facebook
Equality praise for casual gaming company
My Zoo is a casual game from Eyrewood Studios for the Facebook platform. With 659,924 monthly users and a portion of profits donated to wildlife charities it’s something that is appealing to all age groups across the globe.
The game is based around creating a zoo through buying land, staff, enclosures and of course the animals themselves. Players can choose to breed endangered animals and make improvements to their zoo to keep visitors coming back and increasing profits.
A little while ago I approached Scott Carney from Eyrewood Studios and asked if some disability equality features could be added to improve the ‘visitor’ experience. After some suggestions around the types of features and language, I was delighted to see that equality has become part of the game experience and players now have to build in disability features to progress in the game.
As a way of making equality mainstream, building equality into gaming is a fantastic way to engage with people. I have approached other companies on similar issues but they have so far declined to include disability equality features into their games.
So far, features include:
• Disabled facilities to increase guest satisfaction
(Text reads “Accessible restrooms, surface improvements, easy-to-read signs and wheelchair/scooter ramps yield more visitors and higher satisfaction.")
• Employee Training (which requires the disabled facilities upgrade)
(Text reads “Customer service and equality training improves interactions between employees and with visitors.)
Future plans include stroller and wheelchair rentals and a zoo train to improve getting around the zoo.
Scott said, “I'm really glad that you contacted me and brought this important aspect of building a public facility to my attention. It wouldn't have occurred to me on my own and I think it's a great addition to our simulation. Because of the limited scope of facebook applications, I wasn't able to incorporate all of your suggestions, but I was happy to add as many as I could. Feedback was very positive when the items showed up.”
