Fishing in Second Life-Jessi2009 Warrol Reporting…

There are many things to do in Second Life and apparently one of those things is fishing. Yes fishing, complete with rods, fishing line, boats, and of course fish! 

A really good friend of mine, John, is a fisher in Second Life and he took the time to explain to me the various types of fishing systems from both a fisher and land owner standpoint.

We were standing in the 7Seas Area on Tribute City, which definitely did not smell “fishy”.  As John explained, “Fishing in Second Life is very similar to real life fishing, without having to actually clean the fish. There are many systems available. 7Seas, Neo Realms, Fish Hunt, Magic Fishing, and Star Fishing are the most well-known fishing systems. There is also Evo-Fishing, which I really don’t know much about”.

“Each fishing systems have their own ups and downs”, John continued. “I have fished them all. My personal favorite is Fish Hunt, but I really enjoy hosting 7Seas and Neo-Realms”. We teleported down to the main area of Tribute City, which is fishing central. I noticed buoys, vendors, and what looked like bait barrels.

“That is one downside to some fishing systems; you have to rezz many prim items with some of them. While with others, you simply need the server and that’s it” explained John. After talking with John, I was able to come up with a summary of each fishing system, which you can find below:

Neo-Realms: this fishing system has been around the longest and is currently in the middle of holding a Fishing League tournament, which John is sponsoring. This system has mini games built in, where you can win prizes, daily hosted contests, and an easy to use site, where you can find tournaments and information. This system allows for the creation of custom fish and is relatively cheap if you do not want to upgrade to a paid subscription, which allows you to have the before mentioned mini games. The downside to this system was the many items you have to rezz to have a fishing camp.  http://fish.neorealms.com/

7Seas: 7Seas has a very active group and just recently wrapped up their annual Fishiversary event. Many areas provide custom prizes and fish. Contests are random, with some occurring daily and weekly. This system also has weekly contests and a very active group in world. Once you purchase a server, you do not have to pay a subscription. I was told that this system has not had many upgrades and support can be limited, as the creators are not around as often. www.7seasfishing.com

Fish Hunt: the most popular fishing system in Second Life. The site boasted over 70,000 players in their various systems. One can obtain a freebie rod and start fishing. Fish Hunt seemed complicated with many routes to earn lindens. For example you could purchase different worms and include a fishing pet called a Shubbie to earn additional lindens. Fish hunt seemed expensive from a sim owner standpoint, with “tax” being paid. The cheapest tax was 10% but the buoy to have a Fish Hunt area was 30,000L’s. I did notice a free buoy but as John explained, the tax would be 80%. Rods also seemed quite expensive; I noticed one for over 13,000L’s. www.goldtokens.net/games/fish-hunt

Magic Fishing: a fairly new system, which works very much like Fish Hunt. According to John, this was the best option for sim owners, as the buoys were free via request. Rods were free to fishers and bait aka worms were cheap. The downside was server outages, which could cause you to lose some of your stats, so cash out often. www.thesecondfarm.com

Rise Star Fishing: this fishing system is also new. John admitted that he didn’t really know much about this system, most of his knowledge was from a sim owner standpoint. He stated that the system was quite expensive and there were hardly any fishing areas for fishers, but when events were held, the contests were quite large. http://risegaming.wikia.com/wiki/Rise_Star_Fishing

After exploring the different fishing systems, I asked John to give me his final thoughts on fishing in Second Life: “The main thing about fishing any system in Second Life is simply having something to do. I have met some really good people and friends while fishing in Second Life and have explored many different places. When choosing a system, think about your budget as bait or worms can be expensive. If you are looking at things from a sim owner standpoint, remember that fishers are there to fish not necessarily club or dance or buy items from your store, think of it is traffic and a chance to build a community on your sim”.