Ark: Survival Evolved Multiplayer

Hey, I've been thinking about picking up ARK: Survival Evolved, but I can't tell what the multiplayer is like. Do you play cooperatively with a few friends, or is it a big competitive affair with strangers? Basically, I don't play online with strangers anymore, and I avoid competitive multiplayer most of the time. If it's about working together with my friends to tame and harness dinosaurs, that sounds great. I might even consider it if it's about trying to get my own dinos to fight with my 4-5 friends and their dinos. but I'm not at all interested in spawning into a game to be instantly killed by a T-Rex and then berated by a teenager.