Lost Ark is in a weird position right now: It’s in the middle of merges with more on the way, a plague of unrelenting bots, friction over the content update parity between East and West, and a much-reduced population since its breakout launch two years ago (though it’s perked up a little since its low mark last summer).
Well, now it looks as if Smilegate and Amazon are trying to gauge just what the MMORPG playerbase here in the west is thinking: They’ve posted a survey asking players about their play – and lack thereof.
The survey branches based on how you answer the question about recent play; for example, if you admit you’ve not played recently, it asks why you haven’t played lately and whether technical issues played any role in your departure. If you say you’ve been playing, it’ll ask what sort of server it’s on, and you get a lot more questions about the overall experience, progression, toxicity, direction of the game, communication, and specific game elements like raids and life skilling, as well as the anniversary content. Ah, a dialogue tree in a gaming survey. How ironic.
Perhaps the most pressing questions dig into the impact of bots on the game in the last month – that one seems to pop up for everyone – and the impact of RMT.
If you play and have felt disgruntled about not having a voice, make sure you fill it out and work your way all to the box where you can type in the “single biggest thing that the Lost Ark team could address” to “improve your experience with the game.” Feedback that suits ask for is always going to be taken more seriously than complaints on social media.
