Lost Ark is a grindy MMO that’s perfect to while away the hours

theverge.com:

Debuting only a week ago, Lost Ark has shot to the top of the Steam charts, amassing over 1 million concurrent players making it the most played game on Steam (based on number of concurrents) of all time. Developed by Smilegate RPG, Lost Ark is a Korean MMO that debuted there in 2018 before being localized in English and brought to the west via a partnership with Amazon Games. Though it’s only been around in the US and Europe for a short time, it has over 200,000 viewers on Twitch right now and has beaten games like Dota 2, CS:GO, and PUBG in all-time number of concurrent players on Steam.

So what the hell is a Lost Ark anyway? I spent a week investigating this new gaming hotness, eager to see if it has what it takes to become my newest obsession or something I’m content to let others obsess over. Lost Ark is a free-to-play MMO that plays like Diablo. It’s an isometric, action RPG that has all the cultural hallmarks of a free-to-play MMO including wildly underdressed female models and a game chat filled with spam from gold farmers. Lost Ark is mindless fun that won’t punish you for not taking it too seriously.

I’m mostly satisfied with the character creator. A rainbow color wheel ensures you can be more than just a couple of shades of Black, and there are tons of sliders to fiddle with to make your character look exactly as you want. Lost Ark also correctly understands that there are more kinds of ethnic hairstyles than dreadlocks and afros; however, it doesn’t have more than a couple styles for kinky-haired people like me. When you start the game, you pick your class before you get to the character customization, and I find it very strange that some classes in Lost Ark are gender locked. If I want to play as a warrior,