Why The Hell Are There So Many Fishing Minigames?

let me ask you a question what links stardew Valley Red Dead Redemption Final Fantasy every Legend of Zelda game and Resident Evil 4. it's a pretty uh eclectic list but bizarrely all of them share one thing in common and it is fishing yeah it's something you may have noticed before but a weird number of video games contain optional or in some cases mandatory fishing minigames few of which have anything at all to do with the main story or the core gameplay systems it is bizarre look at Final Fantasy 15 for example this is a game that had massive production issues loads of content chopped out and quite a few systems like magic that are pretty underdeveloped but for some reason the devs thought it really important to include a quite frankly comprehensive fishing mini game where you can level up stats as a bunch of fishing specific gear and quests and even a fish boss fight none of which really has any impact on the main game at all over in Western developed games you've got stuff like Warframe which is normally a high octane game aim of jumping around and plowing through hordes of enemies but when it came to release the game's Premiere open world update fishing which is a static low energy and decidedly non-combat focused activity was front and center as one of the big features why fishing minigames are weird not only are they literally everywhere but for some reason they're often more interesting as Psy content than they are as the main focus of a game they're not so much fun as they are just really nice to screw around with during moments of downtime or to cap off a play session but never when they occupy the spotlight compare how relentlessly zen-like fishing is in Animal Crossing to much more developed angling in something like ultimate fishing simulator which I found almost as dull as the real thing so what's going on here why are fishing minigames everywhere and what makes them such weirdly entertaining and relaxing distractions well I think the very Factor fishing is more engaging when it's not the focus of a game Clues us into the fact that it and other similar diversions are more than simple throwaway padding the developers stick into a game when they've run out of ideas in fact they've been invisibly solving a big problem in games for years and that is habituation now habituation is a big fancy biology word for when an organism gradually responds less and less to a give stimulus you can see this on those fern plants that curl up or snails retracting it to their shells when you give them a prod do it enough times and they'll gradually stop reacting the same thing happens when you say a word so many times that it starts sounding weird which probably happened with the word fishing earlier in a gaming context habituation is that weird feeling you get when you've been fighting baddies for ages or solving a bunch of puzzles in a row and it just sort of becomes difficult to care your victories don't seem to give you the same endorphin rush anymore and each setback seems to be a bigger and bigger excuse to go and do something else it's not boring per se the gameplay hasn't gotten worse it's just difficult to get invested anymore in other words the stimulus hasn't changed your neurons are just exhausted and need time to recover particularly in high intensity games the demand a lot of focus and result in big emotional high points we often can't play them for very long at all without this phenomenon of habituation and diminishing returns kicking in look at Doom 2016. I absolutely love the game and it was critically acclaimed for a reason however a lot of people never finished it despite really liking it and that's because this singular Focus actually ends up being a negative after a few hours of playing doom and luxuriating in the feeling of tearing demons apart with your bare hands eventually you kind of feel worn out because it's difficult to maintain that state of mind for a long time and so it's much harder for the game to elicit the same throttling response from players as it could when everything was still fresh it's not that the game's gotten Less Fun all the level designs gotten any worse you're just less receptive to what Doom has to offer because you're mentally drained and thus the game begins to lose your attention and engagement where previously you were glued to the screen the same goes for almost any game that keeps you in a single intense State of Mind for long periods they can be great fun but also extremely exhausting after playing just a couple of games of Dota or completely failing to optimize a single sacktronics puzzle my brain is usually pretty fried and I want to stop playing and take a bit of a break the problem is of course that not only does this mean not playing the game anymore which most developers would rather you keep doing but your last association with the game is of exhaustion and reluctance to play anymore rather than a desire to jump back in so what does phishing have to do with any of this well fishing minigames aren't just one of a collection of side quests optional content and seemingly pointless activities that I'm gonna collectively refer to as diversions and they actually serve a crucial role in avoiding this habituation-induced burnout that plagues so many otherwise great games they do this by getting you to think and play in a completely different way for a little bit giving your brain time to recharge and for the neurons in charge of particular kinds of thought processes to dehabituate look at like triple Triad shocker bow racing the weird squatting minigame or yes fishing from various Final Fantasy games do they have anything to actually do with saving the world or battling or anything uh no no they don't but that's also kind of the point they briefly turn the classic tactical thought process as a final fantasy into nice simple push-alike gameplay or fast-paced tests of reaction speed you're able to enjoy these diversions much more because you've not been engaging with this style of play for a while and in the process you give the more intellectual parts of your brain a nice break in fact Blitzball from Final Fantasy 10 is often derided as being boring not because it's too simple or because it's unbalanced it's actually pretty fun it's just too similar to regular jrpg gameplay and so feels like a bit of an unsatisfying slog I found that the most effective diversions are the ones that are the furthest removed from the main body of the game and thus result in the biggest change in your thought process look at the mini games in Yakuza for example they've got your racing slot cars managing clubs or even doing karaoke they're completely different genres and gameplay styles from the main game and so function as a great break simile stuff like bonfires in a Souls game or highlights benches are an underpraised element of the design of these games they're a completely safe area where you get to fiddle around with your gear plan your route and just chill out for a bit with zero threat of getting chomped these rasp points give you a chance to cool down and catch your breath breaking up what would otherwise be wall-to-wall death and stress it's also worth mentioning the more strategic across the Obelisk which is a card-based rook like which fixes the problem of you gradually getting overwhelmed with all the cards being thrown at your face and losing track of what's actually in your deck by having dedicated response between chapters future Tinker with your deck your equipment and your overall strategy it's something I had no idea I was missing until I played it think of fishing and its Associated diversions like a secondary gameplay Loop that players can use to relax and de-stress between goes around the game's regular Loop stardew Valley is a great example here the game isn't the most high octane thing out there but it can get pretty taxing juggling your stamina to Farm's chores completing quests and fulfilling season dependent objectives meaning you'll spend most of your time frantically running from place to place as fast as you can doing mental bookkeeping to make sure you can seduce Maru while still having time towards your cabbages however in spite of this stardew remains eminently playable for long periods and that's because it makes sure to always give you moments of downtime where you can not think about optimizing your farm for a few minutes stuff like fishing foraging and Engineering can be done basically whenever and aren't part of your usual daily chores allowing them to easily fit into the start or end of your day if you have the energy or time spare nicely bookending each in-game day with something fresh and fun one thing to note though is that all this work is for nothing if games don't actually encourage people to engage with these diversions because ultimately players will always be efficiently minded and will ruin their brains if it means orbitable gameplay so that's why Final Fantasy loves to incentivize this stuff by giving players a little sample of each of any game as part of the main quest and why stodgy's Community Center outright requires dipping into side activities every now and again but my favorite way of encouraging players to take a break can actually be found in Sonic Adventure 2 too bear with me here so Sonic Adventure 2's take on the break gameplay Loop is the Chow Garden not to be confused with a patron of the same name basically you will collect animals and bits of robots just through playing and you won't really know what they do until you find your way to the Chow Garden whereupon you'll meet these fellas the Chow who can be fed animals to level them up customize how they look and improve their performance in Dumb events like racing and boxing this stuff has zero effect on the actual game but Sonic Adventure plays a psychological trick on you where all the rewards for good gameplay in the real game Rings animals these Boxes Etc are all only useful in the ciao Garden so you feel like you're wasting them if you don't head to it between missions to play around with bangers and Bongos and all their friends for a bit playing the game well and putting more effort in gives you more incentive to take a well-deserved break and you have to consciously choose to be inefficient encouraging you to relax for a bit and prepare yourself before the game throws another Knuckles level at you there equally open worldly games which need a larger number of less developed diversions for you to stumble across through play but still need to sprinkle in some sort of incentive for you to spend time doing them Dungeons and Elder ring always contain some sort of useful item even if it's not for your build so it's usually worth the gamble korok seeds are just useful enough to be worth spending 30 seconds to get and Bethesda always like to put a universally useful resource at the end of random dungeons like a new Dragon word or a fusion called for your power suit alternatively if a game fails to incentivize players to engage your Divergence then they're not able to do their job and the main gameplay Loop will suffer as a result in Sonic Adventure 1 the Chow Garden is really hard to find and you don't get teleported there automatically at the end of a mission so most people don't bother and end up burning out this is also an issue in many MMOs when it comes to crafting oftentimes just due to the fact that getting to max level is so important non-combat crafting and Gathering systems that you're supposed to level in parallel to your main Class end up getting sidelined because they don't provide any useful items or gear that isn't super seated by stuff you'd get through regular gameplay what this means is that you feel no incentive to use these crafting systems to take a break from combat making that more of a grind and when you do get around to leveling crafting you end up doing it all in one go which is incredibly boring because it can't support a game on its own as you may have guessed or found out for yourself this problem of habituation is hard to avoid and that's why fishing minigames seem to be everywhere they're just one example of a way for players to take a break and do something else for a while with fishing in particular offering a unique combination of Randomness and reflex testing there's a lot of fun in small verses and fits into a lot of different settings because Waters soared all over the place however one size doesn't fit all you can't just stick a fishing minigame in something unexpected to successfully de-stress and Revitalize players a diversion needs to work in tandem with the game's primary gameplay Loop or people will either ignore it or worse just get sick of it this is something that's incredibly important for particularly intense games that are going to leave you mentally drained very quickly many such more strategic or hardcore games actually expand out to diversionary brake section until it's almost a complete gameplay Loop in its own right Cult of the Lamb is excellent here taking on its pure gameplay merits both cultural lands management and roguelike dungeoneering sides will quickly get frustrating and repetitive because they're fairly shallow however both halves of the game Flow together so well that it remains incredibly compelling regardless so basically the way the game works is that you've got a little Cult of cute animal goons to manage who love nothing more than pooping all over themselves however in order to fulfill your ultimate goal of killing all the bosses you need these cultists to worship you because that's how you increase the strength of your combat abilities and the happier your contests are the more worship they give you what this means is that you're caught in this push and pull cycle of adventuring into the dungeon to get resources or Recruit new members of your flock spending them back at base before being made to Adventure back into the dungeon with some new abilities to build the next upgrade or fix some problem that was developed need to build a shrine to take in tithes from your minions go grab the resources to build one sacrifice too many cult members because they were getting old go and recruit some Replacements people getting hungry well it's time to go and harvest the flash of your enemies to go and have a big Feast it's almost like a perpetual motion machine of gameplay where the moment you've made one advancement the game presents you with some more things to put on your to-do list that will make your cult more efficient and gives you some new fun upgrade to go and do it with as a result the game develops this great sense of Rhythm that Smooths out a lot of the rougher edges like the fact that my cultists won't stop crapping everywhere I'd also be remiss not to mention XCOM which does the same sort of thing the meat of the game is in the Tactical combat but it is stressful watching your dudes get murdered by aliens and so the management layer offers an extended period where your decisions aren't quite as immediately life and death in addition this split between micro and macro gameplay Loops helps your decisions feel like they matter where Squad promotions and deaths have an immediate effect on the management layer and new developments on the global stage give the Tactical sides of context that stops her feeling like an endless meat grinder on the flip side games with the pronounced narrative Focus can use shorter more irregular bursts of downtime to help players transition between various gameplay States while also getting across Exposition when the player is going to be most receptive and nobody likes seeing through big uninteractive cutscenes because paying attention to the browse on end can get exhausting no matter how clever hideo Kojima thinks he is but equally it's hard to convey a cohesive well-placed narrative purely through gameplay and World design that's why some of the best story focused games work on establishing natural feeling gaps with character stuff and plot progression can happen between lulls and sections of gameplay rather than story stuff competing for the Player's attention or ripping them away from the fun stuff if you look at basically every Sony cinematic action adventure game like God of War you'll notice that they always follow an almost episodic structure where a narrative beat will immediately follow a boss fight or an intense gameplay segment before leading into a low-key warm-up to start the cycle again Midway through the light of alphheim quest for example where you're faced with this Gauntlet of enemies in the hive the game could jump straight into the tutorial oil for your newly acquired light arrows but going from high to low stakes so fast could give you a bit of whiplash so the game sprinkles in a bit of backstory to ease that transition whilst also giving your hands a break many games make the mistake of assuming that it's always more efficient to deliver gameplay and story at the same time but in actuality it can often do more harm than good stuff like audio logs or in-universe notes sprinkle throughout a level can be very thematic but they also mean the all stewing on story stuff and doing gameplay basically all the time meaning your poor Rob brain will eventually just decide to stop paying attention to one or the other which usually means you're not taking in the story even if you think you are I think the best use of story as a diversion however can be seen in Hades which is a very narratively oriented game but it saves all of the new story developments for when you're most likely to stop playing Hades main roguelike gameplay Loop doesn't really contain much of any substantial narrative content because the game is saving it for when you invariably die and return home when you do all that frustration and having failed immediate ideally evaporates as you get to dive into a bunch of fun character moments some backstory and get a Stern talking to from your sexy sexy Dad this is enough of a change of pace but once you're done doing story stuff the prospect of another run doesn't seem anywhere near as daunting compare that to returnal another equally story based roguelike which unceremoniously dumps you right back at the start of a multi-hour run whenever you die with no downtime something that couldn't possibly be more dishousening and meant I often quit immediately after dying ultimately I think all of the problems and solutions when it comes to habituation and diversions end up coming down to the fundamental human need for novelty whether you're extremely fickle or one of those degenerate psychos who enjoy grinding we need a change in context or emotional state every now and again to stop what we're doing from eventually just feeling sort of pointless because the more time we spend doing just one thing the more that invisible threshold wants fun Rises and Rises as our brain literally wears itself out this need for novelty does bring in some danger though stuff like side quests mini games or just the occasional change of pace can do wonders for our sense of enthusiasm just look at how attached people are to trouble Triad ciao Gardens and the uh visual novel portions of Honey Pop however unethical developers looking to fleece you of some cash can also bait you into spending money by abusing the importance of these mechanisms remember when I said that part of what makes fishing such an effective diversion is the fact that it's a bit random well loot boxes Gadget mechanics and whatever's going on in Diablo Immortal work on the same principle after all why spend a bunch of time grinding the same boring content that stopped being fun ages ago when you can briefly get the excitement as on flashy gambling followed by the fun of playing around with your new acquisition this stuff isn't just paying to save time it literally preys on your sense of boredom and I think this is all too easy a trap to fall into even outside the realm of sketchy free-to-play games often in games we tend to get so fixated on a single goal or on optimal play do we end up punishing our brains and souring on an experience that we once loved I've burned myself out on countless games trying to power through loads of optional content I was supposed to do piecemeal or by grinding monopolously in an effort to rush ahead and when you actually stop and think about it doing this is kind of pointless right the ultimate purpose of a game is to give ourselves a worthwhile experience so why cheat ourselves out of that simply for a few extra experience points or to save a bit of time if we're gonna get tired and stop playing anyway that's why I think it's so important to highlight and dissect these unsung heroes of game design silly little things like fishing minigames might not make the thumbnail of a successful YouTube video but I think that they're the secret to getting the most possible satisfaction out of a game all that's required is enough self-awareness then notice when we've stopped playing for fun and started playing out of obligation and to go and chill out and give our brain a rest when it does and who knows some of those smaller less intense and more out of the way parts of games can also be some of the most meaningful and will never be able to appreciate them if we're running ourselves ragged sprinting to the Finish Line I've put hours and hours into RuneScape fishing knowing full well that it's an artificial boring grind and I wouldn't sacrifice my mountain of lobbies for anything I have substantially more fond memories of messing around with my child than I do with the main 8 of Sonic Adventure and sometimes the best parts of games can only be found by turning off all the map markers and objectives really slowing down and just looking around at all the tiny details and texture of a world that you've been taking for granted this whole time so when you next find yourself getting into that weird State of Mind where a game you're really enjoying just can't quite seem to scratch the itch anymore don't freak out and definitely don't try to power through anyway just stop take a second and wonder if there's maybe some silly side quest you could be doing or if there's a lake out there that needs some fishing I promise you that you will have more fun in the long run if you just take a step back and maybe give one of those diversions a try of course you could also quit the video game and go and do something productive with your life but who am I kidding we both know that's a lost cause hey hey hey and welcome to the end of the video segment I keep making long videos and they always keep taking ages to make what's the deal with that eh anyway why am I still talking to you well that's because in this the after the video segment I have several important messages to give you the first of which is a recommendation of a cool internet person that I really think you should be paying attention to and this time I'd like to point you in the direction of pixel a day pixel a day is a fantastic YouTube channel that I was honestly amazed to find only has 6 000 Subs it's an incredibly tightly put together collection of videos all focusing on the philosophical and Abstract side of games dealing with other themes of self-actualization and rebirtha covered in games to the invisible control that self-constructed narratives have on our lives and there's even a video on mystery and hostile worlds which is like the one I just did but better also Pixlr day is a fellow fan of pointless stupid jokes and Easter eggs so she's automatically in my good books by virtue of that alone please do give her Channel a look next I'd like to point out a group of people who are debatably even cooler and they are my wonderful patrons each and every month my awesome patrons support the Channel with their hard-earned cash and in doing so they earn behind the scenes stuff Early Access to videos bonus content and as of recently some special shout outs for example Patron bingas has utilized their special patreon powers to order me to inform you that you are a big buttface yes you you watching the video right now yep someone thought that was worth seven dollars I'm not complaining if you'd like a special shout out of your own to taunt your enemies declare your undying loyalty to me or just to order everyone to play off every game then you can join the Patron in the link down below and if you'd like to support the maximum tier you'll be able to join the illustrious ranks of my mysterious benefactors who are alge Andrew labrano asaran alno 94 Bjorn color Brennan Spalding Brian notoriani Constance in amend Corey Gerard cosmics 360 Daniel metges Das kangaroo David Setzer Dirk Jan Karen beld don'tswo Diggy dog diglettier ecton Edward Franklin Woods Eugene bulkin Gaskell Greta hanison Jacob Dylan riddle Janos fakete Joey Bruno Jordan gear Lee Berman Lucas slack makes window 54 Max philippov Knox nwdd Nate Graf Patrick Romberg Peter D tomasak philby The Bilby Phoenix thurakaz rajigar rudidex Regal regex Rey's dad Sheldon Hearn Simon Jacobson Steve Riley strategy in Ultima The Forbidden trimp tin markovic Tyler Duncan Whimsical wisp Zach Grendel and ciao okay thanks for watching and I'll see you around bye

Channel: Adam Millard - The Architect of Games

Views: 311,621

Keywords: Games, Video Games, Gaming, PC Gaming, Adam, Adam Millard, Architect, AoG, Architect of Games, Review, Analysis, Game Design, guide, Level design, New Games, Zelda, Stardew Valley, Stardew, Cult of the Lamb, Best Minigames, fishing minigames, relaxing games, chill games, wholesome games, minecraft, final fantasy, final fantasy 14, endwalker, animal crossing, minigames, yakuza, Hades, fishing, open world, relaxing, chao, chao garden

Id: xoL5hSt9IyQ

Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022