izigame.me

I've loved this game, put in WAY more hours making maps and modded content for it than I have playing it which is a terrifying statistic to think about, and have made some of the closest friendships from playing with people in the community- but, I'm just really disheartened. This is gonna be a long post, I've nolifed the shit out of this game for the better part of half a decade so there's a bit.
Having people come into my streams & DMs to ask me if I'm going to be porting my map and mods over to ARK1.5 with ASA and then to ARK2 before all of this immense drama and fleecing happened, before we knew anything about prices and release dates- it was a firm yes! I'd love to bring my creations over to UE5, porting content over was so easy, even myself and people in the modding community were putting our maps and creations into stock UE5 just to see what the possibilities were and get off on the new physics, lumen and nanite.
Now I really don't want to bring that content over. Not only because of the bad business practice, with many other games who have ported over to UE5 or have done engine upgrades been offered for free- but because I've seen this one too many times with this company and the business is just horrifically mismanaged and it's heartbreaking for some of us, it's heartbreaking for me.
When someone in a position of power and authority over an IP and business has stated that ARK1.5 would be free, as a gesture of good faith, you take that as a promise, and we were all stoked about that. That was the right thing to do. ARK is not a small indie, unknown survival game in a (mostly) unfinished state anymore like it was- it is a powerhouse in the industry, top survival game charts across the internet for -years- will have ARK in the top 5- it is not a game that has done poorly for revenue, publicity or players. It is one of the giants. The best IP that Snail/WC have to date and continues to be. There is no reason to renege on a promise that was publicly made. And before some moron says "JuSt DoNt BuY It ThEn" it's deeper than that, I would have had, at my hours invested, zero issues purchasing ARK1.5 for like $20-$30 bucks with all DLC's included- but to make an offer, after it was promised as free, then to take it back and serve up an even bigger steaming pile of shit that is more expensive on a plate, and for Wildcard to hand you the spoon and be like yum yum dig in! Is so strange.
Honestly, I'm not surprised. I was a public moderator in the ATLAS discord with Jat and other off branched former/current- Wildcard/Grapeshot employees at the release of that absolute dumpsterfire and was there with the rest trying to put out fires that could be witnessed from fu**g Jupiter- because I had faith and volunteered my time to assist with a company I believed in, created for and wanted to succeed so badly for the community.
Dark and Light was next. Another abandoned IP. Then Last Oasis- yep- Abandoned. All of the offbranches of ARK have failed so horribly, and haven't managed to capture that excitement that ARK did for the industry but they will absolutely keep trying to push out what they think consumers will like, all without listening to any feedback- and feedback isn't always good, do not get it twisted some suggestions I've seen truly are horrendous- but there are gems in amongst the boulders and landslides. Having the initiative to sift and find them, and then really look at them seems to be the problem. It concerns me deeply when Wildcard state themselves on their newsletters that ARK2 will be such a different experience from ARK1 that it now makes sense why they tried to package it in a non-refundable-at-time-of-play bundle with ARK1.5.
Speaking from experience here- the best thing Wildcard/Snail have done for ARK, and I will never discredit them for it, is their Sponsored Mods program and hiring modders from the community for ARK and ATLAS. That alone has kept ARK where it is, as popular as it is, as fresh as it is and as revolutionary as it is. There is never a drought of "content" with ARK, as the modding community carries it on their backs each and every day. Official servers have their place, and I disagree with how they're being handled, but have no solution for that as I never was an official player for more than an hour at a time to remind me why I prefer modded servers. This is no discredit to the ARK art department, by the way, having looked through the maps in the Devkit- Aberration is still to this day is a visual and technical marvel, and many other maps made since then.
There is a massive air of uncertainty for modders with ARK1.5 and 2. Logistically, the average number of mods on big unofficial servers is about 18- if each modder listing them on Overwolf decides to list their single mod for say $3 bucks, something very reasonable- times that by 18 and are players really going to be expected to play on a single server they MIGHT not even like, for $54 bucks? Maybe they discovered that server was good but had no players during their playtime- and then they find one in their region but, oh- there's 5 more mods on this server, there's another $15 to play on this one. Is a $69(nice) investment really worth it? I don't think so. Even at what has been discussed quietly behind closed doors with other modders at a $1 a mod price, so 50c to the modder, 50c to Overwolf/Wildcard- that's still, on average, $18 bucks to play on a server- this price is not including ARK1.5, or the DLCs for it- so what was the discussed "Content creators/Modders can make a living!" price...? Because when you take a step back from the buzzwords, there's a colossal black hole of a problem in the logistics.
I digress, without any more information to go on regarding priced mods, we can only speculate. Back to what we know.
Selling all DLCs and base game for ARK 1 that will functionally become a single player story mode and mod carried game without any warnings, notices or heads up to new prospective players is scummy as hell. There will absolutely be more delays before ARK 1.5, which will extend the lifecycle of the current game and DLCs, sure, but it's shady. The idea that ARK1 will become, in a sense, a showcase of my above statement about modders carrying the entire ARK community on their backs, and a solo story is fine- but adjust your listings so that people will know they will never experience ARK1 as "Wilcard intended" with the removal of official servers, that they will be playing with archived mods no longer receiving updates as many modders move over to 1.5, that they will have a limited playerbase to play with as most have gone to 1.5, that there is limited updates going to be provided due to 1.5- that there is no more official DLC... due to 1.5.
This isn't even taking into their account their roadmap of the supposed finished content releases for ARK1.5 and ARK2 finishing up and starting at almost the exact same time. So we will have this problem ALL over again when the release of ARK2 is imminent, after it's delays. Players who bought ARK1.5 and all the DLC's will play on that for a month or two before ARK2 is released, then ARK1 is even more abandoned, and ARK1.5 will dwindle.
I know many people will say- damn, this chick gives way too much of a shit about this game, you right lol. I don't like seeing a community be lied to, deceived, fleeced and taken advantage of. ARK is one of those "coping" games. If you spend any time with the community, it's a comfort. People come home from work or school and they will turn their brain off and just play. For hours. Not giving any thoughts to how shit their workday was, how badly they were bullied at school, how much anxiety they have or problems they are facing- ARK lets them turn off and have fun, it's an escape game. There's not many other games out there that keep people playing like ARK does, for so many reasons. But, the community is at the core of it.
I wish Wildcard would pay attention to it.