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A Closer Look at RockYou’s Zoo World
November 18th, 2009
| By Christopher Mack | 44 Comments » |
Thank God, a game that doesn’t involve fish or aquariums. Frankly, Facebook feels way too much like high school. Something gets popular, and everybody does it. That is why Zoo World from RockYou is such a refreshing change. Originally discovered through the social developer’s Hug Me application, this zoo-keeping title has finally received its own stand-alone rendition that has its 1.4 million players creating their own, disgustingly cute, zoos.
The game actually starts out very similar to most Tycoon-style games. Players are granted a small patch of land with some starting animals on it and a few overly cheerful-looking patrons wandering about. They walk in, spend a little cash, look around, and walk out. That’s about all there is to it.
Starting with a small sum of cash, players are tasked with making their zoo worth more by adding new animals, concession stands, bathrooms, staff, and so on. Actually, one’s zoo is measured by a number of statistics, but is generally categorized into the total value of the zoo (based on the animals, tricks they know, and overall assets owned) and the quality grade of A – F (this consists of cleanliness, happiness of workers, parking, animals, etc.). The higher these are the better the player is doing, and the more money they earn.
Unfortunately, money seems to come extraordinarily slow if you don’t leave the game running in the background. Only $1 comes in at a time, and some of the starting stuff you need is incoherently expensive… especially when compared to other purchasable items. For example, how does a bathroom cost $4000 while a friggin’ tiger costs $450?! That’s about as cruel as charging $50 a use for a washroom at Octoberfest.
Another complaint is that players don’t seem to be able to actually control where their purchased animals and attractions go. The game just places it automatically, wherever there is space. Granted, there isn’t that much to decorate with, but it would be nice to have that choice, just to have a little more control.
It is, however, still surprisingly gratifying to see your zoo grow and evolve.
Speaking of evolution, players can actually breed animals. Sadly, this only consists of rare and ultra rare animals with the latter only purchasable with virtual currency that costs real money. Suffice to say, there wasn’t much to check out in that regard, but it certainly is a promising concept.
The game also has a wonderful, visual style. It is very simplistic, and the animals don’t even move, but with the peppy music (which does end up muted because it does not loop properly, by the way) and absurdly cute looking animals, the game is very… happy. It’s hard to get annoyed with any of the problems it has.
All in all, with the exception of denying players a means to directly customize their zoo, the complaints are relatively minor. That said, however, established companies like RockYou! should be held to a higher standard. Should the cost of items be more balanced? Yes. Should players be allowed more customization? Yes. Should the game be all in one Flash module rather than spread out amongst multiple pages? Yes. Could usability and interfaces be better? Yes. Point is, while the game is pretty good, it could be exponentially better.
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November 18th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
i do like the fact that you can earn zoo dollars by visiting friends’ zoos, shaking their trees, and finding a daily treasure in each zoo hidden underneath one of their animal spots
November 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Sorry, you’ve been too generous in your praise for this clunker of a game
November 19th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Who’s editing these things? There’s two grammatical errors in the first two paragraphs.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Ouch, Fred. I’ve fixed.
November 29th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
i am not able to get tigers elephants giraffe coul any one tell how to do it
November 30th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I can’t get my zoo to load i’ve been breeding rare animals w/out it but i’m losing income by my not being able to shake trees, see neighbors zoos etc.. PLEASE HELP ME OUT WITH MY FAVORITE GAME ON FACEBOOK Besides Sorority Life. tyvm suan the V
December 13th, 2009 at 7:41 am
It is a good game except for the ultra rare animals. If you want them you have to pay real money to get them which is a shame. If someone gives you the link for them, you could only download one of each. In other words, the developers make sure that you can not breed them. Shameful!!! But on the other hand, you could play without them. Also, the prize of the staff is raised every time you buy some. The prizes for staff are CRAZY!!! They could cost more than some animals. But in general it is not bad game.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
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December 13th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
you can now edit your zoo. I also have free ultra rare zoo animals posted on my profile. Fell free to add me as a friend on fb…just mention zoo world in comments.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
you can now edit your zoo. I have free ultra rare animal links posted on my profile. feel free to add me as a zoo world friend on fb, just make sure you mention zoo world in the comments.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:10 am
can you send me ultra rare animals?
December 15th, 2009 at 1:27 am
well actually, your essay is wrong because once you adcance,
*you CAN move your animals and other things around to where ever you want.
*You CAN breed more types of animals other than the ones you have to buy with your own money like the bald eagle, blue whale, giant octopus, great-horned owl, swift, american alligator, and more.
*and lastly, the animals do move once you train them.
You should know just a little bit more about your subject next time, but it was overall a good essay.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:58 am
You actually got quite a lot wrong, there…
Rebeka pointed out a lot, there were more, though.
$1 a time? Nope, you increase ticket value as your zoo grows.
Please don’t post in-depth reviews when you haven’t bothered to play the game!
Also… I love how the first comment states “There’s two grammatical errors…”
Ironic xD
December 15th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Please be aware that the original version of Zoo World did not have some of the features you say that we have missed. Note that this was written roughly a month ago while Zoo World was still a part of the RockYou application, Hug Me. Elements such as the training and editing have only been added in recent weeks.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am
i think that the not being able to earn wildlife points faste is bs… the place to get free points by doing offers never works it always freezes up on my old computer and on my brand new computer it worked when i first started playing but not anymore i dont think people should have to pay so much for such little amount of wildlife points their should be other ways to earn or maybe even buy them with zoo money
December 15th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Anyone know what to do when you breed an animal and it gets sick? I’ve visited the hospital like 7 times so far (paying $70,000 each time) and nothing’s happening!!!
Help, I don’t want my platypus to die!
If it does, what happens? Does my zoo grade go down or something?
December 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Apparently there’s a problem with the breeding, purchasing and upgrading right now and the developers are working on it…hopefully it’ll be resolved soon.
By the way, anyone feel free to add me as a friend too, just mention zoo world. The more the merrier!
December 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
How you get more land??? I cant move forward in this game cause I am out of room… no one has been able to answer me.. I go from Land 1 to land 2 and it is the same thing… I even used 10 of my points to get the white land cause I thought I was buying another piece of land!!! I have been everywhere to try and look for the answer … uuuhhh this is frustrating! Thanks in advance
December 19th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
So on Zoo my clock keeps messing up for my zoo days and my money isnt getting added. I cant move forward with out my money… please help!
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 am
I was hoping I could get help – For some reason my Zoo has disappeared, I’ve lost everything. Has this happend to anyone???
Pleas help I don’t want all my animals to die….
December 26th, 2009 at 11:13 am
please add my FB, if u dont mind would u send me a free ultra rare animals? thank you so much… Merry Xmas n Happy New Year
December 26th, 2009 at 11:14 am
please add my FB tony_a_wijaya@yahoo.com , if u dont mind would u send me a free ultra rare animals? thank you so much… Merry Xmas n Happy New Year
December 26th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I think zoo world is really neat except for the glitches gifting animals which will hopefully be fixed soon. I need zoo world friends so feel free to add me!
December 27th, 2009 at 5:44 am
What’s the deal with not being able to play Zoo on Mac?
December 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Is 128 or 129 species the end of the game and are you going to develop more fun??
January 12th, 2010 at 5:58 am
i love zoo world
January 17th, 2010 at 12:17 am
IT IS NOW A WEEK THAT WE ARE NOT ABLE TO VISIT ZOO. IT GIVES A WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE ERROR. ALL OTHER TABS IN ZOO WORKS BUT YOU CANNOT USE THE VISIT ZOO TAB AT ALL. CAN SOMEONE PLSE HELP US!! WE MISS PLAYING ZOO!!!!!!!!
January 17th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
the money looks like you donate to the wildlife fund while actually you fill the pocket of rockyou .. they should call it robyou …
buy a treasureseeker and visit other peoples places and cash bigtime = good trick to get money fast
January 18th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
When I recruit zookeepers, they do not show up. I am being told that I need 20 zookeepers and I have recruited at least that many if not more. What’s going on?
January 18th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
wildlife points sucks. the only ultra rare animal i have is the haitian relief flamingo which only cost me $1 to donate..flamingo? i mean c’mon y not the pegasus or the phoenix or the dragon..flamingo?
January 25th, 2010 at 4:23 am
Some of you seem to get really angry about not very much! It’s only a game. Yes it’s frustrating that everything is so expensive and wildlife points are like gold dust.. but if its making you angry then stop playing!
Personally I’m loving having a game that I don’t have to check on every four hours to feed/harvest/serve whatever. I like I can play whenever i feel like it. I do wish that the developers would be a little more realistic with the cost of things whether in cash or wildlife points as it would be nice to add some of the more unusual things to my zoo.
January 26th, 2010 at 6:19 am
This game had great potential, but the developers have taken several wrong turns and essentially crippled the game.
It’s unbelievably buggy. You lose the things you pay cash for from time to time.
The development team and the management team for Rock You are unbelievably absent from their discussion boards and forums. They don’t respond to legitimate game issues and don’t seem inclined to fix anything, particularly the bugs related to real world cash purchases.
Their payment method is underhanded and sneaky. They process your first payment and set up automatic purchases for future payments, without mentioning that you are setting up the automatic, instant pay for future purchases. So, you can quite easily and inadvertently make more purchases without knowing what you’ve done until it is too late to undo it.
They capitolized on the whole Haiti relief thing by letting you buy a special item, the proceeds from which are supposed to go to the Red Cross, but they just took the item away after a short, cryptic post saying they had to cancel the program because of an issue with their paperwork with PayPal, which really makes one wonder if any of the $40,000 they say they raised is actually going to get any where near Haiti.
January 26th, 2010 at 9:10 am
RE: “Another complaint is that players don’t seem to be able to actually control where their purchased animals and attractions go. The game just places it automatically, wherever there is space”
You actually CAN chose the space where your animals and kiosks (and such things) go.Simply by clicking on inventory.
First : click on “Visit Zoo”
Second: click on “Inventory”
Third: move any of your animals wherever you want
(or kiosks, or trees)
=)
February 6th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
The complaints against zoo world game is not relatively minor…there have been major complaints regarding accumulation of Zoo day profits, and Many many others, from hundreds and thousands of people….and no response from Zoo World (RockYou Live) to any of it, no fixes, no comments, nothing…I don’t call that minor.
February 7th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Help!! I was on leverl 32 of zoo world and suddenly it just dissapeared!! My friends don’t even have me listed as having a zoo anymore. I emptied my cache and deleted cookies. Still no zoo world. Please help, I love this game!
February 8th, 2010 at 8:51 am
TOOOOOOOOOO Helllllllll with zooooooo world!!!!!Its totally annoying that there are so many complaints!!Eventually people stop playing it.I suggest that everybody stops playin so thah rock you is forced to consider our problems
February 15th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
It’s a great game. It’s mainly free. I find the hardest part getting the value of my zoo to go up. I spent 50 million today but zoo only went up by about 5 mill, not fair!
February 16th, 2010 at 12:40 am
you dont need to visit friends find tresuare shake trees,ı found out a better way to make money at zoo world.with my way you can level up 32 in 3 days.
here is the secret
clicking “visit zoo” -yes your own zoo-gaves you your daily profit.yes thats true.if your daily profit is 2000 you earn 2000 your each click.if your computer is slow every you can earn in 20 seconds ,and if computer is fast 10 0r every five seconds you can earn 2000.your daily profit will be much more with buying more species and animals.for ex my level 32 now and my daily profit 90.000 it means ı can earn 90.000 every click visit zoo button.you can have millions and billions this way.just spare time and make money -buy animals stuff and kiosks then make money again go on like that you will reach the top friends whose zoo make billions.just try you will see .good luck
February 16th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I need to contact the makers of Zoo World. I cannot access the application for this game. no way, no how. I have tried for 2 days & all I get is “the website you are looking for is not available” what a bunch of hogwash. I need an invite or a link sent to my email by the maker so I can get on this game. I am getting really POed. Surely the christ there is someone out there who can send me an application for this thing!
Cam Schulte
wildlieber.cam@live.ca
February 20th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
how do u get butterflies so i can level up..cannot find them to buy or save? any help on how to get them is appreciated
February 25th, 2010 at 6:47 am
hi i have bread or have 5 of every thing but cant get to next achevment can you help thanks
February 25th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I paid good money for wildlife points recently which was immediately taken up and yet haven’t been able to access game for over 2 weeks. Was in middle of game when it disappeared on me and all I get now is Game no longer visible or unavailable. What’s up? Cannot connect no matter what link I’ve tried.
March 6th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Don’t buy things in Zoo World as you might not get them! It’s happened to me twice and will not happen again as I’m sone with Zoo World and done with any RockYou application. Beware.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:38 am
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