Fishing in Pirate101: Likeness and Likelihood

Early in Pirate101, players venture out to Jonah Town, a fishing community of mainly pelican and wharf rat folk. Pelicans are seen on the docks going out with buckets of fish to trade with water moles or to sell. Obviously, sky-based fish have become a way of life. Not only do they feed the population and create income, but they are also integral to the storyline when our pirates are told to fetch dinners for quite a few of Skull Island's residents. In its own way, fishing is already present in Pirate101.

When Wizard101 gained a fishing feature now growing in popularity, many players immediately dove right in. The system is fun and new in the many water sources of Wizard101 where wizards cast lures like they cast spells. Today's question is looking at how fishing could possibly be implemented in Pirate101. Let's take a look!


Second-Hand Skills

Four years passed between the release of Wizard101 and Pirate101. As the newer game grows and changes, many new features are adopted from those already seen in Wizard101. It's set in the same world, so the likelihood of similar trends in context of the game would already be very likely, only separated by the particular habits of a theme stereotype, like how a basic pet for a pirate is an ostrich rather than a wizard's piggle. Also similar are many of the players having crossed over to or added Pirate101 to the games they play (1).

And the trends really do show - many of the worlds present in either game are shown or hinted at in its sibling. Pirate101 takes on themes from all of Wizard101's 'Malistaire Arc' - Wizard City, Krokotopia, Marleybone, Mooshu and Dragonspyre - the beginning of the 'Morganthe Arc' - Celestia, Azteca - and side worlds like Wysteria and Grizzleheim. Wizard101 features an appearance of the Monquistans in Azteca.

From a technical standpoint, many things on the player interface in Pirate101 are similar to Wizard101. The backpack and bazaar systems as well as the on-screen teleports to set locations, not to forget the highly-appreciated spot markers. Of course, the most popular things 'adopted' from Wizard101 have to be PvP and Advanced Pets. Pirate101 takes on its own twist in PvP, but the pets system is even said (via its puppet show) to be inspired from Wizardly practices. Could there be more on the way? Yes! The Producer's Letter has brought forth the topic of crafting, a popular pastime in Wizard101. Evan Silver covers it wonderfully in this post featured on Travels.

Looking at how trends are followed, fishing sounds like it will likely hit Pirate101. Statistics aside, let's take a look at how Pirate101's differences from its sibling game will impact fishing.

Sky Skippers

Now that we've assessed the similarities in Wizard101 and Pirate101, let's look at the differences. Of course, an immediate obvious is the fact that fish and other supposedly fish-like creatures roam the open skies in which we sail. Pirates have been fishing since Skull Island and have been reeling things in from crates of supplies to ornate Aquilan urns! If Pirate101 does get fishing, I'm looking forward to see if the sky will be used as a fishing grounds, or what the reason will be if it isn't.

Stepping away from the crystal-clear, we'll now poke fun at the fact that pirates aren't wizards. At all. Witchdoctors can complain all they want of their statuses in the magic industry, but the mindset and methods of pirates are very different than those of our wizarding cousins and counterparts. As Blind Mew once said on the forums, pirates may not be able to get their minds around politics, but they'll be able to explain how the suspension of a single trade threw off an entire mercantile economy better than a wizard could (citation needed).

Fair Fishing and Fair Wishing 

How would these differences apply, though? Here's how: Wizards cast spells to catch their fish. Does this mean that pirates could possibly take a more direct approach? Of course, Pirate101 just like its sibling game in content safety, so there won't be a lot of what some consider heartbreak in actual fishing, but there may be a different method than simply casting a spell when it comes to those more attuned to nautical affairs.

Within the topic of mindset differences also lie what kinds of fish can be caught. Take, for instance, Wizard101's Doodlefish. There may not be a Doodlefish (or a Doodlefishette) in Pirate101 since there are no Abracadoodles around. Could we stumble upon fish based on different character classes or even a clockwork fish? I can't wait to cast a lure!

Just as it has before, Pirate101 will add something unique to it that will make the 'second hand' feature positively its own. While it may share themes with Wizard101, Pirate101 fishing will hit the Spiral just as hard as Wizards' version did. Time to find myself a nice, quiet spot to cast my nets!

What do you think? Do you think Pirate101 will follow Wizard101 by getting fishing at one point? What will the differences be? Let me know in the comments section below!

Keep Traveling


Thanks to Evan Silver and several other trivia-takers on Twitter for unknowingly helping me with this post. Thanks to Evan Silver (picture 1, 4), Chrissy the Blesser (3) and Swordroll (2, 3, 4, 5) for providing me with images of fish and wizards. Check out Evan's blog and Swordroll's W101 fish database! 

(1) Data from the reader survey states that 66% of readers who have taken it play both Wizard101 and Pirate101 rather the one, the other or another game entirely.