I think Ark is dead

Ok so I’m an OG player from way back when Ark Survival Evolved was in its prime, I went on a long hiatus between back in the late 2010’s and a few weeks back when I got nostalgic and needed a way to burn time and unwind occasionally once all the adult responsibilities are taken care of and downloaded Ark Survival Ascended and the Ragnarok DLC.

Now… I wanted to play on official and be a moderately levelled character that can go from nothing to just enough to have fun getting around the map and doing little bits of PvP. Got the character to level 50 which is ok for that kind of thing and I can go from buck neked beach bob to metal tools and weapons and a 2x1 wood shack with a bed, smithy, forge, large storage box in under 30 mins. The missing thing though is… THERE ISN’T ANYBODY TO PVP OR MESS WITH ANYMORE. So my question is this, is anyone else dealing with the stark reality that Ark may have vanished into the ether and is now just a fond gaming memory of trolling people and getting excited about finding stacks of cool stuff during a small scale raid?