What Is Zoo World on Facebook?

Zoo World is an online virtual reality game application available through social networking sites, including Facebook.  In this application the user creates a virtual zoo and populates it with animals.  The user also adds features to the zoo such as food and shopping kiosks, restrooms, attractions, and trees.  The zoo will appear as an island when the game starts.  The island grows in size as items (particularly animals) are added to it.  Additional islands automatically become available as the number of species housed in the zoo increases.

Game Currency

Game currency in this application exists in two forms- zoo cash and wildlife points.  Zoo cash is earned automatically as daily profit each zoo day.  Each zoo day is equivalent to 5 minutes and a timer will "tick" down at the top of the screen to allow the user to observe progress through the zoo day.  Zoo time only runs while users are logged into the application.  All earnings are suspended when the user is logged off.  The application also requires a minimum amount of activity to keep zoo time running.  This is considered "supervision" of your zoo.  If the user is idle for too long (such as having the zoo world site running in a background page/tab/window) the game will pause until the user returns to click the button labeled "Click to start zoo day" which restarts the timer. 

Zoo cash is also earned by visiting other zoos.  The user only has the ability to visit the zoos of their friends on the social networking site the application is entered through (such as Facebook).  It is important to have a number of friends playing zoo world to quickly gain cash. When visiting friends there are two opportunities to earn cash.  The user gets a small bonus simply for "entering the zoo" via clicking the appropriate icon on the "Visit friends" tab.  This bonus starts very small (e.g. $50 zoo cash), but grows steadily as users progress in the game and continue to visit zoos.  Also available at the friend's zoo (and the user's zoo, when the user selects the "Visit zoo tab) is a treasure hunt.  If the user wants some (fairly) quick cash, he or she can hunt for the treasure in the zoo.  Each zoo will have a treasure available each day (real-time day, not zoo day).  The treasure is a variable amount based on the user's level and the size of the zoo they are at.  The user will click on each animal in the zoo, generating a pop-up window identifying the species and a random fact (try to read and remember these) about the animal.  At a random point within the zoo (VERY RARELY on the first animal clicked) the user will locate the daily treasure in the zoo.  The amount is automatically added to the available cash.

Cash may be earned by correctly answering the daily quiz.  The quiz is available on the Zoo World "Home" tab and is a multiple choice question about an animal fact.  It is important to pay some attention to the facts in the pop-up windows when "treasure-hunting" in zoos because the the daily quiz questions are based on the animal facts provided by the game.  The user will not have time to look up the answer during the quiz as the game provides 15 seconds for the answer after the question appears on the user's screen.

All the basic items may be purchased using zoo cash.  This includes animals for the zoo, support items and service (such as visiting the animal hospital with a sick animal).  Premium items require wildlife points.  Premium items include ultra-rare species, such as dragons, unicorns and gremlins (it is a virtual zoo after all).

Wildlife points can be obtained using real world currency through online purchase by visiting the "Wildlife Fund" tab.  Wildlife points are also earned through completion of level requirements.  On the "Home" tab, the requirements for completing the current level are noted.  When all requirements are met for a level, the user will increase to the next level and receive one wildlife point.  Wildlife points can be traded in at the "Wildlife Fund" for zoo cash or used to purchase premium items.

Beginner Tips 

• Items needed for the zoo will be identified in the "shop" tab.  Keeping up with needed items will improve the zoo grade, maximizing earnings.
• Some items increase in cost as the user level increases- this is particularly true to staff, such as maintenance workers, veterinarians, zookeepers and kiosk managers.  "Purchasing" extra people at the beginning of the game may save a lot of money in later levels.  As the zoo increases in size, each of these items will be needed in greated quantity.
• Zookeepers can be purchased if a user has run out of friends to recruit, however this costs cash.  Recruiting is the least expensive option.  Visit the "Help" tab and see an open chat window.  Users can post a need for more zookeepers and/or click on links of other users who have posted such a request (almost constantly available) and add the person as a friend.  Once added and confirmed as a friend, the person can be selected from the "Recruit Zookeeper" tab in the game.  Please note that posting to the chat window will be public and friend requests will allow people that you (probably) don't know access to your profile.  To maintain privacy in any areas where it is desired, users should check and customize their settings within Facebook or other social networking site.
• Increasing the number of species will increase zoo value and generate more visitors (which in turn increases profit).
• Animals can be adopted for free from the live feed of the users' Facebook pages as their friends post lost animals.