If you go to good zoos, the ones that provide proper habitats and social opportunities then you will see a lot of positive social interactions (unless the animal is a rescue in which case you see very odd behaviors!). I've spent a lot of time at zoos, both for my own pleasure and for school. The social interactions are not at all what Frontier promised. Nothing close. And they even assured us during the beta that those interactions were coming. So I will keep discussing that issue and hope they are able to fix it. I don't think it's cool to charge so much for a game and leave out a core component. I will happily shove plenty of money at Frontier when DLCs come out IF both positive and negative social interactions are fixed.
I'm pretty sure most of the zoos I've been to could be considered "good" to "great." Hah. My point is that it's not a guarantee, and unless you go early in the morning on a day where it's not
too hot or humid? You might not see much activity from a lot of animals.
That being said, social interactions not happening as much as I would like them to doesn't detract from the game as much as the fighting does. The fighting forces me to hit pause and either create a new habitat or ship the li'l critters off to the trade center lest there be a fight. I don't think it needs to be taken out completely, but a buffer room of a few months, having it not occur constantly, etc. would be a big improvement. I get that they need a way to signal that exhibits are overcrowded or that there's a lack of gender balance in an exhibit, but it's a bit much... And frankly, it shouldn't "count" if there are siblings in an exhibit (unless the issue is space).
Just up the odds of a positive happening and decrease the odds of negatives happening in certain situations (when young mature into adults).
The more I think about it, the more I think Frontier overplayed their hand with the "social interactions" component. They never really explained what it was, and instead kept their statements vague. Looking at some of what people are looking for/wanting out of that component of the game, I honestly never even thought that stuff would make it into a game like this! It would be really nice to see little things happen more frequently (e.g., siblings staying closer to the adults, parents nuzzling the young) but I think people are expecting way too much out of a game that has to cater to three different audiences: Management sim buffs, creatives who want to just do what their imagination tells them, and people who want to watch/interact with the animals.
I'm not saying people are wrong for wanting this, I'm just saying that I think the developers had to find some sort of balance between everything.
