Who can tell me, "Collection! What do the games "Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes" and "Hades" have in common? The answer, of course – you can fish inside. In recent years, more and more games on the market have allowed players to spend a few minutes emptying their brains and fishing in a variety of virtual waters.
The French philosopher Mathieu Tricrot currently teaches at the Technical University of Belfort-Montbéria and has written several academic papers on video games. In his opinion, fishing gives players the opportunity to relax between intense action battles. "This change of mindset is really weird, a few minutes ago I was still fighting a bunch of monsters, and now I'm sitting by the water waiting for the fish to take the bait. Fishing seemed trivial and had nothing to do with heroism, but I still enjoyed it. ”
Why do players enjoy the game's fishing game? Do developers often skip shifts to hang out in lakes near the company? Why is fishing so common in contemporary video games? Everyone has a different answer in mind.
"It's not fish sauce, it's sea bass!"
Long
In fact, interest in simulated fishing is nothing new. Back in 1977, gone fishing, the first ever fishing game, was launched on the TRS-80 Model I, a text-based game where players had to type in instructions to try to catch a big fish.
Over the next few decades, fishing games became more and more complex as technology continued to evolve. Almost all platforms have welcomed a number of fishing games, including "SEGA Bass Fishing" and Nintendo's "Virtual Fishing".
Gone Fishing, a purely literal adventure
Sega Bass Fishing was released in 1997 and can still be played on Steam
Many other types of games that players are now more familiar with than specialized fishing simulation games contain fishing gameplay, and such a fishing subsystem has actually been around for a long time. In the early 1990s, for example, Nintendo added this pastime to the best-selling game The Legend of Zelda: Dream Island. On the game's map, there is a small pool hidden in the middle of the forest, and the player can temporarily throw aside the task of saving the princess and take a fishing rod to go fishing. Since then, fishing has appeared in almost every generation of the Zelda Legends series.
In Japan, countless games such as Dragon Warrior 4, Dark Clouds, and Fire Emblem: Wind and Snow Moon include rewarding fishing content that often doesn't drive the story forward, but players seem to enjoy it.
Fishing can also be made in the 2019 Remake of The Legend of Zelda: Island of Dreams, and it is said that fish over 100 centimeters will have a chance to reward mysterious shells
"Japanese players tend to be big fans of these mini-games." Victor Moizan, a Kyoto video game critic and author of Zelda: the Garden and the World, said, "It's relatively easy for game studios to develop mini-games, it doesn't take much time, and players love these little easter eggs."
Give the mind a holiday
Moisan mentioned Final Fantasy XIV, launched by Square Enix in 2016, a Japanese-style RPG that offers players a lot of side activities, including fishing. "The whole game is designed to keep you distracted and there's always something to do. At night, you have to pitch a tent, burn some food, and go fishing. In 2017, the development team even launched the fishing-focused DLC Monster of the Deep.
So, be careful to catch the deep-sea trolls...
In Moisan's view, many Japanese people have their own hobbies, and fishing is one of the most popular pastimes. "When they're passionate about something, they take it very seriously." He also believes that fishing has driven Japanese interest in broader outdoor sports. "Fishing is very popular in Japan, especially in the summer, and people feel that fishing is like giving a vacation to the mind."
Moizan also compared playing games to work. "In both cases, fishing is like a life-saving straw that allows you to catch your breath before you have to go back to work... When you're fishing in a certain game, you feel like time stands still, and you can temporarily forget about the huge pressure of heavy tasks. ”
Of course, Japanese developers aren't the only ones who will add fishing to their games, and French publisher Ubisoft is keen to do so.
In a sense, the games developed by Ubisoft seem to offer players plenty of natural fishing scenarios. "Any open-world game has a river or a lake, and we designed it to make it look more realistic." Ubisoft press officer Emmanuel Carré said. In Far Cry 6, which came out in 2021, players feel very similar to playing a fishing simulation game when fishing. In another Ubisoft game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, players can also get a fishing experience with a harpoon that is close to the real.
The tropical scenes of Far Cry 6 are perfect for fishing, and if you look closely, there are small robot ornaments on the fishing rod
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: It's hard to call it "fishing" for fish
The world of Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes is full of fishing spots, there are many types of fish, what kind of fish you want, remember to go to the store to buy fishing guides
Fishing as a pastime is both unpredictable and highly repetitive, which may explain why fishing can cause huge differences of opinion among the player community. Some people think that contemporary games are too fast-paced and that fishing provides them with a rare respite, while others feel that fishing in games is a waste of time.
"Fishing is a mini-game that may feel very similar to unboxing for some players." Marion Haza, a psychologist who specializes in video games, said, "Both are equally random, which means that the longer you play and the more energy you put in, the more you want to continue." ”
Shenmue 3: Revenge or something put aside first, come catch a fish first
Haza added that players always want to catch rare big fish, not small ones. For example, in "Collection! In "Animal Forest Friends", if you fish for several hours in a row and only catch a bunch of ordinary sea bass, but eventually catch a super rare royal stripe fish, you will often get a huge sense of accomplishment.
Today, attitudes towards fishing in games are still polarized. For those who like it, they may not think that the pursuit of peace or a sense of accomplishment is the key to their love of fishing. So, why are we so keen on fishing in the game?
This article is compiled from: vice.com
原文标题：《Why Is There So Much Fishing in Video Games?》
Original author: Clémence Duneau