This man clocked almost a full year of playtime in Ark: Survival Evolved - here's why

 Since Ark: Survival Evolved first launched on Steam Early Access on June 2, 2015, a player named Vör has clocked over 8,600 hours of playtime. To put that in its proper context, there are 8,760 hours in a year. We reached out to Vör to ask how he could possibly have played this game for nearly half its existence.

“When Ark came out I was at a particularly low point with my health,” Vör tells us. He had been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease almost a year earlier: an illness that makes your immune system attack your intestines, causing various knock-on symptoms.  

“Crohn’s Disease affects many people, and in different ways. Each has their own journey,” Vör explains. He suffered many of the more common effects: anxiety, joint pain, back pain, overproduction of stomach acids, and above all, severe lack of energy - “What would be a simple task for someone without Crohn’s would be hugely draining for me,” he says.

It also gave him a form of psoriasis between his legs. “My skin began literally falling off, and I got huge crevices and razor sharp sores, which meant that I simply could not walk for over six months.”