The players of ARK: Survival Ascended were in an uproar due to the server hosting. Now they have gotten their way.
What was the dispute about? The ARK community was angry shortly after the release of ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) because there were strict restrictions on server hosting in the remake.
The server provider Nitrado has had exclusive rights for server hosting of the dino game since summer, but many players do not want to book with the German company. In the past, ARK players criticized Nitrado for its server stability, customer support, and pricing (via Reddit).
Due to Nitrado’s exclusive rights, players in ASA cannot rent their private servers from providers like Gportal, which is why especially small groups of friends and individual communities want to rely on dedicated servers. The servers would then be hosted from their own hardware for the players.
In ARK: Survival Ascended, however, this was not possible shortly after the release. Anyone hosting a dedicated server could not play with the respective account but could only host. This can also be read on Nitrado’s website. It states:
If you buy ARK: Survival Ascended at launch on Steam, you can create a private PC server (“Steam server”) for free, through which you can invite friends or other community players to share experiences on the revamped ARK maps. The “Steam server” has limitations that you may face, including a lack of creation tools for mod developers and the fact that you will be limited to creating a single Steam server for your Steam account, which requires authentication before starting.
via nitrado.net
Another problem with server hosting was that the ASA server recognized when someone logged in with another account to host multiple servers, subsequently preventing the start of a second server, writes Nekatus, a well-known German ARK modder on Twitter.
Server clusters were virtually impossible due to the restrictions
Why is this a problem? ARK is not just about taming and breeding dinos. Part of the fascination behind ARK also comes from the maps – especially the truly breathtaking mod maps.
Accordingly, part of the game principle is to travel back and forth between the maps. You start playing on one map, explore the landscape, build a base, tame some dinos, level up, and farm resources. At some point you then travel to another map and do the same there.
This is reinforced by the fact that the maps offer different creatures. Not every living being in ARK is found on every map. Additionally, the maps play differently and have their own bosses that players can face.
Many players therefore play on so-called server clusters that offer a variety of maps, allowing them to travel back and forth. However, due to the restrictions, operating a cluster has been virtually impossible.
Players, content creators, and modders raise their voices
How was the dispute conducted? The ARK community expressed their displeasure in many ways. Many players criticized the hosting restrictions on social media – including content creators and mod developers.
The YouTuber NeddyTheNoodle explained in a 9-minute video why this was bad and gave ASA a week to lift the restrictions. If this did not happen, he did not want to offer any more servers for his community or create content for the game (via YouTube).
The German modder Nekatus also commented on Twitter that he was not sure if he wanted to continue creating mods for ARK under these circumstances (via Twitter).
Furthermore, there was an online petition that quickly gathered over 6,400 signatures to lift the server hosting restrictions concerning dedicated servers (via change.org)
The community wins the dispute
How did the dispute end? The ARK community won the dispute. Whether the petition or the statements of the creators played a role is unknown, but on October 27, the restrictions for ARK: Survival Ascended were lifted (via survivetheark).
The modder Nekatus has elaborated on the change on Twitter and explained that it is now possible to host multiple dedicated servers on your own PC.
However, nothing changes regarding Nitrado’s exclusive rights. You still cannot rent private servers from companies like Gportal.
If this is a reason for you not to play ARK: Survival Ascended, here are some more survival games you can play instead:
The 25 best survival games of 2023 for PlayStation, PC, and Xbox
