Planet zoo's stylized choice and what it means to you

[Danny_zoo]

Yeah, that's for sure. Still, as we kind of already nailed it down in this thread, it's a pretty safe bet that at least a large portion of the design inconsistency comes from the fact that large parts of PC were just ported to the game and all the animal related things were intended to be more realistic as a goal, in general. Additionally, with a larger team and Frontier also frequently working with external designers, it's a tough task to keep things very consistent.

As an example, there also have been other lion's appearances in the concept phase. Why have they finally chosen a more cartoony look? Who knows.
View attachment 187520

I have seen that picture before in Artstation, and you are correct it does seem quite different from what we end up receiving. What this clearly shows to me is that during development they could have easily went with a version of the lion that was more realistic. My reasoning behind their choice was during the initial phase of development they might have felt that certain animals looking a lot less menacing and instead playful would translate better with a younger audience. To use again the example of the lion, they are magnificent and powerful predators, anyone that has ever come in close contact with one, will agree that their intimidating features are a great part of what makes them a stunning sight. When you take this animal, one that should be a highlight within the game, and turn it into a more friendly version that could be confused with the lion in Madagascar (the cartoon movie) you are actually not only doing a great disservice to this mighty species, but losing as a game, what should have been an awe moment every single time a lion is adopted.

I stand by what i said earlier, until the contrary is proven, the majority of the players of this game are adults, and prefer realism (even some of the younger audience does appreciate it as well) That is not to say that there are not others who do play the game, that will prefer a cartoon version of it. My position here, is the same as with mythical and fantasy creatures and such, there is plenty of content and games like that out there already, but only one Planet Zoo.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Those lions are beautiful! Ours looks like it spends two hours a day grooming. I womder why they chose this one instead of one of those. I feel there is a decent possibility of this being added. Variations started the same way, a thread with a lot of support. Eventually the devs said they'd do it, and they did.

That is the whole purpose of doing this threads, there are some that will often say that anything we talk about here has no significance on Frontier changing strategies or implementing new features. While I do understand why some would have this train of though, as many things are planned in advance, and they do seem to be a company that has usually a plan in place well before anything is placed into development, to believe this would then negate feedback. As you have stated they have also shown that they will listen if a particular subjects gets enough traction, and changes can and will be implemented, even if they do not completely match the expectations of those who felt them warranted in the first place. As you said, I do believe that as long as Planet Zoo continues to be the success that it has become, and the change is something meaningful and vastly requested, it can certainly make a late appearance.

The main take away here, is that we need to keep talking about it and create awareness of what is needed. I like discussing these type of threads here in the general forum, since usually when things are moved to suggestions and feedback, they get treated as exactly that, and their meaning and purpose usually dies off pretty quickly.

 

[NL_Mutso]

A friend from this forum that happens to be completely in tune with the video game world, did mention to me that management at Frontier is extremely stubborn and once they are set on their ways, it is very difficult to look outside the tunnel for them. This same individual mention that they are not keen on bringing outside help and rarely significantly expand their workforce. I do hope that the success of Planet Zoo and overwhelming public demand when it comes to many of these issues does have some sort of consequence in the future

Normally when a "friend from this forum" comment is used, personally I think that doesn't help the argument.
Seen too many people claiming they know the "behind the scenes". The "not keen on outside help" and "not expanding their workforce" is a commonly used argument with a lot of games, mostly from people who think the game improves too slow.
Sorry, this feels like a copy/paste I've seen hundreds of times in 20-25 years on the internet. I simply don't believe it.
(I got the same feeling when an argument runs a long time and suddenly a member on a forum has the ultimate expert on that field as a friend)

I mean they even already officially said that there will be no changes to snowing in July or guests in short cloths complaining about freezing in the taiga biome. Why would they then be willing to invest of a whole revamp of guest looings?

That's where I'm leaning towards as well. I know some people want huge revamps of looks/features but the commonly used argument: "But if the community really demands, they will have to change it". I think social media has given people the illusion of their voice always should be heard and somehow can't accept when people/companies aren't fazed by this.

So the questions are, does it bother you that the certain aspects of the game look like cartoons? Why do you think Frontier went with look for the game? Lastly, do you think that this would/should be changed in the future?

No, personally like the stylized choices - never been bothered by it.
I think Frontier wants their own unique style in their games, the visitors/language is something they like to do. I think there's a too small group of people who don't like it, that they can easily ignore those. (there's always a group of people not happy with some choices)
No, they don't have to change this. Personally I would be disapppointed if they choose to update the looks and not focus on the game mechanics/performance/DLC.

 

[Indoraptor27]

Normally when a "friend from this forum" comment is used, personally I think that doesn't help the argument.
Seen too many people claiming they know the "behind the scenes". The "not keen on outside help" and "not expanding their workforce" is a commonly used argument with a lot of games, mostly from people who think the game improves too slow.
Sorry, this feels like a copy/paste I've seen hundreds of times in 20-25 years on the internet. I simply don't believe it.
(I got the same feeling when an argument runs a long time and suddenly a member on a forum has the ultimate expert on that field as a friend)


That's where I'm leaning towards as well. I know some people want huge revamps of looks/features but the commonly used argument: "But if the community really demands, they will have to change it". I think social media has given people the illusion of their voice always should be heard and somehow can't accept when people/companies aren't fazed by this.



No, personally like the stylized choices - never been bothered by it.
I think Frontier wants their own unique style in their games, the visitors/language is something they like to do. I think there's a too small group of people who don't like it, that they can easily ignore those. (there's always a group of people not happy with some choices)
No, they don't have to change this. Personally I would be disapppointed if they choose to update the looks and not focus on the game mechanics/performance/DLC.

I sort of agree. I do fully support animal updates, since the vast majority are realistic, so the rest might as well match, but with the guests, it's clear that Frontier wanted to incorporate some of their Planet Coaster features into the successor of the ZTs. They don't bother me much.

 

[Danny_zoo]

i have zero problems with the "graphical style" of both planet zoo and planet coaster. for me its a special style that always reminds me right aways of these games. i would actually be disappointed if they would completely change the style for the next game.

This is a tricky response, if we are talking about the general style of the game, meaning its magnificent color, lighting, texture, oh yes, by all means keep it. Even the animals look incredibly amazing, I would not even care about a second game if we can just improve certain features within this one. The style is a very broad term. So maybe we should keep it to certain elements of the game, that seem to be the general consensus here. If you alter the face and anatomical structure of certain animals slightly, to better capture the majestic features of many of these species are you really changing the style? Or just improving on it? Again with the lion, if the face was to be altered and the body restructure to showcase the powerful features and distinctive features of this predator, how would that be altering the style of the game?

In the same context, anyone will recognize by taking just a simple look at the human elements of the game that they do not match the level of detail found in the animals, building components and excellent scenery, in fact they look out of place. A revamp line of humans would certainly not change the style, it would actually fit it, when the current one does not. Adding fur to animals like the bears, Orangutans, that actually moves and feels like fur would not change the style of the game in the least, having Orangutans behave as they should, instead of just gorilla clones, will not change the style, that is not even style, it is just complacency when releasing content that is not yet ready. So my point is that making changes and adjustments to the game elevating its realism and quality does not necessarily change the style, or maybe it does, I guess it all depends on ones definition of style.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

That's where I'm leaning towards as well. I know some people want huge revamps of looks/features but the commonly used argument: "But if the community really demands, they will have to change it". I think social media has given people the illusion of their voice always should be heard and somehow can't accept when people/companies aren't fazed by this.

Well, on the other hand imo many companies also do contribute to this - by releasing games in an unfinished state or by showing stuff before release what's not in the game at release. E.g. no one really can tell if the 'animal variation', which now is only a color variation, would have ever made it into the game if we had not that huge thread with 10k views and many others as well.

 

[NL_Mutso]

I sort of agree. I do fully support animal updates, since the vast majority are realistic, so the rest might as well match

While I also somewhat agree with this, I think this could unleash a world of adjustments to current animals.
You only hear some people complain about the lion, polar bear and a few others but if you analyze other animals they could use an adjustment from their POV as well.
Somwhat similar to the biome-change for China - some people are using that example to ask for other biome changes as well.

Well, on the other hand imo many companies also do contribute to this - by releasing games in an unfinished state or by showing stuff before release what's not in the game at release. E.g. no one really can tell if the 'animal variation', which now is only a color variation, would have ever made it into the game if we had not that huge thread with 10k views and many other as well.

Glad you said: noone really can tell....
While I somewhat think that specific thread had some influence, it's just a guessing game.
That same would apply to marine animals/aviaries when they might be included in the game. Could've been part of the plan from the start.
I commented on many threads that multiple topics about the same subject isn't the best way to address stuff. You pointing out an example with a thread with 10k views really shows that this thread had some importance on this forum. The speed thread after beta was also a very popular one.

With both above quotes I think that sometimes it's wiser to ignore some requests. Sometimes people think their idea is that great - they should add it to game and are upset that their suggestion isn't added. I think the highly popular threads are more effective and don't annoy people that much (when you see +10 threads on 1 page - you can notice a change in the tone of the comments)

 

[Danny_zoo]

Normally when a "friend from this forum" comment is used, personally I think that doesn't help the argument.
Seen too many people claiming they know the "behind the scenes". The "not keen on outside help" and "not expanding their workforce" is a commonly used argument with a lot of games, mostly from people who think the game improves too slow.
Sorry, this feels like a copy/paste I've seen hundreds of times in 20-25 years on the internet. I simply don't believe it.
(I got the same feeling when an argument runs a long time and suddenly a member on a forum has the ultimate expert on that field as a friend)


That's where I'm leaning towards as well. I know some people want huge revamps of looks/features but the commonly used argument: "But if the community really demands, they will have to change it". I think social media has given people the illusion of their voice always should be heard and somehow can't accept when people/companies aren't fazed by this.



No, personally like the stylized choices - never been bothered by it.
I think Frontier wants their own unique style in their games, the visitors/language is something they like to do. I think there's a too small group of people who don't like it, that they can easily ignore those. (there's always a group of people not happy with some choices)
No, they don't have to change this. Personally I would be disapppointed if they choose to update the looks and not focus on the game mechanics/performance/DLC.

I understand your skepticism, I'm the complete opposite of you in this regard. Since I do not have any previous experiences in this industry before Planet Zoo, I tend to listen to those in this and other social platforms, who seem to follow the video game industry pretty closely. They have been instrumental in guiding me thru many aspects of this new world, and highly informative. That is not to say that your argument is not valid, but we can't just assume that everyone here has no clue as to what does take place behind the scenes of this industry. As many of today's top video game developers were once part of a forum like this if not still.

As an example, I do understand this is a very different industry and totally unrelated to video games, as it is a very different crowd. I have been part of zoo chat relating forum for years now, and have actively participated in a very large number of discussions where I had first hand knowledge of everything that was being talked about, since in many case I was a part of the project. So again, you never know who is reading this, and chooses to take part in a conversation. I have my intuition that either one or several members here might be actual Frontier employees, my believes are based on their style of posting, the amount of time spent in this forum (some have been here since the beginning) There is one in particular that writes in the same style as a community manager. Again it is a new industry for me, but I understand business tactics and some things are just the same everywhere.

I disagree with you that this is just a small group of people, in fact looking thru the amount of complaints in this and other forums about the same issues, it seems to affect quite a large number of players. What does happen quite often is that when someone does not feel a certain change is priority for them, and that I have seen quite often as well, they might try to make a case of why this change is not needed (not saying this is you) just making a reference to why there is always disagreements among players as to what is needed. It feels often, that if I have it my way, you can't have it yours and vice versa, I have a completely different mentality, since I like and enjoy finding solutions and mutual ground. There is no reason why some of this changes can not be implemented and at the same time performance of the game improved, the solution could even rest together. Since there has been a lot of discussion, as to how much lag is actually caused by visitors and their use of the path system in the game etc, unless that is of course another false rumor.

 

[Danny_zoo]

That's where I'm leaning towards as well. I know some people want huge revamps of looks/features but the commonly used argument: "But if the community really demands, they will have to change it". I think social media has given people the illusion of their voice always should be heard and somehow can't accept when people/companies aren't fazed by this.

That is definitely not the case, at least with me, since I have been an advocate of letting companies know what you as a customer want, and not the other way around, way since social media even had a definition. I have been around for quite a bit, enough to understand that some companies can adjust to public demands and some can not. In the case of video games, I can not see a reason why they can not, they have already done so, with many suggestions that have been brought up by the community.

I do however hope, that this illusion that people have somehow taken a hold off, that you can interact and make specific requests to a company that you as a customer highly value, as long as they are within reason, respectful and command enough support to be at least evaluated, does not go away. I will say this though, there are significant differences between European consumer behavior and North American, and while I live in the U.S I have spent considerable time in several European countries, and visited the great majority of them, so the thinking in this area is quite different.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Since I do not have any previous experiences in this industry before Planet Zoo, I tend to listen to those in this and other social platforms, who seem to follow the video game industry pretty closely

That's why I said if feels like a copy/paste. While I don't point fingers and accuse someone being a liar - I do express some doubt. I think a lot of people are trying to be more interesting than they are. I always doubt when an outsider on the internet has some inside knowledge about management views of a different company. Most times I even wonder if they are even from the UK or that region .
But a recent example/thread on this forum really showed how some programmers (or people who claim they are) can claim how easy it is to program diving/flying in PZ. I heavily doubt that Cobra-Engine programmers are that common, especially since the cobra-engine is an in-house Frontier engine.
I think people with real knowledge about the actual subject tend to be more respectful in their expressions.

I disagree with you that this is just a small group of people, in fact looking thru the amount of complaints in this and other forums about the same issues, it seems to affect quite a large number of players. What does happen quite often is that when someone does not feel a certain change is priority for them, and that I have seen quite often as well, they might try to make a case of why this change is not needed (not saying this is you) just making a reference to why there is always disagreements among players as to what is needed. It feels often, that if I have it my way, you can't have it yours and vice versa, I have a completely different mentality, since I like and enjoy finding solutions and mutual ground

I do visit other platforms as well and even on this forum I really think it's a small vocal group. Let's agree to disagree on that one
Personally I'm not a fan of how you brush off criticism like this. You ask a few questions, you know you'll receive comments that have a different POV than yours. And then you make a bad comment like this. Why even bother posting something and asking for opinions when you just discredit different views like that?

Oh well, -ignore-.

 

[Danny_zoo]

That's why I said if feels like a copy/paste. While I don't point fingers and accuse someone being a liar - I do express some doubt. I think a lot of people are trying to be more interesting than they are. I always doubt when an outsider on the internet has some inside knowledge about management views of a different company. Most times I even wonder if they are even from the UK or that region .
But a recent example/thread on this forum really showed how some programmers (or people who claim they are) can claim how easy it is to program diving/flying in PZ. I heavily doubt that Cobra-Engine programmers are that common, especially since the cobra-engine is an in-house Frontier engine.
I think people with real knowledge about the actual subject tend to be more respectful in their expressions.


I do visit other platforms as well and even on this forum I really think it's a small vocal group. Let's agree to disagree on that one
Personally I'm not a fan of how you brush off criticism like this. You ask a few questions, you know you'll receive comments that have a different POV than yours. And then you make a bad comment like this. Why even bother posting something and asking for opinions when you just discredit different views like that?

Oh well, -ignore-.

For someone who was as vocal as you were during your criticism as you call it, especially this part:

"Normally when a "friend from this forum" comment is used, personally I think that doesn't help the argument.
Seen too many people claiming they know the "behind the scenes". The "not keen on outside help" and "not expanding their workforce" is a commonly used argument with a lot of games, mostly from people who think the game improves too slow.
Sorry, this feels like a copy/paste I've seen hundreds of times in 20-25 years on the internet. I simply don't believe it.
(I got the same feeling when an argument runs a long time and suddenly a member on a forum has the ultimate expert on that field as a friend)"

It is mind boggling that you would find anything disrespectful about mine, specially when I even acknowledge that there are fundamental differences when it comes to voicing out suggestions to companies in both the European and North American markets. I did ask the questions, and when an answer like yours comes along, I debate it, as it usually gives me a bigger understanding of opposite points of view, the complete opposite of brushing it off. I could have taken your comments as extremely disrespectful, since I'm definitely not someone new to this forum I have been here since before the game was released, but i did not since I tried understanding your point of view. There is way too much sensitivity in this forum, and usually it flows one way. If you ditch it, you should be able to take it, and for all given purposes, we are here to debate and speculate how a game that all of us love can improve, all of this animosity and quick blow ups are completely unnecessary. As you said we can agree to disagree if common ground can not be found, and that is mostly directed to you, since I understood everything you mention and took no issue with it. There are some truly difficult personalities in this forum, too quick to react and judge others.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I do visit other platforms as well and even on this forum I really think it's a small vocal group. Let's agree to disagree on that one
Personally I'm not a fan of how you brush off criticism like this. You ask a few questions, you know you'll receive comments that have a different POV than yours. And then you make a bad comment like this. Why even bother posting something and asking for opinions when you just discredit different views like that?

And to be clear, no one discredited your view, we just happened to disagree on a small number of points, mainly the need for Frontier to re evaluate the look of some assets withing the game. I might be in the minority when it comes to visitors/humans I will give you that, it does seem that even of some people are bothered by it, they just choose to ignore it. However in reference to some animals not being as realistic as the rest of the roster, I think every site where this game is being discussed has brought up the same issue by a large multitude of players. Until the recent update, there were even a large number of mods available, because it did bother many players. That is just debate, is not brushing off or discrediting anyone.

 

[xTosca]

Personally I agree that the cartoon style of the carnivora species in this game in particular is... very annoyingly inconsistent with the style of the rest of the animals. The majority of herbivores and hooved animals look fairly realistic- but the lion looks like it came straight out of a cartoon, the wolves' ears are too thin and their stomachs are oddly curved inward, the jaguar is way too fluffy and has an awkward facial shape, the cheetah looks like it's been smacked in the nose with a frying pan, the hyenas look wimpy, the AWDs are too fluffy- the list goes on...

However, despite Frontier's extreme annoying stubbornness regarding this topic- these issues can be fixed with mods. I only hope Frontier stops being so uptight about discussing/linking/posting pictures and whatnot on the forums, because quite frankly, it's ridiculous how anti-modding they come off. It's 2020, take a hint from EA, Wildcard, Bethesda, and so on and just... let your community talk about and share mods. You're only shooting yourself in the foot by censoring it.

Regardless, though- hopefully this post doesn't get taken down just from my mentioning it, people have the right to know about, find, and use mods like this if they want to- the cartoonified animals have received realistic appearance updates via an overhaul mod, made by me. Search "Better Carnivores".

 

[Danny_zoo]

Personally I agree that the cartoon style of the carnivora species in this game in particular is... very annoyingly inconsistent with the style of the rest of the animals. The majority of herbivores and hooved animals look fairly realistic- but the lion looks like it came straight out of a cartoon, the wolves' ears are too thin and their stomachs are oddly curved inward, the jaguar is way too fluffy and has an awkward facial shape, the cheetah looks like it's been smacked in the nose with a frying pan, the hyenas look wimpy, the AWDs are too fluffy- the list goes on...

However, despite Frontier's extreme annoying stubbornness regarding this topic- these issues can be fixed with mods. I only hope Frontier stops being so uptight about discussing/linking/posting pictures and whatnot on the forums, because quite frankly, it's ridiculous how anti-modding they come off. It's 2020, take a hint from EA, Wildcard, Bethesda, and so on and just... let your community talk about and share mods. You're only shooting yourself in the foot by censoring it.

Regardless, though- hopefully this post doesn't get taken down just from my mentioning it, people have the right to know about, find, and use mods like this if they want to- the cartoonified animals have received realistic appearance updates via an overhaul mod, made by me. Search "Better Carnivores".

Agreed, they are really issues that could be easily worked out by dedicated and talented mods. I do believe or at least have hopes that once their full DLC lineup is rolled out, they either introduced a TMT system similar to Planet Coaster, that it is somehow altered to allow for animal modifications, or at the very least some of the barriers making modding extremely difficult are taken down, especially now, I think the last update was like a terminal virus to them, it decimated everything.

 

[Indoraptor27]

Personally I agree that the cartoon style of the carnivora species in this game in particular is... very annoyingly inconsistent with the style of the rest of the animals. The majority of herbivores and hooved animals look fairly realistic- but the lion looks like it came straight out of a cartoon, the wolves' ears are too thin and their stomachs are oddly curved inward, the jaguar is way too fluffy and has an awkward facial shape, the cheetah looks like it's been smacked in the nose with a frying pan, the hyenas look wimpy, the AWDs are too fluffy- the list goes on...

However, despite Frontier's extreme annoying stubbornness regarding this topic- these issues can be fixed with mods. I only hope Frontier stops being so uptight about discussing/linking/posting pictures and whatnot on the forums, because quite frankly, it's ridiculous how anti-modding they come off. It's 2020, take a hint from EA, Wildcard, Bethesda, and so on and just... let your community talk about and share mods. You're only shooting yourself in the foot by censoring it.

Regardless, though- hopefully this post doesn't get taken down just from my mentioning it, people have the right to know about, find, and use mods like this if they want to- the cartoonified animals have received realistic appearance updates via an overhaul mod, made by me. Search "Better Carnivores".

I do understand why they're reluctant. Most games with lots of mod support have a VERY supportive community who would never stop buying their content, some sort of popular, mod-free official network, or is available on console without any mod support, meaning their content will always be relevant. Frontier doesn't have any of that (I know many people would enjoy normal content, but I believe some people would definitely switch to mods only). I understand why you want normal mod support, but I think Frontier isn't in the wrong.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I wanted to add, I have a strong feeling the people in Planet Zoo and Coaster have very much in common with the peeps in RCT3.
For which I believe they are an improvement of that. But the peeps are not the focus of the game, nor for Planet Coaster or Planet Zoo, so for that reason I believe they look that cartoony/simplistic.

I went back to look at the peeps you were talking about, since it seemed interesting somehow, and I knew nothing about that game, they are as bad as you made them out to be, and they do have a strange resemblance to the strange looking humans of the Planet World. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems years after a new version of that same game came out and the peeps went away, the humans actually looked human. Looking at the peeps closely, it seems that whoever created them had a deep admiration of the urban hip hop culture/ Xgames / urban graffiti artists and that sort of thing.

These ones were in the newer version, still much older than Planet Zoo, and they looked great, aside from the guy in the red pants with the thigh gap.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I do understand why they're reluctant. Most games with lots of mod support have a VERY supportive community who would never stop buying their content, some sort of popular, mod-free official network, or is available on console without any mod support, meaning their content will always be relevant. Frontier doesn't have any of that (I know many people would enjoy normal content, but I believe some people would definitely switch to mods only). I understand why you want normal mod support, but I think Frontier isn't in the wrong.

They definitely are not of course, it is a business after all, and they do excellent work. I could be wrong, but i think the majority of us would still buy their DLCs and I mean the general public as well, because how many of those who have purchased this game even know about mods and everything else, I did not even know anything about it until I started hearing people everywhere talking about that community. I would always support Frontier's Planet Zoo content, and I believe that the mods themselves would support it, since they would need the DLC animals to create new ones.

This is just an example, lets say, sometime in the next year Frontier releases an African DLC, and somehow all the stars in the heavens align, and by a miracle, we get an African White Back Vulture (highly unlikely) what are the chances that they would introduce any other vulture species after that, very slim. But with proper modding support we could all end up having an amazing collection of vultures to house in every kind of zoo we design. However without having Frontier's DLC African White Back Vulture, you would be unable to have any of the mods. In my opinion it would be best, if Frontier not only gets involved in the modding, but regulates it by introducing the program themselves, as an addition to the TMT, it would work out perfectly, and the game would live on for years.

 

[LN]

I went back to look at the peeps you were talking about, since it seemed interesting somehow, and I knew nothing about that game, they are as bad as you made them out to be, and they do have a strange resemblance to the strange looking humans of the Planet World. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems years after a new version of that same game came out and the peeps went away, the humans actually looked human. Looking at the peeps closely, it seems that whoever created them had a deep admiration of the urban hip hop culture/ Xgames / urban graffiti artists and that sort of thing.

View attachment 187588
These ones were in the newer version, still much older than Planet Zoo, and they looked great, aside from the guy in the red pants with the thigh gap.

That is rollercoaster Tycoon World, not RCT3, and not developed by Frontier.

Rollercoaster Tycoon World is probably the worst game I ever seen/played, if you could even call that abomination a game.

Your picture is just an artist impression, which for this game always looks better than the game itself.

Have a stroll through this to have a laugh, and realize how bad the game is so you don't have to buy it.

Leaving The Game For Now

Hello everyone. I'm a casual RCT player, having played all the RCT games, expansions and RCTW updates and beta. I've followed and lurked this forum since it was first made back in 2014; it looked a lot different then, and decided to register recently. Today after playing the current latest...

forum.rollercoastertycoon.com

 

[random goat]

I understand your skepticism, I'm the complete opposite of you in this regard. Since I do not have any previous experiences in this industry before Planet Zoo, I tend to listen to those in this and other social platforms, who seem to follow the video game industry pretty closely. They have been instrumental in guiding me thru many aspects of this new world, and highly informative. That is not to say that your argument is not valid, but we can't just assume that everyone here has no clue as to what does take place behind the scenes of this industry. As many of today's top video game developers were once part of a forum like this if not still.

As an example, I do understand this is a very different industry and totally unrelated to video games, as it is a very different crowd. I have been part of zoo chat relating forum for years now, and have actively participated in a very large number of discussions where I had first hand knowledge of everything that was being talked about, since in many case I was a part of the project. So again, you never know who is reading this, and chooses to take part in a conversation. I have my intuition that either one or several members here might be actual Frontier employees, my believes are based on their style of posting, the amount of time spent in this forum (some have been here since the beginning) There is one in particular that writes in the same style as a community manager. Again it is a new industry for me, but I understand business tactics and some things are just the same everywhere.

I disagree with you that this is just a small group of people, in fact looking thru the amount of complaints in this and other forums about the same issues, it seems to affect quite a large number of players. What does happen quite often is that when someone does not feel a certain change is priority for them, and that I have seen quite often as well, they might try to make a case of why this change is not needed (not saying this is you) just making a reference to why there is always disagreements among players as to what is needed. It feels often, that if I have it my way, you can't have it yours and vice versa, I have a completely different mentality, since I like and enjoy finding solutions and mutual ground. There is no reason why some of this changes can not be implemented and at the same time performance of the game improved, the solution could even rest together. Since there has been a lot of discussion, as to how much lag is actually caused by visitors and their use of the path system in the game etc, unless that is of course another false rumor.

Many companies do have employees using random users' accounts to promote their products and counter criticism in social media/forums. And honestly I'd expect the gaming industry not least in this regard.
It's also funny to see how some people get salty even when constructive, respectful and probably the most comprehensive piece of feedback/criticism to the game in this forum is given.

Back on topic, and to keep it short, personally I'm not too bothered by the look of the visitors, keepers, etc. in PZ but I ofc I wouldn't be against a revamp to make them more realistic. Regarding animals, some look a bit too cartoonish indeed, particularly the male lion. I hope they revisit the model of at least this one. Also I want to point out it's impossible to know whether there's a majority or minority of people who'd prefer a more cartoonish or realistic look of things in the game. However, nobody can deny that this same thing has been raised before in several other topics/posts in this forum. Even some content creators have expressed a somewhat similar opinion too.

 

[FoxyDee]

I do not really mind it that much. If it was not dependent on the performance then yea, if I had to choose I would choose the more realistic guests, but I would rather have better performance.

Some animals are stylized a bit, especially the carnivores, to add some cuteness to them I guess. I do not think this stylization was nessecerry because of children, because if you look at the internet, young adults and even some older folks are obsessed with cute things. Ever seen those adults on twitter or youtubers with unicorns all over the place? Yea, that is reality these days. So I think the majority of players do not mind. People who work with animals or are more knowledgeable about animals probably care, but the majority of players are still casuals or laymen, that are happy to just watch cute things on their monitor.

I think it is clear that Frontier´s artists, animators and everyone working on animal models are more than capable to create fearsome carnivores as it is seen in JW:E, but in this case they went with the lighthearted and cheerful stylization that was also used in Planet Coaster. I am pretty sure they will never change that. At least not in this game.