What’s Next For Planet Zoo

Seen quite a few comments on how the animals aren't the stars of the game - well, what if building/management were always meant as the "stars" of the game?

Well, then management really needs to step up its game :D It's far from being the star of the game. Building is and yes, that is the one feature that doesn't get me, personally, not tired of the game. I absolutely suck at management and I get the job done in PZ very easily.

But all the advertisement pre-realse was hugely animal and management focused. We were told that the personalities of the animals would influence our management as well. In my opinion we didn't get that yet. And if you decide as a company to advertise with a lot of cinematic shots of the animals and very little with the management part and keep on talking about conservation and how important the animals in a zoo are, you don't need to be surprised when people expect a zoo game with a bigger animal focus.
 
Im honest from what I read here, I must say, that some companies making a by far better job even in Communication and evolution of a game at all. Sure the team I watch work a little bit longer on a Game than Frontier does. But especially this team can do more, than frontier in over 1 Year where Planet zoo is already out. And the game will Comes in the second Quartal finally to us! but there it works. The communication works, and they rework everything, when they put it in, and it not looks right. Here I have the feeling we stuck in a enternity in the same bugs over and over again. and its not getting better for us. This is for the most people not this what we have imagined. My only wish: they would also look on some bugs and issues who laying far by the past, but also be to common until today. I also rarely went into this Forum only to read, thst someone discovered a bug, that maybe fixed in the Patch update....... or maybe not. Its really a shame, that there almost nothing happens.
 
Well, then management really needs to step up its game
Management is a broad definition. The right balance of facilities, the layout of your zoo, managing the needs of your animals, staff and visitors. And after that the obvious ones with $.
They could add a extra management options to the game, which I would like. Most people play the game in easy mode or sandbox with most options turned off, which allow mangement to be a minor thing in the game. I think if people would pause the game less, it would become more of an issue.

But all the advertisement pre-realse was hugely animal and management focused. We were told that the personalities of the animals would influence our management as well. In my opinion we didn't get that yet. And if you decide as a company to advertise with a lot of cinematic shots of the animals and very little with the management part and keep on talking about conservation and how important the animals in a zoo are, you don't need to be surprised when people expect a zoo game with a bigger animal focus.
Really depends on your extend of this. Some male animals are picking a fight (and some not) with other males, you have to manage that problem (most times I just sell it but there are other options). I mentioned this a few times but bought a female hyena from the market, refused to mate with the male - got a notification for that one - and had to deal with this. Only happened a few times but still part of management. And it's a zoo game - ofc. they will show the animals. Still don't see a showcase as an expectation for in-depth/bigger animal focus.
I think people got on the hype-train for this one - which is not uncommon to happen. Also the trailers were pretty clear on the building part.
Let your creativity run wild, build a world for wildlife = building. Make your zoos thrive = management.

Here I have the feeling we stuck in a enternity in the same bugs over and over again. and its not getting better for us. This is for the most people not this what we have imagined. My only wish: they would also look on some bugs and issues who laying far by the past, but also be to common until today
Oh, I fully agree with this one. I think the bugs in PZ (and PC) should be adressed better. But when most people talk about communication, they want to know about future content etc.
I think a proper update of the issue tracker would help a lot of people. You want to see some progress on older issues.
 
Really depends on your extend of this. Some male animals are picking a fight (and some not) with other males, you have to manage that problem (most times I just sell it but there are other options). I mentioned this a few times but bought a female hyena from the market, refused to mate with the male - got a notification for that one - and had to deal with this. Only happened a few times but still part of management. And it's a zoo game - ofc. they will show the animals. Still don't see a showcase as an expectation for in-depth/bigger animal focus.
I think people got on the hype-train for this one - which is not uncommon to happen. Also the trailers were pretty clear on the building part.
Let your creativity run wild, build a world for wildlife = building. Make your zoos thrive = management.

You seem to be really against any progression of the game :) Why are you against people wishing for more management/animal simulation ? Many games grown to be better and even to different direction than visioned first because people suggestions and ideas. It is fine if you think the game should stay like it is and even if no more content added, as you seems to be fine with ended support, but other people are not wrong to want longer support or additional features/suggestion, because we like the game and want to see it grow to be more.
You seem only defend no additional features and long support....why? Let people wish for what they want, it will not hurt your wishing for this game to never get any new stuff and all will be happy.
 
You seem to be really against any progression of the game :) Why are you against people wishing for more management/animal simulation ?
It seems you have some difficulty reading. No, ofcourse not against it?
I just commented : They could add a extra management options to the game, which I would like.

And seen some people wishing for more animals and less construction pieces, those wishes could hurt the game experience for some?
Or the big marine animals discussions? or the extinct and dino ones?
If they would add extinct/dinos instead of adding other animals, you think that would be received very well?

You seem only defend no additional features and long support....why?
Are you feeling well?? Where do I say I'm against additional features? And against long support?
Let's be fair: 3 years is long support?
If you seen the comments in the PC threads, that's not wishing. i think it's unreasonable to demand very long support or accuse Frontier of some bad things.
I'm a bit critical on how people were expecting PZ would be like, didn't they buy the wrong game for themselves?
(some people give a certain vibe: "I think I wasted € 50,- on this game and they should change the game so I didn't waste my money")

If you are going to ask stupid questions: At least have the courtesy to back up some claims.

Seen this discussion multiple times, mostly with PES/FIFA games. People want features from eachother franchise. In short: Most people comment: Just buy the game that suits you best. And judging from PC/JWE we mostly knew what to expect.

One wished suggestion on this forum is something I really don't like: if they add features like zookeeper mode - that would make PZ a small kids game. And I rather see them putting those hours in other features.
 
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Which brings me to my next point, that @random goat mentioned. The posting of content creators went down, Now, as someone who breathes Planet Zoo videos, I can definately tell you, that is not the case :D The PZ universe is richt of good content creators and more come always every day. If someone is in need of recommendations, just message me.
However: The posting of the bigger Planet-verse YouTubers went down
Well, true. There are many talented PZ content creators still out there; I'm also getting to know at least a new one almost everyweek. But the problem lies in the last phrase I quoted. I believe the general public and maybe even Frontier themselves only notice the bigger ones. I wonder how far Frontier goes in this regard, I can imagine outstanding creators like our well-known Iben, or Poisonblade, maybe FanDanxtra? mark the bounders of what Frontier devs reach (I hope it's more than that).
At least a couple of the bigger ones still generate plenty of PZ videos but some others kind of forgot about the game some months ago and only post a couple of videos when a DLC releases, at most. And that indeed creates some sort of misconception of the game's status and the interest it creates, not to talk about its tremendous potential. Last time I checked steamcharts the numbers were slowly going down again but they were still a bit higher than Planco numbers 1 year after release - another reason to be optimistic.

There really is no need to be that insulting.
 
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This game is amazing, by far the best zoo building simulation game ever created, anything before it does not even deserve to be mention in the same sentence. However because it is a zoo building simulation game it does need a lot more content/features/animals, and I think everyone has their own priorities that they want to see added to the game, that is perfectly understandable. I honestly think no other company could have approached this theme from a better angle, it is so incredible what can be accomplished with this game. A game that would have resembled the zoo tycoon franchise, is probably a game I have no interest in playing. There are plenty of management games, etc, this game is light on that aspect, but it was never intended to be that kind of a game.

As long as official support for this game continues, new content is often added, gameplay and performance improved, and the big gaps in the game finally eradicated, it would be just fine. I can't wait to see what the team is working on, I still have big hopes for the end of the year.
 
While I agree the comminication could be better, I have hope it will improve. Since Bo left, Chante and Jens probably had alot of less time for forum activity, since I am sure it is not their only task. Now that new member joined, I am positive it will improve. I am sure Will is still mostly checking around as he is new.

Regarding content, I am also optimistic we will get penguins, meerkats, otters and alot of other animals, but I wish there would be more things for the management, simulation. But I see the game nowhere near ending as people suggest here. Frontier themself seems to be happy with the game sales, and stated "PZ has a bright future ahead" in their annual report:

https://frontier-drupal.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/production/frontier-corp/s3fs-public/press-releases/financial/Annual-Report-2020.pdf
 
That is indeed a fair point and I totally get it. I felt the same when a lot of people went pessimistic and I was still that cheering, confetti thorwing fan girl. (Not saying you are, only talking about my progression here).

Oh I'm far from a "confetting throwing fan". 😅

I'm often critical of Frontier and their decisions. Like everyone else I get frustrated with certain things (like you, I find the lack of communication frustrating, but I think we expect different things in that regard - I don't want any more than what we had at the start during version 1.0.0 - we seemed to have a lot of interaction with the CM's at that time especially).

It is, indeed, the communication that got me here. It has become half-hearted and it feels like the team is put together by a lot of great people that definately have nice personallities, BUT that do not play zoo games. You can tell some are coaster enthusiasts (hence the love for Planco as their main game), but do not know much about zoos. Honestly, in my opinion, what Frontier needs are people who played zoo games for years and also have a great knowledge of real life zoos. People who also get the community. At the moment, it feels like we are treated like gamers that can not be satisfied anyway. A bit alienated. But all the critique does actually come from a deep love for the game and zoo games in general. I don't feel like CMs and Devs fully got that yet.

Here, I agree. In fact, if I recall correctly, I even said as much a long time ago. I made a comment with regards to something in the Zoopedia along the lines of "it seems like they just asked Greg by the water cooler who takes his kids to the zoo every now and then rather than doing actual research". The thing is, we know for a fact that they've done a lot of in-depth research (I believe @Danny_zoo can back that up, as well as the fact that they have ongoing relationships with a few zoos such as San Diego), so the question is why hasn't it translated well into the actual game? What corners did they cut, and what concepts did they throw in the "too hard basket"?

Which is really where a lot of my eye-rolling comes from. Not from you specifically, you're one of the few who has been here long enough to have a good idea of how things work and you often raise good points, but there are others who don't criticise Frontier through a factual lense. For example, the oft-raised comment of "they need to fix bugs before they release new content". I always roll my eyes at this because it shows that whoever is saying it hasn't been paying the slightest amount of attention to how the game is updated. If the statement was, "I think they need to test their updates and DLC's more thoroughly instead of adhering to a strict release schedule" then that would be more reasonable, because the new bugs that crop up with new updates and content are annoying, but the suggestion that they only focus on one thing or the other is just nonsensical. Like, we know for a fact that it's not the way it works - otherwise we wouldn't get a major update alongside new content literally every time.

Which brings me to my next point, that @random goat mentioned. The posting of content creators went down, Now, as someone who breathes Planet Zoo videos, I can definately tell you, that is not the case :D The PZ universe is richt of good content creators and more come always every day. If someone is in need of recommendations, just message me.

This is why I've always said that I hate how much power these YouTubers have over companies like Frontier. It seems silly to me to begin with that these guys can make so much money have so much influence just by doing what everyone else is doing - playing a game. Especially considering that the social media bubble is bound to pop at some point in the near future. Discussion fora such as this one really ought to be the first port of call, because here we have a good mix of people who know what they're talking about (including industry professionals both in the real-life zoo world and in the game development world) and passionate fans who love to throw random ideas at the board.
 
(I believe @Danny_zoo can back that up, as well as the fact that they have ongoing relationships with a few zoos such as San Diego), so the question is why hasn't it translated well into the actual game? What corners did they cut, and what concepts did they throw in the "too hard basket"?

They definitely did their research, and it is likely that they will continue to do so. In my opinion (I have no first hand knowledge of this) it is definitely not a lack of understanding what zoos are and are not, or what is needed to please a segment of the players of this game. It is likely that it all comes down to game performance, and how a lot of what they might have wanted to include in the game could severely impact that. It is interesting to me, because, this is the only area of the game that I do not fully understand, since I have no background in it, yet it seems to be the one affecting all or most of the decisions being made. As an example, added animal behaviors, new gameplay, complexity of gameplay, quantity of animals, etc, wouldn't that impact the game performance at the end? I'm not saying it can not be done, or that they should not keep on trying, for all we know, it is already a done deal, and just a matter of time before those features join the game, or not. My point is that they have always being aware, or are definitely aware by now.

As far as the lack of communication, I have already included my thoughts on that, as much I'm all for constant communication, blogs, etc, we might have to get used to the idea, that it might never exist again for this game. The advertisement for the game, is already there in social media for Frontier, there are thousands of free advertisement videos, already pushing the game, so why would someone that does not truly care mush about zoos, etc, put in the extra work? To please who exactly? A few of us in here? I think some of the artists/devs behind the actual game are very passionate about it, the quality and devotion of their works speaks for itself. There are others, possibly the ones in charge that might not necessarily care beyond profit, and that is understandable. Meaning they will only go into so much detail, before they move on. A lot of the community managers have social media accounts, and it is amazing in this age of technology what can be deducted by looking at someone's interests, and I can say that I have yet to see anyone truly interested in zoos before this game was released, even now, they just seem to go along with it and nothing else. That would explain a lot of your lack of communication and enthusiasm. Their community manager exited during the height of the Pandemic, and I'm not saying that she cared more than anyone else, but she surely seem to be very active, outspoken and enthusiastic about the game, so add that to the recent silence.

In reference to the game being heavily promoted by YouTube players who might not truly understand what this zoo game is currently missing, I think that is a valid point. At the same time, they are promoting the game, and bringing in thousands of new players. I have said this many times, and I hope I do not offend or rub anyone the wrong way, no one sits there and watches a video about game management or behind the scenes zoo simulation, people want to see amazing creations, that can inspired them to built their own parks. The irony here for me, is that the inspiration should be coming from the millions of real life videos of zoos and related content. For me this is the same concept of comparing this game to the zoo tycoon games, when everyone should be comparing this game to real life zoos, not an extremely unrealistic fantasy game that its only true accomplishment in my opinion was coming first.
 
For example, the oft-raised comment of "they need to fix bugs before they release new content". I always roll my eyes at this because it shows that whoever is saying it hasn't been paying the slightest amount of attention to how the game is updated
I think they are mostly referring to bugs from the start or new bugs starting after a previous update. I think some improvement on that communication could do wonders.
Like with most games, people tend to react badly when they add new content - while some pressing bugs aren't adressed yet.
While I'm lucky with almost no bugs and I'm assuming you are lucky as well, some are really struggling to play the game in a relaxed manner.
So I somewhat understand that they would react that way.

This is why I've always said that I hate how much power these YouTubers have over companies like Frontier. It seems silly to me to begin with that these guys can make so much money have so much influence just by doing what everyone else is doing - playing a game. Especially considering that the social media bubble is bound to pop at some point in the near future.
Haha, heard that comment multiple times from several people. I agree with this one, sometimes just weird when people/companies are clearly influenced by a random person on the internet. And just for playing their game.
 
Considering how they "celebrate" the first birthday of a financial successor that sold well:

1. Europe pack
2. North America Pack
3. Asia pack
4. Antarctic pack (if even)

the end. No bigger packs, no packs outside of the continent-thinking. And if we get a new pack by december and the three month pattern will stay, this means Planet Zoo might not even be supported until it turns two years.

Planet Zoo is just the fun commercial before the real movie (Planet Coaster) starts agaín. This game deserves better. This community deserves better. It seems like we are animal dung that makes other flowers (projects) bloom better and easier.

I'll get out of this game whatever I can and will try to enjoy the rest of the journey, but I'll practice to not put too much heart in it anymore. Frontier doesn't. At least I don't need to try to get into theme parks now ;) I was planning to support Frontier with any future Planco PC stuff and even buy the old stuff. But I degraded from fangirl to customer now. I will always, always support Planet Zoo. But at this point, no other Frontier games anymore. It could just be a commercial break again.
 
Considering how they "celebrate" the first birthday of a financial successor that sold well:

1. Europe pack
2. North America Pack
3. Asia pack
4. Antarctic pack (if even)

the end. No bigger packs, no packs outside of the continent-thinking. And if we get a new pack by december and the three month pattern will stay, this means Planet Zoo might not even be supported until it turns two years.

Planet Zoo is just the fun commercial before the real movie (Planet Coaster) starts agaín. This game deserves better. This community deserves better. It seems like we are animal dung that makes other flowers (projects) bloom better and easier.

I'll get out of this game whatever I can and will try to enjoy the rest of the journey, but I'll practice to not put too much heart in it anymore. Frontier doesn't. At least I don't need to try to get into theme parks now ;) I was planning to support Frontier with any future Planco PC stuff and even buy the old stuff. But I degraded from fangirl to customer now. I will always, always support Planet Zoo. But at this point, no other Frontier games anymore. It could just be a commercial break again.

This comes from a place of concern so please don't take it as an attack or personal criticism but I really don't think such pessimism is healthy or good for you.

If you feel you need to step back from your intense support or involvement that might make sense - I have felt deeply let down by some organisations or brands that I have been overly invested in in the past and it isn't a nice feeling.

But I have to stress, we have literally no idea what they have planned for the anniversary (EDIT: ok now we do but I stand by these comments) or what comes next. They have given us no indication whatsoever. So anything is based purely on speculation. I don't think it is worth being so negative when we just do not know what will come next.

Personally I find it hard in general not to worry or catastrophise and my mental health isn't always great but I have to stress, please, like you said just enjoy the journey and what we have and be open to whatever comes next, and to stress once again, we have had no indication that the game is going to be dumped.
 
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This comes from a place of concern so please don't take it as an attack or personal criticism but I really don't think such pessimism is healthy or good for you.

The anniversary is not celebrated in any meaningful way. Communication has been low for months now and only raises when they need to advertise new paid content. At this point, I don't think it's pessimism, it's realism. If they can prove otherwise and I see the named dedication of the Devs outside of programming DLCs, I'm happy to change my views.
Thanks for your concern, but me speaking up does thankfully not indicate a risk for my mental health, nor does caring for PZ. If I keep my mouth shut and them not caring about the anniversary doesn't bother me THAN it is time to worry ;)

If you feel positive for the future of the game, that's great! But is a misconception that being honest with ones feeling for the future of a game, even if negative, is unhealthy. Speaking up when things are off can change things (I doubt it will be the case with PZ) or at least be freeing and / or help you to move on to other games / developers / hobbies.
 
I choose to believe we will all be pleasantly surprised in December. Chante twice now emphasized they’re “hard at work” and I feel like that means something good is coming.
 
Tho I guess that small (i.e. 10 €) packs are much more economincally successful than bigger ones, I still have hope for a larger DLC like Frontier has done so far for every current game. In my best case scenerio an aquatic DLC for 15-20 bucks with a very good bang for the buck ratio.
 
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Tho I guess that small (i.e. 10 €) packs are much more economincally successful than bigger ones, I still have hope for a larger DLC like Frontier has done so far for every current game. In my best case scenerio an aquatic DLC for 15-20 bucks with a very good bang for the buck ratio.
I've been assuming that they're more into dealing with smaller things due to Covid lockdowns, with the intention to shift to something akin to how JW:E was for a bit. With the animal packs and "story" DLC that would be bigger and add most of the new mechanics to it.

With the lockdowns, it's harder to get larger things working and animals and themes don't take as much group work compared to the story side of things or anything that would be a major shift of things.
 
Whatever way you look at it, the fact that not a minimal free update nor a single item is released for the anniversary is disappointing. And this isn’t coming from someone who expects or demands content and hours of work for free. The disappointment comes from other Frontier games’ 1st Anniversary antecedents. It does feel like PZ is just a byproduct of PC. That being said, there is still a slight chance that Chante meant there won’t be any update specifically on 5th November, but could be afterwards. This option is not very likely but, who knows? Also, if they indeed had something planned for the anniversary but couldn’t make it in time for whatever reasons I really hope the upcoming major update and DLC will bring something different and bigger than the previous ones.

Now, Chante insisted on the fact that the devs are working hard on the game still. This again could mean something ‘big’ is coming. When I say ‘big’ I don’t necessarily mean quantity, but quality (e.g. not another continent DLC but a DLC that complements an update that brings a significant new game mechanic like diving). If after 1 year since release and 3-4 months after the last DLC (with no anniversary-update in between) we get another 4 animals-continent DLC then it’d be a bit worrying, indeed.

On a final note, there has been a bit more communication in the last days. No matter if it brings good or bad news, it is still much appreciated and I hope it continues like this.
 
Since that thread got locked I will voice my opinion here.

Chante gave us the typical answer and I understand she can't say much. But to have a "fun social media day" for an anniversary? I don't know. Can't say I care too much. We all know what it's (likely) going to be: they'll give away DLC codes, they'll stream and they'll join other streamers and have a chat, they'll give away Planet Zoo plushies. I don't expect anything else.

We all knew there would be another DLC by the end of the year. And again, we all know when we get a new DLC we also get a big update. Rest assured, there are things to come by the end of the year.

To be completely honest, I don't think Frontier will change its ways of managing their community and games. The communication level hasn't become better and I don't expect them to ever release big expansion packs (they'll continue with their small DLC model). I have to admit though that I am also kind of sceptical that PZ will have the same longevity and support that PC had. If it happens then it is what it is.
 
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