Why does fishing have to be boring?

I have played many MMO's, and fishing is always the same - click a button, wait 5-10 seconds, click another button? Why? Why can't we do better?

The most fun (maybe the only fun) part about fishing is when you're fighting to reel the fish in, and for some reason, MMO's completely skip over it to make it a dull, boring, tedious exercise in two-click repetition. And there is no reason for it.

Fishing is the PERFECT opportunity to add a fun mini-game. There have been fun fishing games for as far back as the original Nintendo. Surely a good developer could look at these games and import some of the actual fun from these games into the doldrums of the current system to make it something fun, rather than an attempt to bore the players into a coma.

Hmmmmm. . .I never really thought about it, but there COULD be a minigame for the hooking part. I've only fished at a lake in a housing development as a kid, so I don't have much experience with the more 'fun' fish, so I only experienced a simple 'wait for nibble, then reel it in and you're done'. I imagine bigger/more difficult fish could have a more complicated way to keep them on the line (based on what I've heard/seen on tv in nonfishing shows), such as having to give them a little line, then reeling in, giving some line, reeling it in, possibly with a degrees of strength and a 'durability' gauge on the line before it snaps.

Of course, having to do that for EVERY SINGLE FISH would be incredibly annoying if you're just there to gather fish and not 'enjoy' fishing, given how long it takes to get any fish compared to miner/botanist. Perhaps it would be best suited for the 'big' fish, like the fish in Feast of Famine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58LojUWqFJk

Good point Oogle. Maybe they could implement something, but add a 'quick fish' option similar to 'quick synthesis.' But if fishing were actually a bit fun and entertaining/skill-based/challenging rather than boring/simple/repetitive, it might not be a problem.

Having this sort of mini-game for the first time you catch a fish would be fun, but only the first time. Because let's face it, the real fun of fishing in this game is filling out your log and catching every fish. After that, it's just tedium and grind for mats. After it's added to your fishing log, though, you should be able to do the quick fish option to instantly reel it in same as now. Maybe make it so if you still choose to do the mini-game version, it guarantees an HQ fish if you succeed, much like how a crafter can guarantee HQ if they're willing to sit down and go through the "mini-game" of quality increasing. And maybe make it so big fish cannot be quick fished until they are old news, much like how new recipes are usually not quick synthable until much later, if ever.

Just throw on some Pandora and you're set.

In other words, just accept that the game is boring and don't bother making suggestions to improve it? Yeah, no thanks.....

Be careful what you wish for. While it's true that a minigame might make fishing more fun - it would only be at FIRST. After the twenty thousandth fish caught, you'll be CURSING that minigame, and wishing you could go back to the old, mindless method that leaves you free to browse the web or read a book while you fish.

With a wireless controller with a vibrate function, you don't even need to be in the same room and still fish. I've cooked meals, folded clothes, tidied up the house, all while still fishing. It's a kind of freedom I appreciate, and if I had to remain rooted in front of my screen for every minute spent fishing, I'm not sure I'd be able to stand it.

Fishing, like most things in an MMO, is a repetative, monotonous grind. Any minigame that was added WILL eventually also become a repetitive, monotonous grind, no matter how fun it is to begin with. Fishing's fine how it is, imo.

FFXIV 1.0 had a fishing mini-game. What would be a fun fishing mini-game for you? Something like Ocarina of Time?

FFXIV 1.0 had a mini-game for fishing but it was far too complicated like a lot of systems in that version.
It's true that a mini-game, more like fishing in Breath of Fire III or something like that, could be fun for the first time you're fishing a given fish.

But the most annoying thing in fishing in FFXIV 2.0 is the too-much NRGed system when you get to HL fishing and even more for collectability. A fisher has already enough constraints from weather to time periods to deal with and above all that, he needs to pray the NRG god to have the collectability he needs. And this collectability is not really depending on his statistics but seems really random (like ranging from 300 to 800 - WTF ?)

Well, anyway, fishing could be fun and really more interesting... I hope they will make adjustements in the future... (or not)

I personally really like the Dark Chronicle's (Dark Cloud 2's) fishing system and you did have to do that alot if you wanted to participate in the fish based minigames <- did not get bored. I got fishing to 60 recently and i do prefer it over the other dol if only because i don't have to run around all the time. Fisher is convenient for some and i don't think theres a good argument to take that away; atleast not without changing one of the other dol or introducing a new one to take it's place. However i still miss the wasted potential of a proper fishing minigame.

Theres two ideas i have on this.

1: Apex gathering- Instead of treasure maps Fisher fishes up a special item every x hours to unlock a special zone for DOL to gather in. Fish in this zone require this minigame to be caught. My thoughts on the lore could be something like a hidden green house within azys la where they kept all sorts of GM produce which continues to be maintained. That or some hidden part of the shroud the elementals only allow to be opened in return for this special item. Fishers can still avoid this minigame if they so wish as they could just sell the item like treasure maps.

2: Competitive Fishing- A minigame in the Gold Saucer much like Chocobo Racing. In this case you'll build up your rod, earn mgp and eventually participate in tourneys.

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Originally Posted by Tinibou

[...] and even more for collectability. A fisher has already enough constraints from weather to time periods to deal with and above all that, he needs to pray the NRG god to have the collectability he needs. And this collectability is not really depending on his statistics but seems really random (like ranging from 300 to 800 - WTF ?)

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that's what patience and patience 2 is for. the collectability is the size of the fish x 10. and all HQ fish are really big. sure, it's still kind of random, but i have no problem catching dozens of fish with high collectability rating.

fishing with patience for collectables is also a bit more involving than regular fishing.

Hm.. I really liked the fishing minigame from 'Stardew Valley'. Didn't get tired of it even though it was used for every single fish.
The difficulty of the minigame also indicated what kind of fish you hooked - each fish moved in a different pattern, faster and slower, some more jumpy than others, others changing directions at regular (or some at irregular) intervals.
And completing the minigame doesn't take very long, so it doesn't become tedious, just a little challenge with each catch. Also makes it more of an achievement to catch the difficult ones, rather than just 'got lucky'.

"FFXIV 1.0 had a mini-game for fishing but it was far too complicated like a lot of systems in that version."

The problem wasn't that it was too complex, the problem was (as was the problem with the entire game), they gave you NO information. It may have been the greatest fishing game ever made, but nobody knew what most of the buttons/clicks etc. did.

"After the twenty thousandth fish caught, you'll be CURSING that minigame, and wishing you could go back to the old, mindless method"

This is a response I absolutely cannot understand. You're essentially saying 'rather than take the chance that it eventually gets boring, I'd prefer that it just starts out boring and remains that way.'

I love fishing the way it is(i know there is a lot of RNG) but i will not mind if they add something new to it.

The other baffling thing about fishing is that it even has the lamest abilities. Harvesting at least has things to increase quality, gathering rate, gathering attempts, etc. Fishing abilities really add nothing to the task; not even the slightest bit of strategy or even thought is necessary. That, and how about adding some kind of benefit to releasing fish, like better chance at HQ or something? As it is right now, releasing fish is simply throwing money away.

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Originally Posted by Scammin

This is a response I absolutely cannot understand. You're essentially saying 'rather than take the chance that it eventually gets boring, I'd prefer that it just starts out boring and remains that way.'

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While it is true that I've never been interested in dedicated fishing games like Bassmasters or whatever, but even if you ARE such an individual, imagine that you stumble across the most amazing and innovative such fishing game ever created. It would be awesome at first. You play it a ton when you get it, and in later years occasionally pick it up and play it again. It's just that good. But imagine playing it for hours a day, every day for a year. For five years. For TEN years. There are very few gamers out there who can maintain dedication for a game for that long.

MMOs are an exception - but only because they CHANGE over those ten years. They offer new content, and the better MMOs offer new content that's different in some ways from older content. That older content is still there, but players tend to touch it a lot less... unless they're given incentive to. At that point, the old content becomes WORK. Stuff you do not because it's fun, but because it contributes toward a long-term goal. Achieving that goal can be satisfying (in fact, most MMO's bank on this phenomenon to keep their subscribers subscribed in the long term), but the process of getting there is work, not play, and not entertaining in itself.

Fishing is no exception. It will become work, in due time, no matter how fancily you dress it up. Fishing is an exception to most work in this game, though, because it's simple enough that you CAN entertain yourself while doing that work. Adding a mini-game would add short-term fun at the expense of long-term drudgery. It may be drudgery now, as well, but it doesn't have to be. Netflix awaits! (Not that some gamers don't try to 'flix it up even while doing more complex content - I'm sure you've all run into a player by now who apologizes after a wipe for not paying attention due to such distractions.)

Now, it's possible that, with enough dedication, SE could keep fishing entertaining in the long term. I mentioned that MMOs maintain their playability through evolution and change - the same could be applied for fishing. If the fishing mini-game changes and grows over the years, it could remain fun. How likely is that to happen, though? How many resources do you expect them to dedicate to Fishing, already most likely the most niche of all gathering classes? In all likelihood, what will instead happen is what happened in FFXI: We'll get that mini-game we asked for. It'll be fun for a little while. Then it will become boring and frustrating, and folks will long for the old days when they could read a book while fishing.

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Originally Posted by vigioX-Sun

I love fishing the way it is(i know there is a lot of RNG) but i will not mind if they add something new to it.

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There is too much RNG on it, what in the seven hells did SE thought in that moment, when we had to use a HQ Fish to Mooch for another HQ Fish to mooch for another HQ Fish just so a useless Fish gets on the line and spites us in the face.
Putting RNG unto RNG and adding a little flavour RNG unto that again was the worst thing they could have done with Fishing.

Big Fishing is useless, the only Fish that are "USEFUL" are the ones that give Glamour when desynthesing.
The rest you can throw away such as "Kuno the Killer" or "Nepto Dragon", as only 0.5% on a FFXIV Server have done the Big Fish Quests.
Heck, I know "Real FFXIV Fisher" that had a Love for the Gathering Class, once Big Fishing came in most of them left FFXIV due of the RNG being a chore.

They should fix the Perception Stat for Fishers, can't be that I have 519 Perception and land 20-30 NQ Fish in a row that is needed for mooching o_O

I agree with the NQ fish comment (the biggest slap in the face is when you cast out a HQ fish, and catch a LQ fish of the same type - how the hell does a smaller fish eat the bigger fish?), and that's where my suggestion for releasing fish would be great - the more fish you release, the better chance you have of catching HQ fish.

They tried to have minigames on gathering in 1.0 so I've heard, which were the botany and mining games you see in the gold saucer.

Would you like to do something like that on every single fish? I sure wouldn't. But hey, different strokes.

I am sorry fishing is boring for you.

If so give it up.

Yes, because it's better to just quit than to make suggestions to improve it, right?

What are you talking about :o !!
Fisher is my favourite gatherer <3

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Originally Posted by Scammin

Yes, because it's better to just quit than to make suggestions to improve it, right?

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i like the fisher the way it is too. improvement, okay, but replacing the whole thing with a mini-game is more like destroying the class i have fun with so some other people can have fun with it instead.

let's say i don't like to play Monk. either i can try to make some suggestions to replace the mechanics of the whole class to "improve" it (and destroy it for every Monk who likes his class) - OR i just quit Monk and play another class...

Why can't you do both???? If you disagree with a suggestion, that's great. But you shouldn't tell people that they should just keep their mouth shut and quit anything they don't like. If every MMO player did that, things would never improve. And really, players expressing their opinions and making suggestions to improve the game are mainly what forums like this are for.

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Originally Posted by Scammin

Why can't you do both???? If you disagree with a suggestion, that's great. But you shouldn't tell people that they should just keep their mouth shut and quit anything they don't like. If every MMO player did that, things would never improve. And really, players expressing their opinions and making suggestions to improve the game are mainly what forums like this are for.

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I didn't tell him to keep his mouth shut.

I said: "I am sorry fishing is boring for you. If so give it up."

This doesn't mean he can't take it up again if it does get interesting for him.

I just want to throw it's out there, but there is a small mini game within fishing already.....using precision or powerful hook set while under patience. Of course it's rng, but you'll lose more fish using the wrong one.

Fishing in Sonic Adventure was ironically better, don't know if it'd be a fun mini game for this though.

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Originally Posted by BorisDaBlade

I just want to throw it's out there, but there is a small mini game within fishing already.....using precision or powerful hook set while under patience. Of course it's rng, but you'll lose more fish using the wrong one.

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i know. but the fisher of the OP is not even lvl 60, he has no idea about that. ....aaaand it is not really rng... i just have explained it in the other topic...

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Originally Posted by Tint

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

Fishing for collectables is just using Collector's Glove while fishing at a spot that has collectable fish. For example, Illuminati Perch at the Thaliak River in the Dravanian Hinterlands.
Fish size = collectability rating, catching a 181.0 im Thaliak Caiman with Collector's Glove on will give you the option to obtain a Thaliak Caiman with a collectability rating of 1810.

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to increase the quality you should use patience or patience 2 (if you have tons of GP). patience increases the HQ rating of the fish and all HQ fish are super big - and super big x 10 is a high collectible rating.

but patience reduces the chance to catch the fish, so you have to use powerfull or precision hookset. to know wich one you have to use you have to watch the animation and sound when the fish bites. there are 3 different animations. i would say small, middle and big. the small animation is quietly and the rod bends only a little bit. the middle animation, yeah, it's very middle xD i think it's the most used animation. the big animation is used for all the big fish and only a few other fish. it is very loud and the rod bends for around 90 degree.
just watch the animations while fishing and remember them, it can probably take a while.

you have to use the precision hookset only for the small animation and the powerfull hookset for the middle and the big one.

every type of fish will always have the same animation. the Illuminati Perch from the example will always have the middle animation, so you have to use powerfull hookset. the hooksets costs GP. that means if you try to catch an Illuminati Perch with a high collectible rating you should >not< use any hookset at the small or big animation. just let the fish eat the bait. this will save you GP and time (it takes a while to land the fish, if you just let him getting away you will have more tries within the duration of patience).

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I remember the fishing mini game in Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 was crazy fun. You'd cast your line and the music would be all mellow, and then it would get all intense when you caught something. And then, the controller would vibrate according to your catch. A really fat, plump fish was the toughest to bring in. I even remember pulling the controller like a fishing rod haha!

I haven't fished in this game yet, but it'd be cool if the leves worked that way. Send us after a notorious fish. Make it an instance like the sahagin quests on the ships and battle music to go with it.

Maybe even have to option to mount a prized catch in your house via taxidermy. Yeaaaahhh! :)

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Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

They tried to have minigames on gathering in 1.0 so I've heard, which were the botany and mining games you see in the gold saucer.

Would you like to do something like that on every single fish? I sure wouldn't. But hey, different strokes.

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I remember them all. They made gathering even more random and much more of a chalenge.

TBH I don't find fishing good or enjoyable in any game ,online or single player offline. Regular fishing is just that and legendary style fishing, sitting in a zone for hours waiting for specific weather or the perfect conditions etc is not my idea of fun but some do enjoy that and I'm glad they have it available for them :)

I'm not certain how they could improve things to be more "fun". (to appeal to a much larger playerbase)

The original ffxiv had a mini game of sorts but I didn't enjoy that either. In all games I have played it is more of a bother then fun to do, which is odd because irl I love to fish , being so close to so many lakes I have grown up fishing for fun!!! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I enjoyed one feature from Rift fishing though, using special lures to catch specific fish for a short time, a way to remove the rng for a while made it a bit more tolerable....a bit.

Kudos to anyone that can come up with a new idea...I think its a tricky thing to come up with tbh.

In FFXI you had to watch the pole after the hook set. If the fish pulled right you had to drag it back left. If left you had to drag right. It was a little better than just hit a button to catch. I believe it was added to combat fishing bots. I don't mind fishing as is though. It was quickest of the gathering classes to level for me. They're all a bit boring though.

I'm all for making fishing more interactive. A mini-game of sorts would be good but I'd settle for the same transparency that mining and botany have. Let me know the chances. Let me see what my actions and GP spends do to them. Let me optimize without the guesswork and wiki consultation.

A mini-game wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing; rather than making fishing hard they've simply made the catch rates what they would want them to be by adding tons of junk fish. If the junk was dropped, if the only fish left had an actual use (no desynth levelling doesn't count) then a mini-game would even the catch rate back out to what they want the averages to be.

I like fishing the way it is. I use it to easily farm scripts and relax. Sure it can be boring but I'd rather not have a minigame that makes me screw up a button and lose the fish. Every game I encountered that had a minigame for fishing made it even more of a chore and it was soon abandoned.

I don't see what the problem is. I check my timers daily to see what the GC needs.
I cast my gaze into the MB to see if that fish is available for a reasonable price. If not, I catch no fish that day.
Currently level 48 and climbing without getting my line wet or my neck sunburnt. Every once in a while I go back and do all of the class quests I passed by to get the skills I don't use.

If/when I get to level 60, I will think about whether I should pass along my hard-won skills to a retainer. In any case, I probably won't be fishing myself. I hate scripts and collectables.

This game was advertised as having lots of classes that each character could choose from. You can pick one, or you can pick them all. There's no reason to do one that you find boring.