Original Post — Direct link

In the latest community crunches WC announced the wipe of the beginner servers. I want to tell you what this decision means FOR ALL ARK PLAYERS.

First I want to tell you what is a beginner server. They're special server with a level cap and low difficulty settings, so you are very limited in the gear you can craft, gear quality, and dino level. These servers are also download protected. The consequence of these settings is these servers are the most balanced ARK server ever made, and it's not possible to curbstomp newbies with endgame stuff. The beginner servers have been running for YEARS without any problem, they are the best server performance wise because there isn't any structure spam or other bullsh*t that lag the server.

And now they decided out of nowhere (or more likely it was a biased suggestion made by some mega tribe, I'll explain why later) to wipe the servers, regardless of how much hours and effort the players of these servers put into their tribe. You spent 1K or 2K hours? Doesn't matter we'll wipe the server, WC says.

Even if you're not directly affected by the wipe, it is very important that you understand what this decision means FOR ALL ARK PLAYERS on official, it simply means that WC can wipe any server they want for any reason, no matter how much effort you put into it. They probably covered themselves in some shady term of use you didn't read and were forced to agree to, so you can't even sue them if that happens. If you want to keep burning your life away over virtual stuff that can get wiped on a whim, feel free to do so, but at the very least acknowledge that it can happen and that you've been warned.

Those who defend this decision saying these servers were always meant to get wiped, are just lying or delusional, for the simple reason that if it was true, they wouldn't have waited FOR YEARS before implementing regular wipes. And they have zero source to backup their claim anyway, so you have zero reason to believe it.

Just one last word about the real reasons behind this decision, because I don't think WC decided this out of the blue, they're doing it because someone suggested this change. And my suspicion is pointing at some mega tribe, and I'll explain why. The beginner servers are more and more being used by mega tribes to get a supply of low level dinos for their endgame breeding needs. Why beginner server? Because the dino levels are capped, so it's easier to get the low stats they need, they can tame in a safe environment compared to regular servers. Why do they need low stats? Because dino level are capped, and low useless stat (oxygen etc) = more useful stats.

But apparently that was not good enough for mega tribes, and they didn't want any disturbance from the locals. And that 's how WC got fooled into wiping the most balanced ARK servers over some petty political scheme.

This isn't just a theory, a tribe named W** W** (masking the full name because I'm not sure if it's allowed to post their name) on server #2 confirmed they suggested this to WC.

External link →
over 4 years ago - /u/wildcardced - Direct link

This wasn't a suggestion by a mega-tribe. We're objectively looking at all servers and when we looked at the beginner servers we saw they weren't being used as intended and wanted to make changes. I can understand preferring these servers for performance reasons but there are other options for playing if that's your main/only concern. Admittedly, server performance is an area that needs improvement.

We'll be looking at other servers and server types and making changes if needed.