The dev outright admitted to everything you said. Heck one of the reasons they added guns was "Americans like this kind of shit." Its entirely a passion project of some random schmuck just throwing all the things he likes in a game and then a few more that other people do just to make it sell more.
The industry is better just for having a game that shits all over Ark this hard and presents as an alternative to that shitpile of disappointment. I can appreciate it on that alone despite having no desire to ever play it.
Honestly, the story behind the game's creation and the ragtag group of wierdos he recruited is way better than the game ever could be, even if it is good.
Like how the creature designer is just some woman using drawings from her notebook over her entire life, but got rejected from every job (including Palworld) until they gave her a shot.
Or that the employee behind the "Body Type A/B" was just some literal teen who they worked around his school schedule and just put that in because "foreigners like making Silly and Ugly things."
I don't know how much of it is actually true, but it certainly explains why the game might be resonating with people. It has actual soul in it, even while being derivative.
The original creator has openly called it just things he liked in other games that he tossed together.
The Pokemon comparisons are just people jumping on the bandwagon because it has cute critters you can catch, but it absolutely is derivative of Ark in most ways. But I don't think that is inherently a bad thing either, because it clearly improved on the formula enough to have mass appeal in the base EA game instead of needing a dozen mods to even be close to fun like Ark is.
Its a guy who made a shit ton of money in crypto who wanted to make his own perfect game by copying all his favorites in a blender. It has created its own popular niche because of how juxtaposed it ended up being from that, but it was created with that imitation mindset.
The dev outright admitted to everything you said. Heck one of the reasons they added guns was "Americans like this kind of shit." Its entirely a passion project of some random schmuck just throwing all the things he likes in a game and then a few more that other people do just to make it sell more.
The industry is better just for having a game that shits all over Ark this hard and presents as an alternative to that shitpile of disappointment. I can appreciate it on that alone despite having no desire to ever play it.
Honestly, the story behind the game's creation and the ragtag group of wierdos he recruited is way better than the game ever could be, even if it is good.
Like how the creature designer is just some woman using drawings from her notebook over her entire life, but got rejected from every job (including Palworld) until they gave her a shot.
Or that the employee behind the "Body Type A/B" was just some literal teen who they worked around his school schedule and just put that in because "foreigners like making Silly and Ugly things."
I don't know how much of it is actually true, but it certainly explains why the game might be resonating with people. It has actual soul in it, even while being derivative.
The original creator has openly called it just things he liked in other games that he tossed together.
The Pokemon comparisons are just people jumping on the bandwagon because it has cute critters you can catch, but it absolutely is derivative of Ark in most ways. But I don't think that is inherently a bad thing either, because it clearly improved on the formula enough to have mass appeal in the base EA game instead of needing a dozen mods to even be close to fun like Ark is.
Its a guy who made a shit ton of money in crypto who wanted to make his own perfect game by copying all his favorites in a blender. It has created its own popular niche because of how juxtaposed it ended up being from that, but it was created with that imitation mindset.