You join the game with romanticized expectations of this great adventure in a world full of extinct, mildly fantastic and overall amazing creatures. And this may persist, as long as you play without other players or on a PVE server. To me playing in a player-wise peaceful environment would rob the game off a lot of spectacle and in the long run ruin the experience, because the focus shifts toward the game's PVE mechanics. With so many bugs, on laggy servers in particular, ARK does not have the same longevity as it has with PVP involved.

PVP in ARK makes it a sandbox experience akin to games like EVE Online, even though mechanically it lacks a lot that these kinds of spreadsheet simulators have. Because players are a constant, everlasting and game-changing threat, everything soon evolves around establishing friendly relationships, optimizing your game (settings-wise), your base and your general playstyle to fit the lurking horror, that is a complete wipe of everything (or depending on how well you hid things or what allies you shared your accomplishments with) you built, tamed and did for the past hours, days, weeks or even months. In that sense, the game is quickly losing a lot of its dino romance and turns into a continuous grind of rebuilding and learning from your mistakes to eventually adapt to this hostile environment and meta-game.

Both the PVE and the PVP experience have their flaws, because the game is far from perfect and more than once will you shake your head, how the developer Studio Wildcard was able to even release the game with such a seemingly easily fixable, but annoying bug. And naturally, they're both not for everyone.

Do I recommend this game though? Yes, I do, to both PVE and PVP players. While I think PVE outlasts itself rather fast, it will still get you well over a hundred great hours of gameplay in, and for some it may easily cross the 1000 hours mark. Either way, it's worth the price. PVP is recommendable to anybody, who is accepting of the fact, that none of their efforts will last forever, and that every base will be taken down eventually. Every. Base. Even the largest megatribes with hundreds of people working on them lose their bases to raids, that last days and days on end. In the beginning you will lose everything over and over again until you learn how to adapt and how to at least save your most precious assets: For example animals. Animals you may have been breeding for months and even years to optimize their statistics and make them compete with bloodlines all over the world. Or just PVP trophies from killing newbies or attacking large tribes and taking something away from them. Or rare materials. Or structures helping you rebuild an equally suitable base in no time. Or...

Either way, PVP easily offers you thousands of hours of grief and joy in an alternating fashion. I personally love the game and was able to overlook most of the shortcomings very quickly in the face of the overall, greater picture unfolding behind them. That does not mean I stopped shaking my head - trust me, I still do - but I am also grateful for one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences I ever had. I racked up nearly 1100 hours in less than three months, at times playing 12h+ daily. But because the game is so consuming, especially since it's a real time race against all other players on your server cluster, I eventually decided to live outside of the game's world and tend to the love of my life, which I have been unjustly neglecting for way too long.

To everybody else: Have a great time hunting, taming and breeding dinos, delving into small- or large-scale politics, battling other players with or without dinos, blowing up people's essence of their time and throwing insults in bad English at each other (really one of my favorite parts of the human interaction, always had something to laugh). Just make sure you are prepared for some really annoying bugs (which you will eventually learn to work around for the most part) and losing everything you worked for over and over again, each time learning more and more about the game as a result.

You join the game with romanticized expectations of this great adventure in a world full of extinct, mildly fantastic and overall amazing creatures. And this may persist, as long as you play without other players or on a PVE server. To me playing in a player-wise peaceful environment would rob the game off a lot of spectacle and in the long run ruin the experience, because the focus shifts toward the game's PVE mechanics. With so many bugs, on laggy servers in particular, ARK does not have the same longevity as it has with PVP involved. PVP in ARK makes it a sandbox experience akin to games like EVE Online, even though mechanically it lacks a lot that these kinds of spreadsheet simulators have. Because players are a constant, everlasting and game-changing threat, everything soon evolves around establishing friendly relationships, optimizing your game (settings-wise), your base and your general playstyle to fit the lurking horror, that is a complete wipe of everything (or depending on how well you hid things or what allies you shared your accomplishments with) you built, tamed and did for the past hours, days, weeks or even months. In that sense, the game is quickly losing a lot of its dino romance and turns into a continuous grind of rebuilding and learning from your mistakes to eventually adapt to this hostile environment and meta-game. Both the PVE and the PVP experience have their flaws, because the game is far from perfect and more than once will you shake your head, how the developer Studio Wildcard was able to even release the game with such a seemingly easily fixable, but annoying bug. And naturally, they're both not for everyone. Do I recommend this game though? Yes, I do, to both PVE and PVP players. While I think PVE outlasts itself rather fast, it will still get you well over a hundred great hours of gameplay in, and for some it may easily cross the 1000 hours mark. Either way, it's worth the price. PVP is recommendable to anybody, who is accepting of the fact, that none of their efforts will last forever, and that every base will be taken down eventually. Every. Base. Even the largest megatribes with hundreds of people working on them lose their bases to raids, that last days and days on end. In the beginning you will lose everything over and over again until you learn how to adapt and how to at least save your most precious assets: For example animals. Animals you may have been breeding for months and even years to optimize their statistics and make them compete with bloodlines all over the world. Or just PVP trophies from killing newbies or attacking large tribes and taking something away from them. Or rare materials. Or structures helping you rebuild an equally suitable base in no time. Or... Either way, PVP easily offers you thousands of hours of grief and joy in an alternating fashion. I personally love the game and was able to overlook most of the shortcomings very quickly in the face of the overall, greater picture unfolding behind them. That does not mean I stopped shaking my head - trust me, I still do - but I am also grateful for one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences I ever had. I racked up nearly 1100 hours in less than three months, at times playing 12h+ daily. But because the game is so consuming, especially since it's a real time race against all other players on your server cluster, I eventually decided to live outside of the game's world and tend to the love of my life, which I have been unjustly neglecting for way too long. To everybody else: Have a great time hunting, taming and breeding dinos, delving into small- or large-scale politics, battling other players with or without dinos, blowing up people's essence of their time and throwing insults in bad English at each other (really one of my favorite parts of the human interaction, always had something to laugh). Just make sure you are prepared for some really annoying bugs (which you will eventually learn to work around for the most part) and losing everything you worked for over and over again, each time learning more and more about the game as a result.