🌈 PlanZoPride Competition! 🌈
- Thread starter Francesca Falcini
- Start date
I really don't understand the few negative comments on this.
This competition is a different but creative and nice idea to declare one's solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community which unfortunately still is fighting against too many discriminations in too many places in the world. Why is it necessary to have an actual connection to what the game is about? I don't think it is necessary. It's just a creative way to declare solidarity, they could have also done a challenge for e.g. solidarity with the Ukraine. The game's content really doesn't matter in my opinion.
Aside from this, I do think that a game which is about the diversity of nature and animals is perfect for celebrating the diversity of the society.
This competition is a different but creative and nice idea to declare one's solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community which unfortunately still is fighting against too many discriminations in too many places in the world. Why is it necessary to have an actual connection to what the game is about? I don't think it is necessary. It's just a creative way to declare solidarity, they could have also done a challenge for e.g. solidarity with the Ukraine. The game's content really doesn't matter in my opinion.
Aside from this, I do think that a game which is about the diversity of nature and animals is perfect for celebrating the diversity of the society.
The billboard will show up blank if someone else were to use your submission in the game. That's because the files (pics/video) have to be in the computer of the person viewing your build.
We'd love to see what you build though and hope that doesn't hurt your submission to much
Thanks for you help! I think I'll just do billboards with ingame pieces or send a video then!
black bears, brown bears, polar bears and navy seals. dont care about the flamingos and peacocks.
I think you make a good point but it’s also fair to ask, for example, if making statements and declaring solidarity is backed up in LGBTQ+ representation in the games they make because visibility matters.I really don't understand the few negative comments on this.
This competition is a different but creative and nice idea to declare one's solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community which unfortunately still is fighting against too many discriminations in too many places in the world. Why is it necessary to have an actual connection to what the game is about? I don't think it is necessary. It's just a creative way to declare solidarity, they could have also done a challenge for e.g. solidarity with the Ukraine. The game's content really doesn't matter in my opinion.
Aside from this, I do think that a game which is about the diversity of nature and animals is perfect for celebrating the diversity of the society.
It’s also fair to ask if this company and others waving rainbow flags are actually proactively nurturing and accepting places for diversity, if they are safe spaces in which to come out, if they crack down on discrimination and hate speech as well as casual everyday homophobia for example.
I’m not saying Frontier don’t do this but it is legitimate to ask companies to be more upfront in showing how they implement the principles and values of Pride all year
This. Companies are taking part in Pride, which can be a good thing, but it has to be more than just pandering to our community and essentially using it as a selling point. That's why people ask more and are more critical of it.
Now that doesn't mean that Frontier is merely pandering and are using it as a selling point. Plenty of people in the dev team of Frontier are part of the LGBTQ+ community and I'm 100% sure that something like this contest ( and the monthly pride celebrations) are done because they themselves care about it, and not just because it's a corporate mandate.
But, I also agree that whilst I already appreciate all the effort that this brings to the table, I also would like it to go further and be represented in the game. I understand that it doesn't fit in the schedule and because I had the pleasure of getting to know some of the devs behind it all I understand that they're doing as much as they can within the time/budget limits that they have. But I also understand that the question gets raised and it's a valid question.
That is what I meant to get across in my initial post. Sorry if I communicated it in a way that put off some people. Being on the autism spectrum, I am not the best at communicating these things.
HeatherG
Volunteer Moderator
Very well saidI really don't understand the few negative comments on this.
This competition is a different but creative and nice idea to declare one's solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community which unfortunately still is fighting against too many discriminations in too many places in the world. Why is it necessary to have an actual connection to what the game is about? I don't think it is necessary. It's just a creative way to declare solidarity, they could have also done a challenge for e.g. solidarity with the Ukraine. The game's content really doesn't matter in my opinion.
Aside from this, I do think that a game which is about the diversity of nature and animals is perfect for celebrating the diversity of the society.
I'm not 100% sure but I think the game includes 'families' as in adult and children that have two adults of the same gender? I might be wrong and obviously that doesn't automatically imply a couple but is very often game short hand for a 'nuclear family'. If that isn't a thing currently then I would probably think that would be an easy fix and show more representation than implementing animal behaviours in something like penguins. That would be great too, especially to push back against a common criticism of LGBTQ+ people as somehow 'unnatural'. My only thing is that it would take more time, would probably need to be rare in game and I also think that Pride is a celebration of human beings and our own species diversity.
I haven't really watched the Planet Zoo people that much, to be fair, but I can tell you that in JWE there were same sex couples holding hands etc. So yes, they represent LGBTQ+ in their games.
There are actually a good amount of open LGBTQ+ people working at Frontier and if I remember correctly they have weekly or at least monthly showcases of pride related workshop stuff. Their (wonderful) community manager is nonbinary. Pointing at Frontier for using pride month for marketing is really pointing at the wrong company, mate.
Exactly. In fact, Frontier is one of the few companies I would absolutely not criticize for this, because they show their support in many ways and don't limit it to pride month.
Can't check it in the Game currently but I'm pretty sure 2 Guests of the same Gender do also sometimes appear as a Guest Group that also includes Children in Planet Zoo
They also post a pride themed build on their instagram every month (I think on the 28th each month, which is probably because of the stonewall riots, that took place on June 28)
Buuuut I just wanted to say: maybe the penguin plushie that the winner gets is already a little hint at same sex penguin couples coming up?
Buuuut I just wanted to say: maybe the penguin plushie that the winner gets is already a little hint at same sex penguin couples coming up?
Why is LGBT an issue? - it is celebrating and loving a marginalised and still discriminated against part of our community that is still having ridiculous issues around their choices for love and not being accepted for who they truly are - people of this planet who love other people - they love another person and this is beautiful. It's like saying 'world elephant day' is an issue and has division against it, like we have here. There is no issue and bring on this wonderful and inclusive competition - thank you Frontier for recognising the truly beautiful, sensitive and amazingly artistic people out there who still have things to worry about, even now, in 2022 - bring on the rainbows . . .
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Look, I would agree that plenty of corporations do use it as a marketing-gimmick, as many are opportunistic (which is the nature of business) and stuff like this is easily exploitable. But I kinda feel like this case, the act of a little contest, isn't as harmful as making a big marketing-campaign out of it. - I get the cynicism about it usually, but maybe here it's not that warranted. - But, I'm sure different people feel differently about it. I mean, I'm basically part of the LGBT-community (Well, really, everyone is, as it's about accepting everyone's sexuality, but you know...), I also occasionally go to like one of those festivals, but other than that I don't really care what people do about it. If I don't care for certain companies suddenly waving the "rainbow-flag" during one month, I'll ignore it. - Again, in this case, a little contest in that theme, OK nice. - Then again, I don't follow any of Frontier's media, so I don't know what else goes on. But if it's mostly just this, fine. No?
They have LGBT...or at least LGB representation in their game. Just look at the guests. There also was in PC.
Just my two cents, but I really don't think this is comparable to big corporations using Pride Month as a marketing scheme. I'm just one person within the LGBT community, so I obviously don't speak for everyone, but when most people complain about corporations such as this they're referring to companies using pride marketing without actually doing anything for the community (e.g. selling pride themed merchandise that is designed by cishet people).
As others have said on this thread, Frontier has shown their support in many other ways through workshop posts and (from what I've seen) a rather accepting workplace.
As for in-game representation, I think that same gender couples as guests being in the game is pretty good as is, and gay animal couples would be cute if they could be implemented. I feel like trans representation is a little different though. I'm a trans person, and I want us to be represented in more positive ways, but I don't really expect to find it in a zoo game. There's not really any real way to tell if a guest is cis or trans (or even their gender for that matter!), so it's not a big deal there. The only thing I can think of would be changing the gender settings in the character creation menu to be more inclusive towards non-binary people. I'm not non-binary, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but maybe changing the text for the "male" and "female" body type options to something like "body type 1" and "body type 2" would be nice. I know Animal Crossing New Horizons did something similar a while back, and it made a lot of people happy.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I appreciate the steps that Frontier has taken to make this community feel safer for people like me, and I'm sure many others do as well. :>
As others have said on this thread, Frontier has shown their support in many other ways through workshop posts and (from what I've seen) a rather accepting workplace.
As for in-game representation, I think that same gender couples as guests being in the game is pretty good as is, and gay animal couples would be cute if they could be implemented. I feel like trans representation is a little different though. I'm a trans person, and I want us to be represented in more positive ways, but I don't really expect to find it in a zoo game. There's not really any real way to tell if a guest is cis or trans (or even their gender for that matter!), so it's not a big deal there. The only thing I can think of would be changing the gender settings in the character creation menu to be more inclusive towards non-binary people. I'm not non-binary, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but maybe changing the text for the "male" and "female" body type options to something like "body type 1" and "body type 2" would be nice. I know Animal Crossing New Horizons did something similar a while back, and it made a lot of people happy.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I appreciate the steps that Frontier has taken to make this community feel safer for people like me, and I'm sure many others do as well. :>
Can we have the pride flag in the game please.
Now that's just taking things too far, you know...
No but, are there flags in this game?... Not that I can recall. Would be nice, as parks often have them.
But if there are, yea, they could add the Pride one. - But then, which version?...
I feel like it has been revised so many times, just stuffed with all the genders and orientations and so on, that the design has become ridiculous.
Personally, I'd rather just use the rainbow-sign that is in the game. Might just be an actual rainbow, but at least it refers to it.