Visitors in Zoo Life Simulator will pay top dollar to look at anything: a rabbit, a goose, and even a hot dog stand.



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AI is coming to take my job, so I'd better start looking for a new one. Luckily, there are a ton of job simulators on Steam, and I'm going to play as many as I can until I find my next career. This week's job: Zoo Life Simulator, an early access game about managing a zoo.

I'm not sure who put me in charge of a zoo so massive I need to ride a horse just to get across it and yet only gave me a budget of $1,200 to spend on animals to fill it—but that's the situation I find myself in on my first day of work in Zoo Life Simulator. I'm in a big, empty zoo with very little money (and a horse).

I browse the animal shop, which at this stage contains only chickens, rabbits, and geese, none of which I typically associate with zoos. But, you've gotta start somewhere, so I start with chickens. I spend half my cash on chickens, which at $60 each means I now have 10 whole chickens. Welcome to my awesome zoo?

But hold on. It's my first day on the job and I want to show some initiative, some strong decision-making skills. Go big or go home, right? So I take my remaining $600 and also spend it on 10 chickens. I've blown my entire budget within a few seconds of being hired, sure, but that's what it takes to get ahead. 20 chickens. From this I shall build my zoo empire.

Unfortunately, the game won't let me do anything else until I've bought food for my 20 chickens, and I can't do that with $0. Humbled, I sheepishly sell back half of my chickens. Worse, I don't even get my 600 dollars back. I sell my other 10 chickens, but still, no refund.

It's day one of my new job and all I've done is spend $1,200 on zero chickens. I try to imagine what I'd actually do if I lost my employer's entire budget on my first day of work, and I honestly think I'd go to my bank, take out the amount of money I'd spent, and quietly slip it into the zoo's cash drawer. I'd prefer losing my own money over getting yelled at or exposed for incompetence.

I do the equivalent of that by starting the game over.

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This time I buy a rabbit. Just one rabbit. My bravado is gone and my goal is now to just get through a single day without screwing things up. I release the bunny from its ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

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