Fishing revamp is "on the books"
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jun 7th 2009 at 2:00PM
While Blizzard's managed to do pretty well lately in adding quirks and surprises to make fishing more tolerable (or at least more desirable), the fact remains that it's still ultimately pretty boring to skill up and use altogether, and many people believe it's well overdue for a revamp. It looks like Blizzard agrees, as Zarhym recently revealed that they plan to revamp it. Of course, he had no details or time frame, but that's par for the course for Blizzard.
As to how the revamp should go down, Insider Trader actually recently discussed some ideas. Myself, I'm in favor of the minigame approach. If Popcap can import Peggle, you have to figure it's possible to set up a pretty robust fishing mini-game in WoW. Of course, if all else fails, they could always just let us actually use a Goblin Fishing Pole.
Filed under: Fishing, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
furry Jun 7th 2009 2:08PM
Blizzard should include the option somewhere to make the visual of a fish catching the line to be much larger or something. When I'm playing without sound I can easily miss the catch even if I look at my chat window for a second. I'm thinking screen flash or something really noticeable.
Sithril Jun 7th 2009 7:10PM
Agreed . I like it the way it is now - nice way how to kill some time while chatting etc. But it could use something to make it more evident that I cought some fish even without sound.
rosencratz Jun 8th 2009 2:41AM
Blizzard have been talking about this revamp for almost as long as they have been druid form revamps...
My poor brother managed to get his fishing all the way up to 375 the day before they released the "You can now level fishing in dalaran" patch. Silly git should've done his research but meh.... I like the idea of a revampt but i already feel the investment i made into it has been tarnished in some ways... which is silly ofcourse i know.
Heilig Jun 8th 2009 3:55AM
"Blizzard have been talking about this revamp for almost as long as they have been druid form revamps..."
And now that the druid forms are done they can work on fishing. Seems simple to me.
melsana Jun 8th 2009 4:38PM
I agree. Especially when you are doing a daily and there are multiple splash sounds going on around you (Jewel of the Sewers anyone). If you aren't paying close attention to that bober it is easy to miss your own.
Bubsa Jun 7th 2009 2:14PM
It could do with a bit of livening up during levelling, but please, let's not have mini games giving skills. Unless you want WoW to end up like Free Realms, that is.
Wolftech Jun 7th 2009 2:15PM
Reducing the number of fish caught to level would be a good start...
Oh... and more unique stuff for fishing (pets, mounts, items, etc).
Heilig Jun 8th 2009 3:56AM
OMG, THIS!
Once you hit about 260 it starts taking around ten fish per point, and still keeps going up! 16-17 fish per point in the 400's? That's just stupid boring.
Marita Jun 7th 2009 2:17PM
what I really want, is to be able to cook all the things I catch.
It's not necessary for them to be "tasty" dishes, they can be bad ones :P
or same that you can use in battle like tomatos or things like that.
You know, not a bomb but a sick fish? nice. Stinky and disgusting, perfect to delay casting or something like it :)
And of course, the option to create new dishes T-T
As in "[Creator]'s Pie"
Arras Jun 7th 2009 2:30PM
Fly fishing! It's the only way to fish
I actually kind of like fishing, before and after the recent changes. If you've ever spent any time fishing, you can appreciate how closely in game fishing replicates the feeling of fishing outdoors.
The sunlight reflecting off the water, the gentle lapping of the waves/current against the shore, cooking what you catch. It's a great way to relax - if fishing is your thing.
If it's not, I can appreciate how it would be tear your hair out boring :P
Percinho Jun 7th 2009 2:45PM
If only I could catch a fish every twenty seconds in real life... :-)
Urza Jun 7th 2009 2:42PM
Remove clicking on the bauble. Just cast the line, get a fish.
PeeWee Jun 7th 2009 2:47PM
They added the clicking to counter bots or simple scripts/addons to do the levelling for you. In the end, Glider still did the fishing for you, but at least simple addons didn't do it.
In essence, Fishing will need the player input, and from where I'm standing, only having to right-click the damn thing is pretty easy.
Helloimbob Jun 7th 2009 2:56PM
The goblin fishing pole made me think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg4bcaIXKHU
WIN.
Chris M Jun 7th 2009 3:08PM
Am I in the minority of people that enjoy the current iteration of fishing? I admit, pre 3.1 it was pretty difficult, arduous and boring to level. Making it so you can fish anywhere no matter your skill level was the change that solidified my desire to level fishing. It was annoying to have to go back to Stormwind when (as a Priest) I can't port back to Dalaran at a moment's notice and heal an instance/enchant someone's gear/bullshit with the guildies, whatever.
That, and the fishing dailies, really were yelling at me like 'Hey Chris, come level fishing, it's easy now!'
So I obliged.
BlackTiger Jun 7th 2009 3:10PM
WHAT?!? Boring? BORING?!? Live itself is boring, btw.
"To learn" IS boring, to get ANY sort of experience IS boring.
Lazy bast... players.
Enough "shotcuts", just enough. Enough is enough. Work on next game expansion and to NOT touch "boring" things anymore.
PS: The "World of Minesweeper" rises!
Amritrao Jun 7th 2009 3:29PM
Easy, Tiger. Life is indeed boring, but WoW isn't life. It's a game. For play. That's why people who play are called, as you youself pointed out, players.
What's more, learning isn't boring.
BlackTiger Jun 7th 2009 3:17PM
No pain - no gain.
Do not try to create a painkiller for any/every pain. It's stupid.
Give more "gain". Way to just remove a pain is wrong.
Suhas Jun 7th 2009 3:24PM
i think they should make fishing a little easier like fishing is in pokemon games!
Fuseitana Jun 7th 2009 3:32PM
I guess I'm in the minority, definitely among my guildies, in that I enjoy fishing. I've leveled one to 450 and am well on the way to another. I can't think of many things I would change.
During the runup to WotLK, wasn't there talk about different fishing floats? That would be a good thing, maybe each different float would attract a special kind of fish, Wisp Dragonfly for spell casters, Grubworm for melee, Hard Cased Beetle for tanks, etc etc.
I'd also like something a little more noticeable when the fish bites. Playing while watching the tube is a relaxing way to level, but w/o sound it's hard to know when to click the float. Like furry said above, maybe a full screen flash, settable in the interface controls.
Also, a cool addition would be a hat w/ sunglasses head armor that increased fishing like the Lucky Hat, but also reduced the glare from the water.
Anything but a mini game. I'd stop being the source of my guilds Fish Feasts if they did that.