Stormbringer

I see hatred. I see flaming. I see insults. I see complaining. I see religious values (white knight, etc). I see comments about the cost of the expansion. There are all sorts of things. I made an account just to comment. I have questions. That's it. I won't insult, I won't complain, and I don't think that what I have to ask is that hard to answer. I think answers would honestly resolve what's going on in the ARK community right now, at least from my perspective. Why charge $20 for the expansion? Is it because you need the money? If so, wouldn't a "Donate" button be more appropriate? Sure, The Center was free but wasn't it mostly player created to begin with? Also, if you need money or want to make more money, why not (AT THE PROMISE OF MUCH MORE SUPPORT mind you) introduce a monthly subscription or even in-game transactions that aren't considered Pay-to-Win and not too expensive, such as outfits, weapon skins, dinosaur skins, etc? Just some suggestions, I don't know if you or others will find them good or bad. Why are the bug fixes/optimizations taking so long? I have put a few hundred hours into ARK now and I love it. I honestly do. But there are simple problems that may not have simple solutions, namely FPS drops, lag (on less than 20 ping no less), clipping, foundation / structure placing issues, spawn points, falling through the map, just to name a few. I understand this is an Early Access game, I was prepared and am still very willing to take the bad with the good. Are you going to charge for future DLCs? I think a lot of people are worried about this, and I would say it's a very reasonable concern. How much longer for an official release? The game has been pushed back a lot, I understand sometimes things happen outside of our control, but when will the actual game be released? Is there no official release date? I think something to look forward to would be enough to calm the masses, and also motivate you guys to finish at a certain time instead of just having push-back comments/explanations prepared in advance. After hundreds of hours into the game (some have less, some have more) I have noticed a lot of problems. I expected some, am shocked by some, and I find a lot of them funny more than frustrating on most days. I love this game. I have given a negative review on Steam simply because I don't understand why things are going in the direction that they are, and honestly answering these VERY simple questions would alleviate a lot of my concern, change my review and even simply make me happier while playing ARK. I don't believe that my review or opinion will effect Wildcard or the masses one bit, as I am just one in many, but I still feel like my review, opinions, and questions are no less important than anyone else's. I truly wish to see ARK succeed. It's been a fun ride so far, and I hope it gets better. As long as you treat us fairly and provide adequate reasons for your actions, as well as support for the issues that remain, I'm sure most if not all of us will continue riding this train until it's last stop. Thank you for reading (both WC and my fellow users), sorry for the wall of text.