Here’s how it works. "Ark: Survival of the Fittest was for us an experiment," says Studio Wildcard's co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz. "It started as a mod and it was pretty cool and pretty fun.

In film, character arcs are tightly directed, often focusing on the psychological toll of survival. Think Max Rockatansky from Mad Max — a lone drifter hardened by loss, haunted by memories ...