DirkInSA

That is the rub - along with how successful the "marketing" around ASA (shiny new product for NEW players) turns out to be ........

I think that Wildcard - despite their VERY poor business choices in the past deserve to go on. Whether that is in an ARK2 (which in my opinion the direction and target market was stipulated by shareholding - not by developers choice), or an Ark 1 remastered (also shareholding stipulation) , or even an Prehistoric Ark. Ark is and remains revolutionary as a game concept. It takes concepts that was started with MoJang and Minecraft and made it utterly brilliant! So yeah - Snail needs to go back to the woodwork they slimed out from - but the game and its concepts needs to go on.

Agreed!

Clearly YES - for Ark & for Wildcard who have been naive - but ITO game production (content A++++, functionality A-, support F) - better than a LOT of other offerings

Over the last long while most of the posts here have been (understandably) about Wildcards statement of direction. To the point that the looooooong running "What did you do In Ark Today" thread has gone dead (actually I can't see that thread anymore - dunno where it went), with a very prominent poster there (from faulty? memory AllTheAllos) simply kicking in after MANY years of "diary" postings on his (hers?) doings. I ain't sat and counted stuff - but it feels (subjective - don't shoot me) that most of the posts are negative. What is most striking is that I see guys popping up with like 3 posts over time - but they are registered (to the forum) in 2016! Now they shout! And that is very relevant - it is part of the title to this thread. Personally, "I'm alright Jack", because I have a way forward to continue playing this game no matter what Wildcard does with it (yes @GP - even on windows 7 ) . However I may be "niche" here with some skills that ain't easily downloadable / acquired. But to speak the title of the post, do you lot feel that the "muttering" and "OK I'm excited" that come out here is representative of the Ark community? (NO - I don't work for / contribute to / or have interest in either Wildcard or Snail ....). And more to the point do you lot feel that this ratio of {OK / Not OK} will translate to $ for wildcard (actually snail) ?

@SunsetErosionDunno whether to laugh or like - So this is both ......... Yeah other games do not cut it. I've tried at lot if stuff from ranging from Grounded to Tarkov. And keep coming back to Ark. So yeah - the experience around how stuff works is not lost - But I think that {some / many} will be very heartsore to lose those several k of hours spent breeding this or building that .......... P.S. - I don't care if it is english - I like your "personallyfication"

Yeah - I know - just winding you up a little is all - beer was taken ... (I also had a wink!)

@St1ckyBandit & @SunsetErosion Dudes its a NEW game at NEW game prices. Pony up and play from the "beginning". There ain't no history here. (don't shoot me guys )

Agree! I (from plain "I'm fed up and wanna get rid of steam and wildcard altogether") spent effort to get an older version of Ark running on my lan. It only goes as far as Extinction. And the difference in interface / view / game play is not noticeable to the current version. But the kit that is not available is huge. Incubator is probably 1st on the "lack" list. For my playstyle the Sino out of Lost Island is probably 2nd. And sure - Maewing really is a breeding game changer! But I think they plan on Scorched at "release" - so a Wyvern should be available .............. But plans oft go awry ............ Especially w software development.

Dats not what was said - "tap out" & "sorry" are 2 well different things LOL

My view - wrong. Just a very upset person that is gonna be forced to change their habits by things beyond their control. And wants to shout about it in the hope that someone (that can do something about it) listens. Kinda like me shouting about the dodgy country I live in where electrics is supplied for a varied time in the day (ranging from 90% to 50% being "on" in a day). This is something I can address - by spending a fortune on alternative power like solar. But the root of the issue is out of my control. And it forces me to change my "habits". So should the likelyhood of my shout having zero impact stop me from shouting. For me - the answer is no. So more more power to @ladymarina. Maybe at the very least the noise coming from there will nudge wild card to make some kind of plan for console dudes come shutdown that does not involve spending $ on a rented server somewhere .........

The reason (probably - my guess anyway) around why there is a staggered implementation is to allow them time to "transform" all the bits of a map - one at a time. So one is the whole "Map" itself - the the other is the reworked creatures for that map. So without doing the Genesis "conversion" the creatures won't be ready yet .....

Agreed - I actually gave up Official years ago - and run my own "cluster". But the issue is way more difficult for console guys ... Their hands (as we speak anyway) are kinda tied into a "private server" that they will have to rent! (I personally dunno how to run a PS4 enabled "server" - I guess an X-Box enabled "server" entails running a -crossplay sever in the Windows version of Ark?) And that may be a bridge too far for a lot of guys.

I dunno if you taking the ^&$%$ or being serious - I suspect not being serious Nevertheless ... If you spent $200 on 7 and 1/2 years worth of entertainment - I would call that brilliant return on investment! Anyway - you don't have to stop playing. But you do have to stop playing on (free to use) official servers ...

Yeah - but Skyrim ain't an online game. With peeps that have spent several years building stuff together in that game. In servers that they don't control, which are now being closed down............ And I still run the original version of Skyrim Never saw a need to "upgrade"

Clearly something is "sort of" working if you can connect - but like 5 minutes into the game you are dropped. I'm with GrumpyBear - it seem likely that your internet connection is not up to scratch. So for example - it might be a shared connection, and someone else is nailing it hard while you in game - to the point that your connection times out. The fact that you can connect seems that your "setup" is OK? That would be my assumption anyway. From your comments it seems you are using Steam? Can you play other online games OK (even if you are actually on Epic - the same question applies). Or is this a particular to Ark issue?

Truthfully - nobody knows, and its a game of wait and see ........ My money is on yes, it seems very likely that the core game along with all its warts will carry over. Worse - there will likely be a whole lot of new bugs because the game will be using a new engine and that engine has not been "thrashed" with whatever version of Ark code goes out there. (There is no beta test release mentioned at this moment). But sure - its a guess - and nobody (probably including Wildcard ) can know right now.

That looks like a "Favourite" list so I guess at one moment stuff was working. Further your network seems to be mostly OK because you see a list of servers with ping stats and etc. Have you maybe recently installed some new software that battle eye in its infinite wisdom deems to be "cheat stuff"? (Although I thing you generally get a message if that happens?) Have your firewall rules maybe been altered and ShooterGame (or actually ShooterGameBE) is no longer "allowed" network outbound access?

You are clearly new to the forum - and maybe new to Ark? Perhaps go look at some of the other threads in this forum about Ark having reached End Of Life before you go make huge plans around how you are going to proceed .... It may influence where (Single player / online {official, unofficial} ) you invest your time. For one example -

We are (mostly) all moaning. Most particularly me. No offence intended - but a lot of what I most recently post has been moaning. Call it what you like best - but it is voicing dissatisfaction to a stipulated course of events that none of us have any control or even influence over. And I particularly feel for console peeps, because you have ZERO option that does not rely on the goodness of Wilcards heart. As a PC guy - I still may have some (windy and crooked) ways to proceed ... But console is likely (sure again maybe not 100% certainty but quite likely) utterly screwed.

This is true! The catch is as @Pipinghot and I keep nattering on about - There is no guarantee that it will remain possible to run private servers accessible to peeps that want to join. It is a possible outcome (and sure: nobody can know when or even if this will happen - but it is POSSIBLE) that this facility is "shut down". So yeah - like the last bit of your post "- Welcome to Single Player" EDIT -------- Mmmm If you are a PC kinda person " Welcome to Single Player" .. If you are a console kinda person - " Sorry, but your vested time in Ark is gone!"

Yep - as I sez - lots of choices - but no GOOD choice. Especially for all the console peeps out there. Unfortunately moaning on the forums will likely have very little impact on Wildcards way forward. Sorry!

Ha Ha - speak of "bloatware" in Win10 ..... And the devil appears! Several ways forward here - One being "do nothing" (which in my case is feasible since I am reliant on SteamCMD to do server stuff - not the full bloated SteamClient). Two switch to Linux. Three spend the $ to do an upgrade of OS on a new machine that can run all that bloatware, or even abandon Steam. Once again - pretty much like the guys that are crying about the loss of Official ASE, this is Hobsons choice. i.e. No "palatable" choice at all!

Mmmm none of those options allow one to continue with a "hobby" that for some people has persisted over many years. There is no way to persist the virtual world "as it stands" along with its content and community. And this is (likely) what @ladymarina is bemoaning. The loss of something which potentially provided significant gratification for many years. If my "hobby" was making furniture, but the lathe I use build bits with goes "out of support", I am stuck. Either I need to buy a new lathe (but bear in mind in THIS case the new lathe will not cut components that will join into any of the old stuff I have already built). Or I need to find someone that can support my old lathe with kit to keep it going. Or I need to pack in my hobby. None of those options are palatable or cost less. There is a 4th option, which is to run your own server. It is not necessary to "hire" a server slot off of a company. Yes there is a fairly steep learning curve involved with that - but it is possible, and will cost a whole lot less than forking out monthly $ to a hosting company.

Funny enough, but it was the alterations that were done to Ark to enable EPIC/EGS clients to connect that BROKE this functionality across the board!. Prior to those changes this was possible - direct IP:port connect. But no more (since Epic "enablement")