It hasn’t escaped my attention that survival games have become an insanely popular video game market over the past few years. Titles like ARK: Survival Evolved and Conan Exiles are recycling and refining a formula that seems to revolve around building stuff, building more stuff with the stuff you built before, roaming around, dying to critters, dying to other players, and erecting player towns that are as ugly as they are functional.
As someone who has only lightly dabbled in the genre, I have to put forth this question: What’s the appeal here? Is it just the endless process of crafting? The pride of ownership? Living out fantasies as Bear Grylls? Running your own server fiefdom?
I’m not saying that these games are bad, but they do appear to be pretty much the same thing done over and over and over again. I’d love it if someone explained to me the appeal from the inside!
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
