Journal of Geek Studies jgeekstudies.org The giant snails of ARK: Survival Evolved Rodrigo B. Salvador¹, Rafael M. Rosa², Fernanda S. Silva³ & Daniel C. Cavallari² ¹ Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand. Email:
[email protected] ² Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Emails:rafaelmassonro -
[email protected];
[email protected] ³ Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Email:
[email protected] ARK: Survival Evolved1 is a survival game, ARK can be played from both first- and as one could expect by its title. It was devel- third-person perspectives, where the play- oped by Studio Wildcard, in collaboration ers explore an open-world environment. with three other studios, and was launched The game is action-oriented, with plenty in its finished form in August 2017. Back of harvesting and crafting activities. The then, the game was available on Xbox One, players’ goal is to survive and prosper in PlayStation 4, and the usual computer op- the game world, called ‘Ark’, while facing erating systems. ARK was later released for natural hazards and dangerous animals, Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch. the most dangerous of which are likely the other players. Most creatures found in the The game was received by lukewarm game were based on real animals, typically reviews at best: its Metascore is 70 for PCs, extinct ones, like non-avian dinosaurs (Fig. and 69 for both PlayStation 4 and XboxOne 1). As biologists, we are, of course, not in- 2 (Metacritic, 2020).