Thread: 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

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 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)