Hear me out, what if every year, in the game's birthday occasion, Frontier releases a community challenge, like many othees, but this time if the community wins everyone unlocks a brand new animal? I was thinking maybe a reskin/remodel like a Masai Giraffe or a Stryped Hyena, so they don't have to work too much on the model and create new rigs, what do you guys think?
(Almost) Free animals on the game's birthday
- Thread starter Dino Mickey
- Start date
That's what I said, but the community challenge is more, well, challenging
It's a nice thought but I don't think it will happen, considering last years lackluster anniversary
I would absolutely love this. But of course the new Animal should be available for everyone and not only People that already played when the Challenge was active. If the Challenge fails, they could still release the Animal as Part of a DLC
I'm pretty sure it's meant in a Way that it will be available for everyone, even for People who didn't participate in the Challenge. If not it would be way too unfair. Especially for People that get the Game way later
Yeah what I meant is that if the community reaches the goal then EVERYONE, every player gets the animal, maybe in a later update but It'd be granted
Maybe, just for once, they could make two animal as prizes since they didn't do anything for the first anniversary
Yeah I didn't really check all the differences between the Spottend and Stryped Hyena, but I think you understand what I meant
Ehm... It doesn't seem very profitable at all
It's more profitable than giving them away for free.
I don't see it happening. I have to admit I was rather surprised there wasn't a "free to all w/ base game installed" animal for the one year, I had been fairly confident there would have been one,. and it would have been an African Rhino. The game is incredible and the community managers have been incredible, and I know the developers are working hard behind the scenes, but the one year anniversary was rather disappointing for all that it was just practically skipped over. It set a very low bar for subsequent anniversaries.
I can understand Frontier not doing anniversary animals, honestly. I think cost/benefit-wise, it's probably not worth it to them to drop a free animal to celebrate. All it really gets them is perhaps a little extra engagement and some goodwill from the fanbase--but so far I think the goodwill is running pretty high as a default. And depending on the specific animal released, it'd either get a minor buzz because it's not a high priority or anticipated one for fans (therefore probably not really worth it, not a ton of extra engagement) or it's a high priority and anticipated animal and therefore probably more valuable as part of paid DLC.
Like, it would be a nice gesture (any animal is an animal, you know? I'll take them all) but it didn't even occur to me as something they might have done last year. I don't think I'd hold my breath for something this year, either. On the DLC and update front, though--that sounds like Frontier's got plans and I'm keen to see them!
Like, it would be a nice gesture (any animal is an animal, you know? I'll take them all) but it didn't even occur to me as something they might have done last year. I don't think I'd hold my breath for something this year, either. On the DLC and update front, though--that sounds like Frontier's got plans and I'm keen to see them!
Uhm, the “goodwill” of fans has been bad on youtube, there are multiple movies of people saying frontier will only release a African and N-American pack before leaving for another project and leaving PZ in the dust like they did every game before it... I hope they are wrong though...
Not to say YouTubers aren't people, but consistently the complaints I've seen from popular YouTubers (kind of ad nauseum at this point) are from builders who want more items and particularly new mechanics to design around. Many of them, like you alluded to, came to Planet Zoo from Planet Coaster and what brought them is primarily the building and design aspect of the game. A free animal would do... basically nothing for that crowd. It would get them through one video, maybe two, and then they'd be back to discussing how they want more unique habitat components, like aquariums and aviaries, because that kind of thing meets what they want from the game and offers them new ways to make content.
They're allowed to want that, of course, and I also would love to see some aviary pieces! But I think it's a mistake to assume that a tiny selection of well-known and vocal players are an accurate sample of the community at large. They're part of the community, but far from the be-all and end-all of people who enjoy and support this game. There's plenty of people who enjoy building but aren't as motivated by it as people who are having to make interesting, fresh content as their job; likewise, there's plenty of people who are here for animals, and building is more or less an afterthought and a supplementary feature of the game, not the core draw to play.
As many have already said, DLC so far has been selling well and is overall quite decently received, with the major complaint for DLCs (prior to the Southeast Asia pack) across the board being "we want more." I think that does say something about how people are feeling about the game, and personally I read it as positive.
tl;dr: YouTubers who build for a living/monetised hobby aren't actually the best sample for average player feelings re: the game, in my opinion, and they aren't the best barometer for goodwill towards the game, given that they have fairly specific agendas re: what makes good content for their channels. A free animal for the anniversary wouldn't really do much there, I don't think.
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After last years debakle I don't even wanna think aboth this years "anniversary", that would probably only be a tweet and only if someone in the forums remind them that it's actually a special day for the community.
I don't think they learned their lesson last year.
I don't think they learned their lesson last year.
Maybe I'm out of the loop but I don't actually get why the anniversary matters? I didn't realise it was supposed to be a special day, so a tweet seems sufficient to me. I wouldn't expect anything more than that from a film, or a book, or frankly any other video game. Like, I love Pokemon but I truly couldn't tell you a launch date for literally any of the games. Is there something I'm missing here?