I logged into ARK: Survival Evolved today and took the baby Rex for a walk. I spotted an alpha Carno, level 72, and I thought it would be a great time to test out my new Quetzal. I ran back to my base, grabbed the Quetz, and flew back to completely decimate that Carno. I expected it to take awhile, but I was cool with that. I was prepared for that.
What happened was I started the fight, the Quetz got stuck in the Carno again, because the bug that causes this has been in the game for months, and I lost all desire to do anything in ARK. You see, the developers decided to release a paid expansion called Scorched Earth, for a game that is still labeled as early access, instead of fixing/finishing the main game. Due to this decision, I have zero patience for long-time bugs remaining in the game when they made the conscious decision not to fix them. I’m fed up with game developers having “I’m distracted so I’m going to do something else instead of fixing and finishing the game I started-itis.” You know what they remind me of? You’ve heard or know someone who starts a new project before finishing the old one, like stuff around the house? I have many male friends who have wives that dreads every time their significant other come up a “great” new idea, and starts another project before finishing the 100 they already started.
Game developers are making a lot of money not finishing their products. When a company accepts money for a product and doesn’t follow through…there are laws against that. Game developers are not above the law. Game developers need to be yanked from the ability to hide behind “alpha or early access” titles because they’ve abused it. It’s unfortunate that good game developers have to pay the price for bad ones but that’s what happens everywhere else – that’s why these laws exist. People and companies exploited the loyalty of their consumers.
Recently, I posted a screenshot where I recorded for almost 30 minutes. I was responding to the above comment. After I recorded it, I lost the desire to even discuss it anymore because it’s not my job to point out the obvious. It’s a waste of time. I don’t make the laws, I don’t enforce the laws but there are laws and game developers are not above them. Period. It is what it is.
ARK is close to release and I probably will not upload many more videos about it until it is done because I don’t what to encourage people to purchase the game in this state. While I still play it casually and quasi-privately (I might mention something on Twitter), there are just way too many good games I want to put on the channel to struggle with ARK, trying to get non-buggy footage. For all I know, the devs are working on another paid expansion. I just don’t trust them and it will take consistent effort to win that trust back, not only for me but for many others who are tired of being misled. There are some features I am looking forward too and I might talk about those, however, don’t expect a bunch of ARK videos until I see the game developers clean up their act. Even though I have almost 300 GB of video footage. No excuses.
An update on the dinos I have now: I have five T-Rexes, all bred by me. I finally got a girl! I have twin tamed wolves, and two improved bred Quetzals. I also bred another Argentavis, a Pelagornis, an Ankylosaurus, tamed a Sabertooth, do you guys know about the tamed Raptor? I’ve been busy the past weeks doing what I consider fun in the game; walking around with my dinos exploring, until I bump into the collision bug where my dinos get stuck in things and I log off.
Oddly enough, ARK has made me REALLY appreciate the beauty of Minecraft. Smooth building, the ability to expand the game in many directions, a game developer than felt it was a priority to finish the game he [Notch] accepted money for – kudos to that game for doing it right.
ARK is supposed to be released this year. They have a lot to finish in order for it to be on par with what is described, and promised, on the early access page. The game has a paid expansion and expanded to Xbox. They tried to expand to PlayStation, but Sony said the game cannot be added until it is finished. I have so much respect for Sony’s decision. Maybe that will be enough incentive for the game devs to get their act together and finish the game.
