No, PZ should not have been a PC expansion/DLC

As a child, Roller Coaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon were two of my favorite games, yet I've always preferred ZT due to my love of animals.
While the amusement park sims market is alive and well, there hasn't really been a worthy successor to the ZT franchise, and I've been yearning for one for years.
That's why the announcement of PZ made me incredibly excited, and everything I've read so far about the game looks super promising.
Yet when I've gone and read some people's comments on the news, I was very surprised to see that many people wish PZ was released as part of Planet Coaster, instead of a separate game. I can only disagree with the sentiment. While I get that many people are huge fans of PC (I admire the game myself, even though I haven't gotten the chance to play it myself yet, it seems like a great game from what I've seen), I think combining PC and PZ would've been a big mistake, and I'm very glad that Frontier aren't doing that, for various reasons.
  • First of all: zoos and amusement parks are decidedly separate entities in my eyes. While the main goal of an amusement park is, well, the amusement of its visitors, via thrill rides and whatnot, a good zoo's core agenda is (or should be, at least... there are crappy zoos out there) the wellbeing of the animals that inhabit it. Conservation and education should be at the front, with the visitors coming at second place (they are the ones generating money and ensuring the zoo's continued existence after all).
  • Maintaining the smooth operation of thrill rides in an amusement park require completely different mechanics and techniques than maintaining the wellbeing of living (virtual) animals, and integrating these new things into an existing game would've been very difficult. Making it a new, separate game is only logical, and the right thing to do to ensure the success of both games.
  • I'm not at all a big fan of DLC "culture" and the habit of releasing incomplete games at full price and then adding additional content for an additional price (especially when it's minor modifiers and not something that actually expends the gameplay). From a glance at Steam, PC has already got an abundance of DLCs (and plenty of people who're complaining about it and about the prices).
  • There is so much potential to a good zoo sim game. There are so many unique aspects to managing a zoo (especially from a realistic viewpoint), and those deserve their own team giving their full attention and talent to developing those aspects and bringing them to their full potential.
  • And hey, us Zoo Tycoon fans deserve our own spiritual successor game! Fans of amusement park sims already got plenty in recent years, let us have our nostalgic fun too!
So all in all, I'm very pleased that Frontier made the decision to make PZ a complete game of its own.
Sending all my good wishes for the devs and the team. I'm really looking forward to what you guys have got to offer for us! 🤞
 
Interesting point of view.

I think the same as you about separating Planet Zoo from Planet Coaster. Both are games with different themes and the welfare of the animals should prevail over the attractions in a game like this. Even so, I hope that certain mechanics of Planet Coaster are maintained in this, as for example, the exaggerated amount of options to customize an enclosure or a building.

I also have the same opinion about the DLCs, but...what do you think about expansions? Zoo Tycoon 2 had several good quality expansions, like Endangered Species or Marine Mania. Those expansions were not pieces of an unfinished game, but large packs of new content (with the corresponding effort and time to create them) that improved the base game experience.

Would not it seem a good idea for developers to take their time to work on something like that for Planet Zoo?

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Interesting point of view.

I think the same as you about separating Planet Zoo from Planet Coaster. Both are games with different themes and the welfare of the animals should prevail over the attractions in a game like this. Even so, I hope that certain mechanics of Planet Coaster are maintained in this, as for example, the exaggerated amount of options to customize an enclosure or a building.

I also have the same opinion about the DLCs, but...what do you think about expansions? Zoo Tycoon 2 had several good quality expansions, like Endangered Species or Marine Mania. Those expansions were not pieces of an unfinished game, but large packs of new content (with the corresponding effort and time to create them) that improved the base game experience.

Would not it seem a good idea for developers to take their time to work on something like that for Planet Zoo?

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I loved the ZT2 expansions. The best thing about them is that they added new gameplay - new campaign missions and such - to the basic game, and not just new animals (although new animals are great as well, don't get me wrong - but I love having new in-game scenarios to play with). So yes, I absolutely do agree that it'd be great to have expansions of this kind released for Planet Zoo.
 
Thank you for saying this so clearly and well-written!

I couldn't agree more. I don't quite understand why people really want to put animals into amusement parks..

Not to mention that - obviously - with Planet Zoo being a separate title, we're gonna get a lot more depth with the animals than we ever could with a DLC for Planet Coaster.
 
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