Z-Studio's Zoo Tycoon 2: Paranoia! is one of the most well-known Zoo Tycoon 2 custom expansion packs, only with Radical Remake and the infamous Cretaceous Calamity ascending above the mod. Paranoia isn’t the first mod to focus on cryptids and mythological animals for Zoo Tycoon 2, yet it is the first one to have unique models compared to the usual simple mod edits and reskins. There have been numerous praises and criticisms of the mod over the years and a reboot of the mod itself, yet there is one reaction that stands out from the crowd – the unfinished Mysterious Myths.
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| Fig. 1: Boxart by Acinonix Jubatus |
Looking into the archived ruins of Myths Incorporated itself, the team
and the project had been doomed from the conception of the project.
Before going into this analysis of Mysterious Myths, this is not meant
to be a judgement towards MegaMatt100 or anyone else who developed
Mysterious Myths. I was a child when this custom expansion was announced
and being developed, I was very eager for the release as my young mind
simply wanted the Battle Boar alongside my growing passion in ancient
mythologies from Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, and other regions of the
world and the fictional worlds of Glorantha, Pern, and Middle Earth from the late Greg Stafford, Anne McCaffrey, and J.R.R. Tolkien respectively.
The largest source of inspiration for Mysterious Myths comes from the RTS game Age of Mythology, an underrated gem of the Age of Empires games. In fact, the three major areas of mythology that the custom expansion pack focused on; Norse, Ancient Egyptian, and Ancient Greek, were factions within Age of Mythology. The only missing factions were Ancient China and the Atlanteans; the latter had been a staple in Zoo Tycoon with the Atlantis Theme Pack being released in December of 2002 and being used in Artifex's Zoo Tycoon 2: Island Excursions. And if one would to look at the promotional material for Mysterious Myths heavily relies on the imagery from Age of Mythology, even the team's own logo for Myths Incorporated uses textures and in-game screenshots from the game itself.
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| Fig. 2: Myths Inc. Official Logo |
Despite this massive influence on the conception of the mod, it is important to note that only two of the six known animals had origins from this game; the Norse Battle Boar and the Egyptian Petsuchos. There are other mythical animals including
the Erymanthian boar; the monstrous swine that Heracles killed for his 12 Labors, and the underappreciated serpopard from very early
Egyptian mythology, during Predynastic Egypt as the influences from
Mesopotamia could be felt during the Uruk period. Although there would be other influences from Age of Mythology within Mysterious Myths like with the hydra and possibly an Anubite as seen on the cover (Fig. 1), the team were looking at other mythical animals and sources to diversify the animal roster. There were going to be 30 animals in the pack, roughly 10 for each theme, but we will never know what was the original list of animals planned for the mod were going to be. And worse, there isn't really any surviving remains of conversations between the team members as both their own forum was heavily inactive and the archive of the Z-Studio forum doesn't show much.
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| Fig 3. There were going to be variants for the Battle Boars |
Despite the lack of surviving discussions, there is an interesting piece of the mod that has been overlooked and that is the inclusion of the three mythologies being their own themes within the collective mod. Each mythology would had an architectural theme set; both buildings and scenery, plants, and animals that fit. The remains of the Norse items and the Greek restrooms alongside insect house showcase this. And if the mod would have been completed, it might have been one of the few custom expansion packs to include more than one theme. There are a few examples including the aforementioned Island Excursions by having two themes; Island and Underwater, and Paranoia!; Gothic and Littoral. Mysterious Myths might have been the only Zoo Tycoon 2 custom expansion pack to have three unique building themes if it was finished.
And outside of the archives and rouge images, the sole surviving piece of the project is the official YouTube channel ran by MegaMatt100. There are three videos on the channel, with two of them being exactly the same of a creature feature over the Battle Boar and one silent trailer discussing about Mysterious Myths alongside being a recruitment video for the project. The Battle Boar videos are interesting as MegaMatt100 is trying to mimic another Zoo Tycoon 2 modder, King Hoopla, in fact, the first video “ZT2 MM SC 1” is trying to emulate the same deepened voice in “Cretaceous Calamity Animal Feature: Giganotosaurus”. Perhaps either one of his team members or even MegaMatt100 himself felt the deep voice was superficial, even silly, as he created “Zoo Tycoon 2 Mysterious Myths Showcase 1” with a much relaxed, natural voice to discussed about the Battle Boar.
As stated at the beginning, this isn't a faultfinding towards MegaMatt100 and the other members of Myths Incorporated, despite the critical looks at the mod, rather to build a much more understanding view especially if one regards the estimated ages of these modders. They were most likely children and teenagers when they decided to develop this mod, and it largely started due to Z-Studios stating that they would no longer create more mythical and cryptic animals when Paranoia! concluded production. Indeed, the original founding goal of Myths Incorporated admits to this idea as the following states on the Team History page of their archived Google Site:
Myths Incorporated is a fairly new design team formed on June 20, 2010, when MegaMatt100 posted a topic in Z-Studio's forums about our first expansion pack, Mysterious Myths, that he had had thought up with the team's retired tester, Macedonia. Z-Studio rejected the idea, saying that they were not doing any packs with myths or cryptids after Paranoia was finished. This prompted MegaMatt to form his own design team, and M. Inc was born.
Importantly, there might have been a hidden belief running in the minds of these young developers; which is that no one else would create any more cryptic and mythical theme mods as Paranoia! had became the pinnacle and monopoly of this niche genre within the Zoo Tycoon 2 modding community. Everyone who wanted to make another cryptid and mythical expansion pack would been compared to Z-Studios and Paranoia!, or worse by saying something like "you're just copying Paranoia!". A fear that strikes too close to any artist; modders, writers, and artists know about this plague.
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| Fig. 3: Interestingly, the mythical Python might have been a reskinned Paranoia!'s Tsuchinoko |
As stated earlier, Mysterious Myths was rushed into existences and went out just as quickly. The Team History stated that they had a few months of inactivity as most members of the team were completely new to modding, only to pick up activity when CougertheShark joined. And even then, Mysterious Myths had an entire year of silence till CougertheShark once again started to work on the mod. In fact, all of the releases of the few available mods were uploaded in 2011 were under the eyes of CougertheShark. Sadly, what progress they posted onto the Google Sites would been the only material of the mod to ever be released. On April 3rd 2012, MegaMatt100 announced the disbandment of Myths Incorporated.
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| Fig. 4: Outside of The Heroes of Olympias and the ancient texts, Mysterious Myths might have been the only other media to showcase Charybdis - the only surviving animal of the mod you can download. |
In conclusion, Mysterious Myths was doomed from the start just due to the anxious fear of a lack of cryptid mods in the Zoo Tycoon 2 community when Z-Studios would have concluded the development of Paranoia! prior to the 2013 reboot. And that many members who joined the team shared the same worry, but sadly lacked the needed skills to create a custom expansion pack of this massive scale. Although there are very surviving pieces of the mod left, even with the Internet Archive and Zoo Tycoon wikis, what is around is honestly charming and a very unique take on the cryptid genre in Zoo Tycoon 2 modding by strictly focusing on legendary animals. Even Paranoia! usually had a mixed bag of 'real' cryptids and animals from real world myths. Mysterious Myths might have been doomed and abandoned yet it still holds a special place in my heart.
Online Sources:
The Myths Incorporated Google Site (archived on the WayBack Machine)
Zoo Tycoon 2: Mysterious Myths Mod Showcase
Image Sources:
Fig. 1: Zoo Tycoon Wiki
Fig. 2: Zoo Tycoon 2 Modding Wiki
Fig. 3: Zoo Tycoon Wiki
Fig. 4: Zoo Tycoon Wiki
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