Monique Tether

When I was a mere child, (This isn't a joke so quit laughing!) I had an addiction. It wasn't bad, it was great, I had found my favorite mental stimulate, a game entitled Endangered Species. I loved the game so much, it had just came out, and I got the demo version first day of release. I was amazed that a simple game could have so many amazing graphics, and could be so much fun! I was only seven, and already I knew things from that game thats I would have never learned elsewhere on my own.

So, a month later, I found that there are more of these games, Theres Zoo Tycoon 2, the original of these games. Theres African Adventures, and there is going to be Marine Mania, it looked so much fun, you get to ride undersea animals, and train them tricks, And so, I downloaded as many of these games as I could, Racking up my hardrive with megabytes upon megabytes of data. Soon, I bought my first for real Zoo tycoon 2 game, I brought it home on a saturday night, happy as could be, awaiting the 20 animals who where waiting for me to build them a home. I ripped the plastic wrapper off, along with those annoying security stickers. I popped the disk out, placed it in the drive, shivers went up my spine, this was the best day of my life. It began installing, then finished. I hit the play button, my hands shaking the mouse so much I almost missed it. A little black screen popped up, a clear sign the game was starting, aaand... The box closed. Usually, if it was working, the box would get bigger, it didnt. It closed out. It was gone. I hit Play over and over, but the same thing happened. Nothing.

I was so sad I was crying, then my dad found the problem, microsoft games won't work if they sense a demo version of the game is on the computer. So, dad wiped our computer clean, for me. I was elated! My game was working, soon enough, I got the Endangered Species and African adventures exspansions, then I got my favorite, Marine Mania. I was so happy! But then, I became hooked into it. Every second I wasn't eating or sleeping, I was on that game. I got every single expansion pack, time after and time after they came. Arabian Nights, Jurassic Park, Dino Digs, you name it, I had to have it. Then, perhaps the most exciting one yet, Extinct ANimals, where you must search for the bones of extinct animals, then use their DNA to bring them back to life. I got it soon as I could. I played it over and over again, assembelling bones, feeding dinosaurs, running away from prehistoric moose and goats.

But, alas, Microsoft made their final debute to Zoo tycoon, they made a value pack, all the games for twenty bucks, out of the hundreds my parents spent. I was happy about this, not so happy that all my games mystriously got erased from my computer, and mom was dead set against getting me any more. I didn't know what to do. Those games got me through my parents divorce, moving several times in a year, going through the deaths of family, and pets, somehow, the games kept my mind going. I suppose, caring for something with no real feelings hurts less when it dies than caring for something real and it dies. Some of my best memories are kept with this game. for three years, I loved, and now, almost six years from the day I found out about it, I lost.

Yes, today I found out that microsoft was not under ropes for three years working on an even greater game than the first two, a Zoo Tycoon 3. No, they are currently working on the five hundreth Halo!!!

I almost broke down today when I saw my favorite game, sitting there on my desktop. I decided to download Marine Mania, the demo, to say my final goodbye to the games. Tomorrow I am going to download Endangered Animals, and say my goodbyes to the game that started it all for me.

I then saw the news report that Blue Fang, the official maker of Zoo Tycoon, had ended their ten year deal with Microsoft, the distributor of Zoo Tycoon, and that there will never, ever be a third.

Of course, no third means that ZT2 is going to be going downhill from here on out, just like its sister ZT did back in 2000, four years before ZT2 made its presence known.

Its just plain sad. Even if it isn't something you can't live without, its sad knowing something that you've loved since childhood is going to be dropped on its head by the companies who make it just because one expansion went downhill. And what they are working on now can't possibly capture the imaginations of kids the way the ZT games did. One final Zoo Tycoon, to go out with a big bang that everyone knew of, would really brighten people to seeing that video game doesn't always mean violence and blood, it can mean animals, and fun, and purity.

However, a contract is a contract, and it broke, so no ZT3, though it would be great.

Really, when you love a show, or a game, so much you have to have seen every episode, or have every version, or know everything about it, it can make you happy, or happier, or destroy your life (Without moderation, that is), So, as it is sad, most of the things you turly love end up going out with a bang, a big picture changer, a third and final twist that will leave you speechless, a big numbah 3.

Tell me about something you love, and hope never ends.