Ben Sledge and VR Fishing at the End of The World | Winter Spectacular 2020
It’s been said many times before, and it will be said many more times in years to come, but in a year like 2020 video games have never been a more important part of escaping reality. While many people sit down and enjoy a good book or get engrossed in a blockbuster film, the interactivity of games can supplement the imagination and let you dive head-first into a world a far stretch from our IRL hellscape.
As games can offer more fulfilling escapism than films or books - and I stress the can, as I know that isn’t always the case - Virtual Reality takes that to the next level. Immersing yourself in a virtual world has never been more engrossing, more realistic, or more of an escape than with a premium computer strapped to your face.
My escapism of choice is Bait! - a free-to-play fishing game for the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest with all the subtlety of being slapped in the face with a tuna. It’s really simple - you can set up your gear at any of four locations: a beach, a swamp, a waterfall lagoon in a forest, or a secret location, and get fishing. You cast your rod by swinging it much like (I assume) you would in real life, and wait for a bite. In the meantime, soak up the ambience and enjoy your stay. That’s it!
Bait! Introduces you to the world of fishing with a fistful of fake hamfisted science regarding collecting rare fish DNA for a museum - and there’s a light storyline to take you from location to location. But that’s all really unimportant. When I first loaded up the game, looking for something new, something specifically not the real world, I just sat and fished at the beach for an hour. I ignored all the prompts to sell my fish or upgrade my gear... I just sat and fished.
A rare boot fish.
There’s a tranquility to fishing that can’t be matched by any other hobby - and I’m hardly an a-fish-ionado of the pastime - that remains unmatched when converted into pixels and beamed directly into your eyeballs. But that being said, I set up a camping chair and grabbed my finest bucket hat for full fishing immersion, and whiled away the hours on my own, in a tranquil world.
There’s definitely an ASMR aspect to the relaxation found here - listening to the gentle lapping of the water and the splash as a fish takes the bait is remarkably calming - but the upbeat music and fantastical fish designs serve as a constant reminder that this isn’t reality. In truth, I’d much prefer to be fishing in a lake that can serve me up a tiny replica of a Great White Shark or a Pigskin Puffer (you know, a fish-shaped exactly like an American football) than reeling in real, wet, slippery carp after real, wet, slippery carp.
The unrealistic aspects of the game remind me that this isn’t reality - this is an island free from the worries of a global pandemic, without the stresses of quarantine: an opt-in isolation. It helps to know I can take the headset off at any time and no longer be on an Instagram-ready island - something we, unfortunately, can’t do with the pandemic-induced loneliness that has affected so many of us this year.
When I asked the virtual (and fictional) barman of the Oculus Store’s Recommend section what was good, I didn’t expect a free arcade fishing game to be the perfect antidote to my stresses. I quickly caught all the fish and “completed” all of the locations, but I know I’ll be heading back to Bait Island soon enough.
That’s because I still crave its simplicity, its marvelous stress-reducing qualities, and most of all I crave another mouthful of good, old-fashioned escapism.
Aaaaaaaaaaaah, this is the life.
