I have never been into fishing in real life. I had only tried it once when I was a kid and found it extremely monotonous and patience testing, and patience was never a forte for me as a kid.
Even with my love of video game, I still could not deal with fishing games. I always wondered “why would people spend time fishing virtual fishes?” “What kind of satisfaction can come out of that when real life fishing is already a bore hole?” Then came Animal Crossing, a game that you do nothing but running errands, decorating houses, catching bugs, gardening and not to mention fish. Nintendo had made fishing so intuitive that it became an addiction to me. I would even make sure I get on to the game at different hours of the day and at different times of the year to “catch them all”, as certain fishes only show up under certain conditions. And completing the fishing log and the museum collection is so important that it became something obsessively compulsive for me.
Life after Animal Crossing is a life without fishing again. I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV for over 2 years now – yes that’s how long I have been playing it without even noticing it. Fishing is one of the things that the game offers but I had never got into it. Firstly because it is fishing secondly, well because it is fishing. That is until I started the Culinarian class (the chef class in the game) and needed a lot of fishes to make stew, grilled dishes etc. etc. I attempted to get into fishing but was bored in two seconds. I resorted to just buying stuff off the market or through in-game vendors. It is just another case of “couldn’t be bothered”.
Before the current expansion came out there was a period in the game most player would agree as a drought. There were no new contents for players who had already burnt out everything in 3 seconds and for regular players like me, I was just attempting contents just opened up for non-static groups while finding things to do to kill time. So I decided to level up a Blackmage. But as a DPS (a damage dealing) class, most players in Final Fantasy XIV will know that queuing time is hell. So in order to kill time while waiting for queues, I picked up fishing again because that is the most minimal effort thing you can do while waiting.
This is when I started getting into the whole obsessive compulsive behaviour again. First of all I must say I do not enjoy fishing in Final Fantasy XIV as I did with Animal Crossing. However the complex of refusing to be defeated by a game and the infamous RNG (random number generator) factor in fishing made me persist and persist. The thing is, whether this is good or bad, fishing had become a daily activity for me in the game now. The satisfaction of finally maxed out the class against all the RNG odds was so great that I forgot about the painful journey I went through to get there.
Does that mean I am a good Fisherman (or Fisher as they called it in the game) in Eorzea? No definitely not. I still loath the RNG and still have issue carrying all the different kinds of baits and lures to just do one thing in the game – to fish. But I do become a more seasoned Fisher and appreciate the effort the game had put in to make it a very unique experience. And I do enjoy the experience a lot better than I used to. It became a pretty good pass time for just chill and chat with friends in the game. When there is not enough time to run a dungeon before attending other real life engagements, I can just sit and fish. It is still reasonably enjoyable. Also I am willing to invest a bit more time to complete the seemingly impossible fishing log across the lands of Eorzea.
A lot of players said fishing, especially in end game (that is after you finished the class quest and maxed out your class in this case), is an own game of itself. I must say I do agree with it. As much as fishing in Final Fantasy XIV seem quite straightforward in terms of commands, it is a lot more complex if you really want to nail it. It is something that is easy to learn but requires a lot of patience, practice and researches to master. Despite having maxed out the class, I am still a novice in the fishing business in Eorzea, but I must admit it does not look or sound as fishy as I thought it once was.
