Why on earth is a wall of text incoming and why do I care so much?
First of all, let me get straight the basics, as this is very important to me: I am (almost) a one game player. I have one game as a hobby and just play other games from time to time. After EA took the Sims away as my hobby after round about 20 years, I was left with no „main game“ until Planet Zoo game around. I love this game and wish for it to grow, to advance and to be the best and most successful zoo game there has ever been. And I know the Devs are working their butts off to make this game successful and the community managers are working hard to be a bridge between Devs and players. I am incredibly thankful for that.
What the heck is happening?
But lately there has been a mood shift in the Planet Zoo community. When I first heard all the YouTubers suddenly whine that they lost interest in Plan Zoo I could not understand. How can someone be bored by such a creative and wonderful game? I was, to be honest, rather annoyed by this mood shift. But I’m a person who always tries to be empathic and be understanding with people. Which is why I thought about why I am happy with this game and others aren’t. I’m not saying I found every reason there is for the mood shift. But I found one.
I am a builder. I never played Planet Coaster and building things got me hooked with this game. I haven’t had such possibilities to express myself for three years, like others had.
Masked Bandit said in a comment to me and in one of the Brocoaster season Zoo, that he felt the interest in Planet Zoo drop at the time he has to let an animal into a new habitat. Which actually got me thinking. And I realised that I myself build, watch the animals for three minutes, build again. And build, and build, and build.
How to change what is happening now
However, this is a zoo game. The animals should be the main aspect of the game, should keep players interested. But they aren’t the main aspect. And in my opinion it is, because they are beautiful, but lifeless. Beautiful shells. Not individuals. And that, for players that have enough of building, kills the long-term aspect of the game and will sooner or later kill Planet Zoo. I don’t want that! I want this game to stay and shine. So I try to help by giving ideas on what can be improved about the animals. Feel free to add your opinion in the comments as well.
- The animals lack variations. Every lion, every tiger is the same. Yes, they differ in size. But besides that, every tiger can easily replaced by another. What we need is difference in behaviour. Let one tiger me more playful, one less interested in breeding, one more aggressive. One more interested in enrichment, the other more lazy. Let one tiger need more different toys, the other just playing with his favourite. And please let there be different fur shades. Ideal, this could passed down to the offspring via a genetic system.
- Let the animals react more emotionally. I had a new gorilla female once adding to an existing group. When I put her in a habitat – nothing happened. In real life, every group member would check her out, interact with her in different ways. Depending on personality sometimes intimidating, sometimes friendly. New animals can react shy or like an extrovert. Whatever it is: Let something happen! At the moment, animals only react interesting and different, when there welfare is low. Whenever you meet their requirements, they start to get boring and life less. And that is also, because they only interact with themselves or with enrichment items, but very, very rarely with other animals or the guests. Which brings me to point three:
- Let them react to guests. Let them scare guests, when they have a naughty or aggressive personality by roaring a lot or jump against the barrier. Let naughty lemurs in walk-in habitats be pocket thefts. Or let aggressive lemurs bite them. This could lead to the zoo paying a compensation to the injured guest.
- Let the animals be like persons. Not easily be replaced. Maybe the new ice bear baby gets very famous with the guests. They ask for merchandise for this animal, buy annual tickets to see them more often, mourn for them when they die.
Fazit / Summary
In short:
Give animals character, please. Make them the star of this game. Let this be a zoo simulation, not a building simulator. Individualism in animals could be a
challenge for the player. Maybe we have to change our breeding plans, because two individuals won’t get along. Maybe we need to change the habitat, because the shy individual in the lion pride needs more places to hide. Maybe the one Mandrill gets bullied in his current group but can shine in a new one.
I am not a programmer and don’t know what is possible to implement at all or at this stage the animals are in now. But I know that something has to be done. And I know if this game gets polished a little more and the animals get more interesting,
this game can become a cash cow. And in the end, that’s what’s important for a company as well.
That said: Thanks to everyone who read all this. I am so looking forward to a lively discussion and your ideas on what could improve the animals.