User blog:Granditamias/What warrants the adding of a JW:E dinosaur?

Of the three new species in the recent Cretaceous Dinosaurs DLC for Jurassic World: Evolution, the inclusion of the Dreadnoughtus stuck out to me the most. The reason why is because only a couple months earlier in Fallen Kingdom, the Dreadnoughtus’ name was seen on a DNA vial at the end of the film. Given that the game’s dinosaur designs are based pretty much identically to those of the film series, it makes me wonder if Dreadnoughtus would really look that way if it is going to be in Jurassic World III. It is almost as if the game was hinting at some sort of significance with that dinosaur species going forward; and the fact that its DNA exists in film canon is a good warrant for its inclusion in the game.

However, Jurassic World: Evolution has many other dinosaurs like the Pentaceratops, Chunkingosaurus, Olorotitan, Polocanthus , Sauropelta, Camarasaurus, and Maiasaura, which as far as we know, don’t exist as either living or in stored DNA form in the film canon. This makes me wonder what warrants the inclusion of those dinosaurs in the game and if they would really look like that if incorporated into Jurassic World III.

Of the dinosaurs I mentioned in the previous paragraph, many of them are similar to more famous film dinosaurs of their respective clades, and in my opinion it makes the non-film ones seem generic by comparison. Don’t get me wrong, there are some non-film dinosaurs in the game like the Iguanodon and Deinonychus that are appealing enough in design, have interesting gameplay mechanics, and have big names outside of the Jurassic Park franchise to warrant their inclusion.

With the exception of a few dinosaurs like the Proceratosaurus, Segisaurus, Herrerasaurus, Compsognathus, and Microceratus, every dinosaur seen or mentioned in film canon is in Jurassic World: Evolution; including ones used in the film version’s Indominus rex, like the Majungasurus and Giganotosaurus. But if film status is not necessary for a dinosaur like Chasmosaurus for example to be included in the game, then what about them made the game’s developers want to put them in? And how will this determine what dinosaurs get added in future DLCs?

Likely they needed to add in some filler dinosaurs to create more vairied missions and contracts in the campaign mode, or it could be just that they wanted to give those dinosaurs some notoriety so that the player doesn't always have to resort to using the bigger name dinosaurs. Especially in the case of the latter, they aren't at the level of obscurity that say, Terataphoneus is, but recognizable enough that some of the more research-intensive fans would see a decently sized collection of dinosaurs from each clade. Just like in most dinosaur encyclopedia books, you're likely to see a page on a species of dinosaur that doesn't appear in another book, even though the most famous species of a certain clade, like Stegosaurus for example, is much more likely to be in every book. Of course, it's impossible for every species of Stegosaurid to be included in an encyclopedia book or video game, but I think the encyclopedia feeling is what Fronteir was going for with Jurassic World: Evolution's dinosaur selection.

Personally, if I was one of the developers, I would have chosen more oddball dinosaurs like Einiosaurus and Concavenator because their features not only make them famous, but also make them more distinguishable from other species in their clades. Speaking of Concavenator though, it seems to have gotten more prominence in the franchise as of 2018; it was added to the Jurassic World app game, was a diorama in the Lockwood Estate’s collection hall, and was revealed to be getting a toy in the Dino Rivals line. Perhaps Concavenator has a larger chance than most dinosaurs of being in a new DLC. Sorry to go off on that tangent. I also would have chosen dinosaurs that, like the Iguanodon and Deinonychus I mentioned earlier, have status outside the franchise and among dinosaur enthusiasts; Megalosaurus being a prime example.

However, there are some dinosaurs that I believe won’t make it into the game due to either small size or feathers. Compsognathus and Microceratus, despite being film dinosaurs, would be too small to tranquilize manually with an ACU helicopter if they ever broke out, and even automatically they’re likely to miss. Assuming you did manage to tranquilize a dinosaur that small, would it even seem necessary to use one of the large orange cargo helicopters to transport it, when it could easily be done with something like a jeep or small truck? (Even though they already don’t need to do that with the small carnivores, pachycephalosaurs, and ornithomimids, but that’s beside the point.) Therizinosaurus and Deinocheirus would be large enough to fit in alongside many of the other herbivores, but they’ve been depicted with feathers so often during the 2010’s in other media that it would be nearly impossible to include them featherless in Jurassic World: Evolution. Same goes for Yutyrannus, whose feathers are a hallmark of its popularity. People have become so accustomed to seeing those dinosaurs in particular with feathers that it would essentially be a requirement to incorporate that into any new mainstream appearances. The controversy of Jurassic Park/World dinosaurs having feathers (or lack thereof) is so large that I don’t think Frontier is willing to risk any possible backlash by adding such dinosaurs. Until the next Jurassic World movie dares to tackle the feather situation, any other coinciding media probably shouldn’t.

To conclude, while I haven't been able to determine why most of the non-film canon dinosaurs featured in Jurassic World: Evolution were chosen by the game's developers to be in it, I think there are a number of factors that could contribute to those choices. Looking forward, there are also some factors that could limit which dinosaurs get chosen to be in a DLC, such as size and/or feathering. But whether or not the next DLC will include dinosaurs limited by these factors remains to be seen. I just don't want things to explode out of control like the app game did by focusing so much on new creatures, instead of the park building or mission aspects.