you would like it to. A lot of things have a price that you are sometimes not willing to pay.

I have the patience, at least I pretend to be patient, and wait. (If I were Hiob I wouldn't wait until six o'clock in the morning for a crunch, then I would have the patience to lie down in bed and watch AFTER getting up, instead of pressing F5 permanently).

At the latest when ASA is released I will see what the game has to offer. Then I decide whether I like the game, or not, and whether I want to spend money for it / can.
 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Dienstbier

[Gerard0002]

Ragnarok to be released before Center? Why?

[GP]

1 hour ago, Gerard0002 said:

Ragnarok to be released before Center? Why?

The Center is the forgotten child. 😭

[Dienstbier]

Has it really been forgotten?
Or maybe The Center needs a lot more work to polish it up....

It would be nice if The Center would get some well deserved changes.

Actually, the map is very nice.

[R34jeromegtr]

Come on wild card. The new creature spawns are garbage. Can we atleast enjoy the last “two months” of ark can you up the spawn rate 

[Brexit2023]

On 6/4/2023 at 4:34 AM, Oathbound said:

I just wanna know when the big bug is coming to switch.

Keep playing there will be plenty of big bugs trust me 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Brexit2023

[AinzOalGown]

On 6/5/2023 at 2:08 PM, R34jeromegtr said:

Come on wild card. The new creature spawns are garbage. Can we atleast enjoy the last “two months” of ark can you up the spawn rate 

Low spawn rate = more hours of looking for the bug. They’re getting more gameplay this way. 

[R34jeromegtr]

1 hour ago, AinzOalGown said:

Low spawn rate = more hours of looking for the bug. They’re getting more gameplay this way. 

It only makes sense 

[tyrantlizard]

Hey Wildcard, can we get a real life creature vote for The Center Map at some point? As of right now, The Center is the only map that doesn't have a creature exclusive to that map. Since the Center is mainly water, I was thinking maybe a water creature? 

[GP]

21 minutes ago, tyrantlizard said:

Hey Wildcard, can we get a real life creature vote for The Center Map at some point? As of right now, The Center is the only map that doesn't have a creature exclusive to that map. Since the Center is mainly water, I was thinking maybe a water creature? 

All maps will be getting a community voted creature.

[PELIC]

How 'bout that Overwolf?

Serving malware in Minecraft mods since at least mid-April.

Make better choices, Wildcard.

[AinzOalGown]

Searched for the bug on 50 different servers after my 30+ timeout incident and haven’t found another one yet guess I’ll buy a server and just spawn one in to check it out. 

[GP]

28 minutes ago, AinzOalGown said:

guess I’ll buy a server and just spawn one in to check it out

Or spawn one in single player to check it out and not spend money to do it.

[Dienstbier]

At some point in recent updates, WC definitely introduced a bad bug into the game. Even before the new animal.

Before I could play very well, now it is often so that the movements of the animals are very jerky and there are also very often short stops.

The day before yesterday my server also restarted twice and once it was even completely offline, although no one did anything.

But there is nothing left but to search if the error is on us.
Since I have tried this on different servers (also newly set up), it is apparently really something where only WC can fix again.

[Joebl0w13]

3 hours ago, Dienstbier said:

At some point in recent updates, WC definitely introduced a bad bug into the game. Even before the new animal.

Before I could play very well, now it is often so that the movements of the animals are very jerky and there are also very often short stops.

The day before yesterday my server also restarted twice and once it was even completely offline, although no one did anything.

But there is nothing left but to search if the error is on us.
Since I have tried this on different servers (also newly set up), it is apparently really something where only WC can fix again.

Bug reports -> https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/bugs/