What Planet Zoo taught me about ethics and the importance of education
This article was originally published on Gameher.fr in French.
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Recently, my boyfriend gave me Planet Zoo as a Christmas present (thanks again to you if you read this article). Needless to say how excited I was to be able to play it. Released on November 5, 2019, Planet Zoo is a game that was developed and designed by the Frontier Group, which created Planet Coaster, Jurassic World Evolution and Elite Dangerous, but also with the developers behind Tycoon Zoo. To be precise, this article is not a test of the Planet Zoo game, but a reflection on ethics and education.
Zoos don’t often have a very good reputation, and the same goes for management games that put animals in cages. We can mention the games Zoo Tycoon, Sea Life Park Empire, Zoo Empire, World of Zoo, or the countless flash games on the subject. Where Planet Zoo corrects the score is by offering a game that, through its career and franchise modes, makes players aware of the importance of these parks. Of course, when they are built and managed to preserve diversity and not just for financial gain.
Planet Zoo offers 4 different game modes: career, franchise, challenges, and sandbox. Before going further in this article, you need to know that I will happily spoil the game’s career mode. So, if you prefer not to know the scenarios of the career mode, I invite you to stop reading this article.
A career mode to understand the different issues
This mode is divided into several scenarios, currently, there are 14 scenarios, 2 of which are added with the “Arctic Pack” DLC released on December 17, 2019.
“Each scenario has its own unique challenges, determined by the continent you are on, the biome you are using, the weather, the temperature and, of course, the availability of animals. There will be goals to achieve (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), which contain game objectives that vary in difficulty as you progress through the story — there are many unique goals to achieve!” — Developer’s Diary, August 15, 2019.
These different scenarios plunge us into special situations. The first ones are more or fewer tutorials aimed at teaching us the basics of the “job” with Bernie Goodwin accompanied by Nancy Jones, who are more than foresighted towards us. But later on, things get more difficult as we have to work for a newcomer following Bernie’s death. This new boss, Dominic Myers, has the primary aim of making a profit. For him, the zoo must make money even if it means sacrificing the well-being of the animals and employees. So you’re going to have to do your best to make budget cuts. And beware, because if your animals are not happy, you risk seeing demonstrators who will come to protest for the animals’ well-being!
Thus, through the first scenarios, we learn the importance of educating visitors and making them aware of the cause of our park (even if they are NPCs). Later, we learn to make sacrifices reluctantly, but this shows us another aspect of zoo management. We are faced with choices between firing employees, reselling toys that our animals loved, creating smaller enclosures…
Then, as we go on, our new boss is none other than the daughter of Bernie Goodwin, who is trying to buy back the zoos from your old boss. Emma Goodwin’s goal is to save the animals that Dominic Myers obtained from the various zoos in his possession.
All the characters mentioned above are fictional characters present in the game. Bernie Goodwin and Nancy Jones are the equivalents of mentors who are passionate about their job and want to save the animals. Dominic Mayers, on the other hand, is a businessman who has seized inexpensive land intending to create profitable zoos to try to regain his notoriety. Emma Goodwin is Bernie’s daughter. Although Bernie is not interested in running a zoo, she remains very committed to the animal cause and will do everything she can to save the animals owned by Dominic Mayers.
A franchise mode for the preservation of animals
This mode is the “multiplayer” mode of Planet Zoo. Multiplayer, because you will be able to exchange the animals in your zoo with those of other players around the world. In franchise mode, you start the game with a few conservation credits and a certain amount of money. Conservation Credits are an in-game currency that allows you to buy animals. It’s up to you to make sure that you get as many conservation credits and money as possible to make your park grow. Whether it’s by adding new animals or insects, or by setting up a hot dog stand, for example.
But how do conservation credits work?
These credits allow you to acquire animals in the animal market. You can obtain them in several ways:
- By visiting other players’ zoos (anonymously or not)
- When greeting players visiting your zoo
- By connecting every day
- Participating in community challenges (these challenges change weekly)
- By selling your animals in the market
- By releasing your animals back into the wild
However, be careful when you want to acquire new critters to enrich your zoo, as well as when you want to sell them. The goal is not to explode market prices. You have to make sure that anyone can buy your animal (if it has unusual characteristics, a high price may be justified). The player is therefore encouraged to release his animals to obtain conservation credits. However, some unscrupulous players do not hesitate to sell their animals at astronomical prices for the sole purpose of making a profit. Don’t be like these players!
Community challenges to raise awareness of a cause
In franchise mode, players are offered challenges. Each week, the community must complete a challenge that is related to saving the animals. The goal of these challenges is usually to breed endangered species of animals, or to release a certain number of animals of a species back into the wild. Here are the challenges that have taken place since the launch of Planet Zoo :
- Give birth to 75,000 Bengal tigers (6 November 2019)
- Release X lowland gorillas into the wild (12 November 2019)
- Give birth to 100 000 grizzly bears (November 19, 2019)
- Giving birth to 75,000 pandas (26 November 2019)
- Release 200,000 cheetahs into the wild (December 3, 2019)
- Giving birth to 350,000 zebras (December 10, 2019)
- Give birth to 70,000 Japanese macaques (17 December 2019)
- Release 60,000 Seychelles turtles into the wild (24 December 2019)
- Give birth to 200 000 dogs (December 31, 2019)
- Release 80 000 Indian elephants into the wild (7 January 2020)
- Give birth to 70 000 Indian rhinos (14 January 2020)
Each community event raises awareness of the current situation of these animal species in the wild. By participating in the various challenges, the player can reach levels that allow him/her to collect exclusive rewards. These rewards range from conservation credits to costumes for your character.
Educate your visitors to earn more money
To run your franchise zoo properly, you’re going to need money. And that’s where visitor education comes in! Your zoo’s main source of income will come from donations and adoptions. Just know that a visitor will be more likely to do these things if they have an educational sign, a speaker explaining things about the animal they are looking at, or information on a screen. In addition to making them spend more money, it makes your visitors happier.
This works in Franchise mode as well as in Challenge and Career modes. But to do this, you should also think about researching to improve the well-being of your pets. This will allow you to fill out the zoopedia which explains many things about the animal in question.
A Challenge mode to learn while having fun
If you can’t play in franchise mode because you don’t have an internet connection, there is the challenge mode. This mode allows you to have the same features as in franchise mode, except that you won’t have access to community challenges and players visiting your zoo. However, you will have a series of challenges to complete throughout your game. These challenges are diverse and varied, ranging from “Adopt 2 new animals” to “Increase the Dog’s education score to 14” to “Release 5 endangered species into the wild”. As in the challenge mode, you will need to acquire conservation credits, however, you will get them differently.
A sandbox mode to test the limits of ethics
In sandbox mode, you are free to do what you want in it. You don’t have any budget constraints as the money is unlimited. The same goes for conservation credits. So players are free to do what they want in terms of experimentation. Some players have made royal battles with all the animals in the game. Others have fun dropping crocodiles on visitors, and some players have even created prisons for their zoos.
One quickly realizes by watching the videos made on this game, that the players do not hesitate one moment to go very far. Some even go as far as organizing catfights in pens that are too small. The limits of ethics are pushed or even “killed” by these players.
In conclusion
We must not forget that Planet Zoo is above all a game that aims to entertain players while offering them a management aspect. Indeed, this game shows the importance of education, whether it is by offering your visitors to learn more about your animals or by directly raising the player’s awareness through community challenges. Finally, the Zoopedia even comes to break down the fourth wall by allowing players to learn more about animals, whether it’s their habitat preferences or how many of them remain in the wild.
