A Review of Tap Ranch

First of all sorry for the long absence on the blog. I don't have a good excuse for you so I won't waste your time with a poor one.

Well, then on to business! There was a request a while ago after I reviewed Tap Birds to do a similar review for Tap Ranch. Unfortunately at the time, my play time on TR consisted of a whole ten minutes. Having played up to level 16 now, I feel I can make a good review of the game.

First, I have to admit I was lukewarm about this game going into it. While TB and TF offer beautiful backgrounds, and pretty fish and birds, Tap Ranch didn't really appeal to me artistically. Who wants to to site around watching a cartoon chicken bob its head around? I also had trouble with the name. a ranch is normally a large farm that specializes in one animal (my grandfather had a mink ranch, for example). This game seems more like a homestead, which may be part of its appeal. It projects nostalgia about how farm life used to be before all the big companies took it over.

Now, on to the game. Let's start with the good points. Bay View's third game has definitely eliminated a lot of the irritating aspects of TF and TB. First, there is no need to switch tanks or aviaries. All of your farm is in front of you all the time. You just pinch to zoom in and out. The algae and poop has been eliminated along with the constant feeding. Instead of tapping 50 times to feed, you just tap once a day to water and all is well. They also have a one hour sunflower for those who don't like waiting the standard four. The graphics, while cartoonish, are acceptable, except for the rabbits that look more like pigs. The best are the bee who do a little jig above the alfalfa before producing honey.

Tap Ranch is also a wonderful game for those who like mathematical calculations. The calculations are quite complex since a product could go through many changes. Should I just sell my alfalfa for the 5 coin profit or should I buy a beehive and a cow to earn an extra ten coin profit? These are all questions a speedster like myself would consider as we race to the end. Unfortunately the end is not well defined here, but perhaps a mansion on the biggest plot of land would be a good finale.

But there are problems with Tap Ranch, which revolved around the use of the Ranch Buck currency. Ranch bucks cost the same as Bird Bucks and Fish Bucks, but the prices are much higher. Some of the crops, such as raspberries are bought with Ranch Bucks, which doesn't make sense to me, since they are not decorative, are not particularly profitable, and are sold off in a couple of hours, never to be seen again. Who would waste 3 RB on that?

The biggest problem however, is the livestock feeding feature. Many of the crops, Corn, Wheat, etc, can be fed to animals or processed in machines to increase profit. For example, I can feed corn to my chickens and they will produce eggs. This is all good and interesting, but the problem is that it takes for ages for the chickens to process a good-sized harvest of corn. Each egg takes a minute, and I can only put in three-eggs worth of corn in at a time. I also have to collect the eggs and put them into my inventory before I can sell them. This all takes time, lots of it, and sorry to say there are few things as boring in the gaming world as watching chickens dunking for corn and waiting for an egg to pop out. Sorry to say, but I have better things to do.

The only way to solve this problem is to either sell my crops without giving it to the animals and therefore forgo the extra profit or by using automatic operations (AO). AOs make the feeding and collecting processes automatic. Leaving you free of this boredom. Problem is they cost RB, a lot of them (granted they are on sale right now as I write this). You get 20 free ones with every level up but they only last a minute. You need 15,000 pack for 400 Rb if you want any freedom from this nightmare. Of course that will set you back $20 or so, and even those 15,000 will only last you about a month. Is TR worth, $20 a month? Not for me it isn't but perhaps for some.

In short, I played TR quite regularly for a week, got up to level 16, but got too tired looking at my cows, sheep, bees, chicken chewing away to continue. Perhaps if the RB prices were to fall a bit and more AO were given I might want to continue, but in its present state I'll pass. For those of you who want to relive the homestead life,however, please give it a look.

MVP Fish: Most Valuable Fish

When talking about Tapfish I often get asked about what is the best fish to raise. Often when people ask me this, they generally mean which fish will make them the most money. However the amount of coins a fish produces is only one factor in when choosing a fish. Recently I talked to one tapper who was feeling down about leveling up. She said it was going too slow through the 70's.

Looking at her coin total, I was surprised that she had almost as many coins as I did! "1.5 billion coins! Only level 73? What on earth were you doing?" Apparently she was raising electric eels and nothing else. Considering she had to wait 4 long days every time just to refill her tank, it is no wonder she was feeling down about leveling up. Hers was the classic case of a person too caught up in the coins too look at the big picture.

What are the factors, then, that make a good gameplay fish? Here I will try to judge the fish from all aspects of the game so we can determine an MVP. Note that I am talking from a gameplay perspective, how pretty a fish is does not figure in, and fishbuck fishes are naturally eliminated. Bred fish have restricted quantities, so they are also excluded from this talk.

1. Profitability

Of course we will start here, simply because it is the easiest recognized. Lets calculate the profitability of some key fish in the game on a profit per day basis. 91% happiness, bulk sold.

We will use this as the base of all the fish we consider.

2. Points

Points are much more valuable than coins because they are harder to come by. Just look at my friend in the story above. However with no way to determine how much more valuable they are I will make an arbitrary judgement by multiplying the coin total by the total number of points they can produce in a day. In this sense a green snapper's total will be multiplied by 6, a White Grunt by one, and an eel by 0.25 because it takes four days to produce a point.

3. Reasonableness

A valuable fish should be easy to buy. Something like a Scott Fairy may seem to turn a good profit, but people starting out in the game probably could not afford more than one or two. In that case, one's money is much better spent on something like Grunts or Goldfish. This is not a big factor, however, so in my system I will subtract 1coin from every 100 coins it costs from its profit. A reasonable fish like a Goldfish or Green Snapper would not lose any coins, a Grunt would lose 42, while a Scott Fairy would lose 480.

4. Breeding

Breeding fish plays just a small role, in the gameplay aspect of Tapfish, but it does have its advantages. Let's give a 10 point bonus to any fish that can be bred.

4. Availability

A valuable fish should be a fish that you can readily use. Since a great white shark is only available at the end of the game, it has a value of zero. I will calculate the availability of fish, not on their level, but by what percentage of XPs are still needed to reach that level 80. For instance, the electric eels on Level 65 requires that you obtain 600,000 of the 1, 600,000 XPs you need to complete the game, that is 37.5 % of the total number of XPs, so its total will be multiplied by.625. Of course using availability is debatable because its importance depends on where you are in the game. A person on level 70, for example, does not really care that a spiky puffer was made available on level 45, whereas a person on level 40 would certainly care. With this in mind, I will make pre and post availability scores for each fish.

So who is our MVP? Calculating the score for every fish would take time, so I will shorten the list to fish I consider "contenders" and/ or are often used.

Here we go!!!

(Profit per day ×Points) - Reasonability+Breeding=sub score×availability=MVP Score

Green Snapper (20*6)-0+10=130*1=130

GoldFish (45*2.6)-0+10=127

Barracuda (2285*0.17)-230+0=148*0.8=118

White Grunt(2856*1)-42+10=2824*1=2824

Scott Fairy (3955* 0.4)-480 +0=1102*1=1102

Gray Reef Shark(4572*0.5)-450+0=1836*1=1836

Spikey Puffer (3400*0.2)-550+0=130*0.78=102

Electric Eel (15000*0.25)-750+0=3000*0.625=1875

Great White (11625*0.1125)-1500+0=-192*0=0

From this sample of what I feel are the most likely contenders, we see that the Eel has the highest sub score at 3000, but since it suffers from an availability issue the White Grunt wins out. Figuring out other fish like the Boxfish or Swordfish could be interesting, but I don't think it would fair any better. Using these calculations, then, I hereby declare the White Grunt being the most valuable fish in Tap Fish, followed by the electric Eel, and then Gray Reef Shark! Note that if even I didn't dock the Grey Reef and Eel for being expensive, they still wouldn't have caught the White Grunt.

So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and stock up on White Grunts!

No no no. What this means is that no matter what you are after, points, coins, or breeding, the White Grunt would be a good choice. If you go to either extreme, then fish like Eels and Green Snappers come into play. But when in doubt, buy Grunts!

Thoughts about Breeding Trophies

Good evening everyone. You may have thought I would be talking about the decision of Tap Fish to put all the high Level Fish on Fishbucks instead of coins, but since that idea lasted a total of two hours due to the incredible backlash they got, I decided not to touch it as well.

No tonight's topic is something I don't know much about: Breeding Trophies. To me breeding trophies were never a big part of my Tap Fish game; it seemed to be more of a distraction as I waited for my other fish to mature. I didn't count, but I would be surprised to learn if I had bred over 20 fish.

However as it turns out Breeding has become for many people, one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. In fact, when Bayview Labs announced on Face Book that I had set the Tap Fish Record, many people thought it had something to do with breeding. "Did he breed all the fish?" "How could he breed them all without Fishbucks?" "You can't recognize the record unless he had all the breeds!"

I couldn't help but chuckle over this, because breeding is actually a very easy thing that had nothing to do with the game play aspect. You could breed all 500-odd fish if you had 2 hours and about a hundred bucks. Nevertheless, it is interesting the passion people put into breeding. It matches the passion of leveling up.

One interesting question is question that comes up from time to time is this: "I bred a fish, now where is my trophy?" Given the little icon, some people assumed they would get a little electronic metal trophy indicating their success. They don't realize the fish themselves are the trophies.

Perhaps it is a regional thing, or perhaps many Tap Fish players know little of fishing, but sport fishermen call big-sized fish "trophies". A trophy fish is a big fish that you take to a taxidermist, which stuffs the fish for you to hang on your wall above your bear rug and next to your deer head. Where I grew up in Canada I saw many such trophies. In Japan, they put an interesting twist on this trophy idea. They the fish they caught in ink, and then lay it on a big piece of paper for it to make an imprint. This type of calligraphy is really quite beautiful and conveys the size of the fish caught quite accurately. Taxidermy and calligraphy would be called true trophies which Tap Fish conveys, but it is not surprising that many people who have never fished would not know this.

Still, getting a little bonus for breeding a fish is actually a little interesting. It could add a new fun element to the game if Tap Fish did it. This is what I propose: make decorations locked the way high level fish are locked. After breeding a certain about of fish, say every thirty fish, you could then unlock a new decoration or plant for your use. That plant of decoration could then be considered your trophy. This would give a sense of gameplay to breeding and make the game even more enjoyable than it is now.

Finally,I would like to thank Sarah for providing me with today's picture. She has successfully bred all 500+ fish. Good job!

Review Of Tap Birds

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in the blog. I was off on vacation for a while but back to work tomorrow.
Today's topic is about another Bayview product, Tap Birds. Tap Birds appeared near the end of my quest, and lots of people have asked me if I was going to play it and set the record for it as well. I would love to set the record, but Tap Fish took too much out of me to seriously take it on. Moreover, fish have always been a bigger interest in my family.
My father has kept fish in a pond for many years, birds (especially ducks) on the other hand, ate our crops! My dad taught me to use a gun at the age of twelve and we had many duck hunting trips together. Heck, my father hated birds so much that he would open the living room window, take out a pellet gun, and shoot down from the trees any woodpecker or squirrel he thought was making too much noise! My mother hated this, but the farm cats (of which there was a legion) worshipped my father and as they ate whatever came tumbling down.
Well lets get back to the topic at hand. After much delay I began to play a bit of Tap Birds last week and presently I am on Level 10. First the good points. The graphics are very beautiful, much more stunning than Tap Fish. The backgrounds in particular are works or art, and I love the option that allows you to preview backgrounds before you buy. The birds are also animated better than I thought they fly naturally and land on branches and on the ground. This is much better than the fish in Tap Fish that do nothing but swim (and in some cases like the blue crab, very unnaturally). In this aspect Tap Birds is a definite treat to look at. I give it an A.
How about game play? Unlike Tap Fish, Tap Birds limits you to 25 birds an aviary, worth 4 XPs each. You get 2 XPs when you buy. In this aspect Tap Birds is much faster at getting XPs. The downside is that this same feature makes it difficult to make coins well. The birds also make very little profit. There is no Electric Eel or White Grunt equivalent in Tap Birds. Even the highest ranked bird, the Greater Adjutant, makes a measly 100 coins profit! It must take a long time to collect coins in this game, although XPs will come quickly. I give this aspect a B.
How about function aspect. Here is where Tap Birds get annoying. Lets start with the food. You just can't tap anywhere like in Tap Fish. You have to tap on the feeder on the right (I'm a lefty, however). Under the feeder is a purple bar graph to tell you when it is full. This is all fine and dandy, but the full feeder does not contain enough food to feed all 25 birds, so you have to tap on it again after you just filled it. Kind of defeats the purpose of having the full bar in the first place. There is also an annoying step where you have to choose the feed to give, between the default feed or worms (which cost 5 coins each). Apparently there is no real advantage that I can see to giving your birds worms. Nevertheless, the game annoyingly asks you this every time you feed. It is a time-wasting unnecessary step.
As for stocking aviaries, I like the idea that we have to put the eggs in nests; seems very natural to me. However, it is a little difficult to correctly tap those little nests, so I often have to tap well over 25 times to make sure they are filled.
The thing I dislike the most about Tap Birds, however, is cleaning the bird crap. The algae in Tap Fish, was acceptable, but this bird poop looks absolutely horrid! Do I really need to look at that every time I open the game? I wish they could change it to cleaning fallen leaves. That would be more visually pleasing. I give functionality a D.
Overall I give Tap Birds a B, mostly on its stunning artistry. The makers definitely put good time into making the birds and backgrounds. They are really enjoyable just to look at. Probably if you like Tap Fish, then you will like Tap Birds as well. Good luck tapping and here's hoping my father and his cats stay away from your aviaries!

A Needed Reform (Part Two)

Yesterday I talked about the need to reform the Fish Egg store. I suggested new categories, but I didn't get around to talking about what fish would be in each category. Today I will not talk about every single fish in every single category, but I would like to high light the main points of each category.





Coin Fish



All fish that can be bought with coins go here. Arranged from cheapest to most expensive. Note I am talking about strictly fish. Eels, penguins, dolphins go somewhere else.



Coin Breedables

Just as it reads. Coin bought breedables go here. Presently, that would be 11 fish.



Fishbuck Fish

As with coin fish, limited to strictly fish, the rays go somewhere else.



Marine Life

In addition to the present company, I will include the frog, Eagle Ray, Sawfish(really a ray), penguins, dolphins, Electric eels, Manta Ray, stingrays, for a total of 16 fish (the shark will disappear) I will reposition the killer whale to a much higher level. (My god, the eat penguins and Great Whites, for Pete's sake!)



Sharks

All the present sharks, plus the addition of the Hammerhead and Great White. I think I will retire the unnamed level 40 shark. It had its day, but looks like a silly minnow compared to these sharks.

Character Fish

All the fish that are not really fish get put here. The two bunny fish, Memorial day, Canada, Jackpot, World cup, 4th of July. I debated putting Sammy fishie here, but he is realistic enough to say in the Fish buck breedables.

So how is this for a system? I think it is straightforward and to the point, and it should make it easier for tappers to find the fish they want. Add your suggestions if you have any.

Take care and good luck tapping!

A Needed Reform (Part One)

I love Tap Fish. I love Tap Fish so much that I am willing to forgive them for cutting the price of the Angler 75% just twelve hours after I bought them. I love them enough to forgive them for extending their three month old tank contest another three weeks. I'm even willing to forgive the fact that while my Canadian Maple Leaf costs fishbucks, The American tappers can buy their flag with coins. When it comes to Tap Fish, I'm willing to forgive a lot.

However there is one thing that I thing that I believe needs a drastic reform, something that makes me me wince every time I see it. The fish egg store needs a massive overhaul. Four months ago, the fish store made sense. You had your starters, your marine life, and your exotic, and these categories made sense. The starter fish looked like starters, marine life was basically things that are not fish, and the exotic fish like the Sea horse, Lion Fish, and Leafy Sea Dragon looked exotic. From then on things began to go haywire. First came the oh-so-realistic bunny fish, which someone decided was a starter fish. They pushed it so much that they used to be listen at the top of the category, but the negative backlash has now put them near the bottom. Then came the Super Exotic Fish, and the Limited Edition. The Limited Edition turned out to not be no so limited as every fish like clockwork comes back from the dead once a month.

The real tragedy, however, is this Super Exotic category. It is like the Exotic but so much more super! This is the place Tap fish makes us believe that a goldfish is somehow rarer than a Leafy Sea Dragon! Whereas the Starter category had the fish arranged by selling price with most of the fishbuck fish listed on the bottom, the Super Exotic seems to have no organization at all!

Take a look. Right now the super exotic holds 22 fish (more than the exotic) that are placed in this order: coin fish, fishbuck fish, fishbuck, fishbuck, fishbuck, fishbuck, fishbuck, coin, coin, coin, fishbuck, fishbuck, coin, coin, fishbuck, coin, fishbuck, coin, fishbuck, coin, coin, fishbuck. Confused? Many people are. Some of the most often used fish, like the White Grunt, are placed near the end. which many ones we would only rarely buy (how many Goby fish do you have) are placed right near the top. I personally have heard at least two cases where people accidentally bought Fishbuck Mollys, when they really wanted Grunts. Some people have commented to me that this is a deliberate deception, that Tap Fish wants us to buy fishbuck fish by mistake so they can earn more. I can't believe this, however. This is a problem of laziness, not malice. Perhaps the Tap fish people are too busy managing their new games like Tap Birds and Tap Ranch they have no time to give their original game the once over.

How would I do it, then? How would I make over the categories? Here is my suggestion.

Fish Egg Store Categories.

Coin fish

Coin breedables

Fish Buck fish

Fish Buck Breedables

Marine Life

Sharks

Character Fish

Seven categories. The algae eater can go into fishbuck fish; it doesn't need its own category. Limited edition always end up not being so limited, so let's get rid of this gimmick and put them into the rest of the fish population. Every fish will be assigned a level it would open up to, with the Killer whale given a much later level while the eel and swordfish gets an earlier one. the original level 40 shark, we love you and all, but you have been made obsolete. You will be eliminated from Tap Fish.

Exactly what fish goes into what category? Let's discuss that in Part two (coming soon!)

A Proposal for Level 100

Perhaps you are wondering about the odd picture on the left. Why is it not a tank. Well, it is connected to our topic today. If there were 100 levels, what would it be like.

First, what would the total XP needed for 100 be? Tap fish of course raised the levels from 40 to 80 about 3 or so months ago. At first the XP needed to advance a level were unbelievably high, but an update placed it at 10,000XP per level in the 40's, 20,000 XP in the 50's, 40,000 in the 60's, and a whooping 80.000 in the 70's. 1.6 million XP's were needed in total to reach the highest level 80. However if this doubling trend would continue to Level 100, that would mean 160,000 per level in the 80's and 320,000 per level in the 90's for an additional 4.8 million points! That is a total three times higher than the present point total. Having a game that required 6.4 million XP to complete however would be boarding on absurd. Even for me it would take almost a year to complete.

What, then, would be a realistic point total? I would suggest 100,000 points per level in the 80's and 150,000 in the 90's. This is still incredibly high, but still possible compared to the present doubling scenario.

Next is the question of fish. For this criterion I have three opinions. First, it should be something that visually adds to the game. Some people have suggested sea snakes, but wouldn't they just look like eels? Electric eels already look bad enough, and I don't see anything electric about them. Just because a fish or marine animals sounds cool in real life doesn't mean it translates well in Tap Fish. We already have the brown pieces of string that are the eels, do we really need other colored pieces of string to accompany them?

Second, it should follow in an order that makes sense. Right now we have killer whales on level 15, although they are much bigger and even eat most of the species that are above them. Killer whales are even known to eat Great Whites on occasion! With this in mind, it would be silly to have seals above the Great Whites because the seal is the staple of the Great White diet. This does not mean that the fish necessarily have to be bigger and badder, but they should add an element to Tap Fish that justifies them being ranked higher than the Great White.

Third, I think there should be a new fish every level. Given the time it takes to reach each level after 80, the tapper should have some sort of reward of reaching such high levels. Personally, I found it to be a very long lonely road from Manta Ray to Great White.

Who are the candidates from super high level fish? Here are a few ideas of mine.

1. Sperm Whales: The biggest of all toothed whales.

2. Coelacanth: A survivor from the dinosaur age, one of the coolest-looking fish.

3. Tuna: One of the biggest and most sought-after sushi fish in the world.

4. Blue Marlin: The worlds best game fishing fish.

5. Ocean Sunfish: Heaviest known bony fish in the world.

6. Narwhal: The horn on this whale is actually an out-of-control tooth.

7. Polar Bear: If we have penguins, why not polar bears? Polar bears have been discovered swimming in the open ocean, 500 kilometers from the nearest land mass.

8. Humpback Whales: The singers of the sea. Starred in Star Trek IV!

9. Sturgeon: The caviar fish can grow to huge sizes and has a cool shape.

10. Gar: A big fish with a scary head.

11. Atlantic Cod: For a long time the most commonly eaten fish in the world, the cod is now on the verge of extinction. It deserves this for it's contributions to civilization so far.

12. Oar fish: It long, unique shape led this fish to often be mistook for a sea serpent.

13. Right Whale: This endangered Whale was so named because it was so easy to kill, meaning the "right" whale to kill.

14. Sail Fish. Can zip along at 110 km/hr (70 miles)

15: Lungfish: Gills and lungs, what else can you say?

16: Megamouth Shark: Only 50 have ever been caught or sighted.

17: Walrus: Those tusks would look cool, and it is much tougher than a seal

18. Blue Whale: Why? Because it is a blue whale of course!

19. Kraken: I'd love to see Tap Fish's take on this classic sea monster.

20: The level 100 fish is the fish pictured in the opening picture. That's right! The Turkish Doctor Fish. These little suckers get their thrills eating the dead skin and crud on your feet. Used to treat skin disorders. Why such a little fish for the 100 level? It is a tribute to the Wizard of Oz. The great big powerful wizard is really just some dorky guy hiding behind a machine. Having the Doctor fish would show that even a little fish can have a big role. Tap Fish, let's give the doctor fish his due. Doctor fish for Level 100!

Well this is my vision, if you have the time, share your as well!

(By the way, those are my feet!)

What's happening with those sharks?

Well it has been eight days since the end of the challenge and I sure you are all wondering how the Great Whites are doing (well maybe some of you aren't wondering so much!)
Anyway they are now fully mature and worth about 960 mil, This brings me to a crossroads. What should I do from here on out? Do I continue with Tap Fish 5 or say a graceful goodbye?
Truth be told I have been playing my main Tap Fish game, with all those fishbucks. Tap Fish 5, my challenge game was open only to clean tanks and feed the sharks. If fact, in the eight days it took to raise the sharks, I only earned 8,000 XPs!
Still, it is sad to leave the game completely, and it may still have some uses. If Tap Fish ever decides to raise the levels to say, 100, it would be great to have made some progress before then. My original game is still only Level 44, so playing this one does give me access to a few more fish. Even with all these sharks, I am still going to be about 40 million short of a billion coins, so one round of eels (not hand sold!) might due to trick. Then there all the puffers, penguins, manta rays, dolphins that I have ignored on the way. Might be nice to take a look at them. Either way, I like my Tap Fish 5 too much to suddenly give it up.
I wonder if there are any plans to boost up to level 100? What kind of fish would there be? Let's speculate about this another day!

Should Tap Fish be Easier?

One topic that has come up during my quest is that a certain segment of the fan base wants the game to be easier. As you can imagine, I am against this idea, because any easier would go to belittle my record just like a longer season, steroids, and smaller ballparks have made a joke of the home run record. However this is just my selfish thinking seeping through, so lets see if we can reason about it.

First of all, what are some of the suggestions given to make the game better? Here are a few of the one's I heard.

1. Auto stocking of fish.

2. Adding a fish that matures in two-hours.

3. Make higher level fish worth more XPs.

4. Remove the 15% commission on auto selling.

5. Reducing the number of XP needed to level up.

There are others as well, but let's just take these 5 into consideration while we talk.

For the first idea, I am against it because it deters too far away from real life. In real life you generally have to put your fish in one by one. You can't hook them up a hose and pump them in! Tap Fish's appeal is that it resembles real life! Auto Stocking is just too unrealistic.

The second one is flawed because it would make the game go too fast. It also knows no end. If they introduced a two hour fish then someone would then start screaming for an hour fish, then ten minutes. In the end our fish will end up being mature before we buy them, and the game will finish in an hour! Financially, it doesn't make sense to have a game that completed to soon. People will get bored and soon delete it without ever buying any fish bucks. Tap Fish is not a Space Invader shoot em up; it is a strategy game that needs time.

I am against the third one as well because it kills strategy. Higher level fish are already worth more coins, why should their XPs go up as well? No one would bother using the starter fish like Green Snappers anymore if they did not have some sort of advantage over their cooler companions. Pondering over whether to go for XPs or coins is part of the fun of Tap fish!

The fourth one is much like the first one. Auto-selling and auto-buying are unnatural acts that are not done in real life aquariums. If you want the auto selling option, then by all means you should pay for it! The 15% commission seems about right to me.

Lastly, reducing the number of XPs has actually been done before, but I think they have it right now. It would also be insulting for all those who sweated it out to level 80 just to have the game made so easy that anyone can get there. Part of the joy of reaching level 80 is that it was so bloody hard to get there. As I said before, it is the difficulty of the task that makes it so rewarding to achieve it. The joy of reaching the highest level shouldn't be cheapened by people who find it too troublesome to strive for.

Tap Fish is different things to different people. For people like me, it is a mathematical strategy game; for others it is an artistic hobby of designing new tanks and breeding fish. I can see why people who like the latter more would like to see Tap Fish made easier. They want all their tools made available to them as quickly as possible. However if there was no game play,Tap Fish would be little more than a painting app. The beauty of Tap Fish is how it manages to balance these two aspects into a product that appeals to two very different types of people. Let's try not to tinker too much with this winning formula. Let's keep Tap Fish as it is.

Have a great day everyone!

FAQ II Stop Wasting Time and Get a Life!

FAQ: Why do you waste you time on this? It's only a video game!

Now the vast majority of the comments I received were from fans like me that enjoyed the game and like what I was doing. However, just like in any group, there are always a few masochists who read blogs they hate and the write passionately about how much they hate it. Like I said, one person passionately told me I would have been better off talking about feeding pigeons in the park!

Before getting to passionate about this topic, let's get some facts straight about my motivation and Tap Fish in general. Tap Fish is not like, say World of Warcraft, where there are constant action that could go on forever. In Tap Fish, after feeding your fish, you have to wait at least 4 hours before selling them. I other words is not a game you play constantly all day long. Also, unlike Warcraft, there is a definite end to Tap Fish. When you reach level 80 and have the 4000 Great Whites, you are basically finished as far as leveling up goes.

It was because of these two reasons I decided to undertake this challenge. I knew it would take time, but not a lot of time like some pursuits do. Second, I knew the challenge would be over in a finite period of time. Having researched on the Internet and learned that no one had officially attempted making a Tap Fish record, I thought, "Hey! This is an interesting pursuit I can do in a short time and still have some time left over. My own estimate is that I spent an average of 2 to 4 hours playing the game on most days, but probably about 6 hours a day in the last week of my quest.

Now for some people 2 hours a day is still considered to be a colossal waste of time. However, I think this is a stigma that we have unfairly labeled on video games. If you were to ask someone what they did last night, and they answered "I watched the two hour special of American Idol and then Dr. House." you would think nothing of it, but if they said "I spent three hours playing a video game." suddenly they are sad nerds who are wasting time. TV watching or listening to music has become a socially acceptable way to essentially waste free time but gaming is not.

Thoughts about this are not the same everywhere, however. Where I grew up things like video games and comic books where generally regarded as the pastimes of twelve year olds. However, when I went to live in Japan I was shocked to see grown men an women eagerly reading comic books on the train or playing games on their Nintendo DS. The hatred we have towards these activities is simply not part of this culture. They see these activities as a stimulating cultural activity and not a colossal waste of time.

The cultural significance and quality of games are also underrated. We "adults" might rave about some Hollywood movie we see, but truth be told some of the story lines in games like the Final Fantasy series are so beautiful that they make you want to cry. Games, in fact, are even better because the player is actually a participant in the experience and not just a viewer.

In short, I hope we can one day get a society that will remove the stigma placed on those who play video games and admit them as an activity no more sinful as watching television or listening to music. Personally, when I look at all the wonderful people I met during this quest and the doors it has opened for me, I definitely do not feel that I wasted my time.

Thanks everyone and good tapping today! See you later!

FAQ's Part I

During my quest I got a lot of interesting emails and posts. The vast majority of them have been very positive. There were a few funny unusual ones as well. Two evangelicals offered to save my soul, an animal rights activist suggested I start a blog about feeding birds in the park, and one lovely young girl proposed to me.

Oh yes, about 6 people wrote emails to me claiming to have already beaten my record. Unfortunately Tapfish has never heard of them and they offered no proof, so I guess my record is still standing.

Now today I would like to answer some of the questions posted to me on many forums. Hopefully my answers satisfy.

Do you have a job?

Yes, I have a full-time job, but I know better than to write about it on a public forum like this. And no, I do not work for TapFish.

Are you now going to do the same thing on Tap Birds?

No. I need a rest. A long rest before attempting something like this. I'll probably take a look at the app, however.

What are you going to do now?

Take a break, that's what. I think I should have a week or so break from Tap Fish. I didn't spend every hour of everyday doing it, but I did miss out on say watching TV, net surfing, phoning my mother, and many other of the little pleasures in life. Haven't been to a movie in months. Is Iron Man II still playing?

Right now I have restored my original game and bought 650 fishbucks. Plan to go on a spending spree. I am also still feeding all my 4000 great Whites I have in Tap fish 5.

Do you have any tips?

For the people you asked this, I assuming that you like the math side of the game and want to level up quickly. I have little to none artistic talent so I'm not the one to ask about making beautiful tanks and what not. For those who want to go as quickly as possible. I have lots of advice!

First plan your week. My job was very busy on Tues to Thursday so I made those coin-focused days. The rest of the days were Green Snapper XP days. There is no point in putting in Greenies if you know you can't sell every 4 hours. Goldfish or Yellows would be better in this case.

Second, plan your day. determine exactly when and where you will restock to make your day go smoothly. For me, I generally sold at 5:30, 10 am coffee break, 2:30 pm coffee break, right after work at 6:30, and then at late night at10:30pm. I would then right this blog from 11:30pm to midnight. This way I could get in 5 rounds of Greenie selling. If I knew my day was busy it was sell at 4 am, then 8 am, 12:00 noon, 6:00 pm and then 10:30. Getting up at 4 however takes its it toll however.

Third, concentrate when you tap. Tapping with purpose for 15 minutes is much better than tapping casually for one hour. The longer you spend tapping, the more spaced out your tanks will become. You don't want to find yourself in the afternoon with a tank maturing every 15 minutes! This is too stressful. If you concentrate on your tapping, though, you should be able to sell 40+ tanks in 15 minutes or so.

Fourth, organize your tanks. Don't be jumping all over the place! Have your coin tanks at the start and your Xp tanks near the end. If you are on tank 20, tank 21 should be the next one you sell. Organized tanks leads to faster tapping.

Well this blog is long enough for now. I will deal with some of the other comments I got a little later. Happy tapping!

Can my record be broken?

Hello, everyone. Sorry for the lateness of the blog, but I got a bit sick yesterday. I think I was living on the adrenaline of the challenge and now that its over the stress of it all caught up to me. Much better today, however.


I'm glad to report that the folks at Tapfish have recognized me to be the official Tap Fish Speed Record holder. This of course begs the question, can it be broken? Yes, it can, and I hope someone will break it someday. To me, being a former World Record Holder is just as prestigious as being an actual world record holder. Today, then, I will give advice about how to break my record.

First, let's analyze the mistakes I made along the way.

Mistake One: Timing
I began my quest at the beginning of June. However, this was a little bit busy time at work for me. If I was smarter, I would have started the quest in Mid-July to end at the end of August when business is slower and I have my summer vacation. Probably the ideal person to break the record would be some young student on summer vacation with oodles of free time.

Mistake Two: IPhone OS4.
Midway in my quest I downloaded OS4 on my 3Gs device. As a result my TapFish game was littered with unnecessary pauses. For example, I used to sell/restock a tank every 17 seconds, but OS4 added almost 10 extra seconds. This made tasks that could have been done over 15 minute coffee breaks at work impossible to do, because they now required 25 minutes. Lots of XPs were lost to this OS4.

Mistake Three: Spending too much time on the Facebook Page
Don't get me wrong. I love my facebook friends, but there were times I should have been tapping instead of posting.

Mistake Four: Worrying about coins and the appearance of the White Grunt
If you read my earlier posts in June, you would have discovered a debate about what was the best way to get the coins I needed. Lots of readers worried that I was spending too much time on XPs and wasn't spending enough on making coins. In the end, had my coins before my XPs after level 65 when I started dealing with Electric Eels (at one point I had 75 tanks of them)　　My Xp tapping came to a grinding halt. It took forever to get past level 76 since 90% of the points for this level were acquired by hand selling baby Lion fish. It might have been an interesting strategy to go barreling up to Level 80 and then from there try to make my points. Having said that, reaching level 80 but still being a week or two away from completing my quest would have been a bit embarrassing.

The White Grunt
This is not a mistake but a happening that greatly changed how the game was played. The grunt was not available when I started the challenge, but played a huge role in it after it appeared. Costing only 4200 coins, it nevertheless makes 2856 coins in profit. The beauty of it is that it takes only one day to mature. Unlike the Golden Dwarf, the White Grunt was also made available at the very beginning of the game. The next person who attempts this challenge will have access to this fish from the start and therefore won't have to waste time dealing with Swordfish, Dwarves, and Barracudas like I did. This is definitely a huge advantage.

These 4 mistakes are what I believe will eventually lead to my records demise. Hopefully you guys will allow me to hold it for a month or so. If you attempt it , please remember to make a blog and take videos so your record becomes official. Looking forward to see who can do it!
Good luck tapping! Will write again soon!

Thanks everyone.

Hello all my readers. I will still blog yet today, but I plan to read all my posts first to get some focus. In the meantime, there are a few people I would like to thank specifically.

First, thank you Andy, even though you are at sea and can't read this. If it wasn't for you this blog would look a lot worse.

Second, thanks to Joonie for helping me calculate my best course of action with the eels.

Third, thanks to Glenn for being the diplomat who smoothed over all problems I created on Facebook.

Fourth, thank you Jeff for that wonderful card you created.

Fifth, thanks for the staff at Tap fish for all their encouragement and making this excellent game.

Finally, thank you the readers. One blog post is not enough to thank you. I will need a separate one to discuss all the comments you sent me.

Well, lunch break is over. Take care everyone. Will write again soon!

Day 54: My Quest is Complete

Hello everyone! My quest to set the fastest time to 80 tanks filled 50 Great White Sharks each has just finished. I hope to write something profound (or somewhat profound) about this quest in the days to come, but tonight let me just deal with the technical aspects of the quest. This way the makers of Tap Fish can look at it and verify my claim to be the record holder.

First, the first picture above shows that I indeed reached level 80 with the required 600 million coins. The second picture shows the last tank, tank 80, filled with 50 great white sharks. I will take screenshots of all 80 tanks and send them off to Bay View Labs, but for my blog I think posting two are enough. I will post other photos on other days as I continue my blog.

On the right you will see I have posted two five-minute videos in addition to my first day. One is showing the state of my tanks at 18:01(Japan time) on July 27, 2010 having 600 coins and eighty empty tanks. The next one shows the state of my tanks being full with great white sharks at 18;51 the same day. There is one more video, a fifty minute video, of me actually putting every single shark into every single tank. However due to its size I have not yet posted it on YouTube. I will send this video to Bay View Labs if they so request it, and will try to post a fast-forwarded version of it on this homepage in the near future.. The videos show the time on my IPhone as well as the time from an independent Internet source. The source featured in the video is http://www.timeanddate.com/

If these sources are taken as valid, my time for completing my quest is 53 days 19 hours, 6 minutes. I humbly submit this time as the record for going from nothing to 80 tanks filled with 4000 Great Whites.

I also swear on my life that I was not aided in this quest through the use of Fish Bucks or hacks. As you can see, the original two fish bucks that came with the game are still in the top bar. I also swear on my life that I alone did all the tapping in this quest.

With the information provided in this blog, I humbly request Bay View Labs to recognize my quest as the current official World Record of Tap Fish. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Day 54 Last Push!

Morning of the 54 th day. Just over 600 Million. 41,000 XP to go. Last night at my game I fell asleep and woke up to find that I bought a tank full of Killer Whales that take 6 days to mature! Luckily I still have enough coins to put me past 600 million even if I sell these whales as babies. It is a bit ironic it happened because a killer whale would eat a great white in the wild. I guess it was trying to make a statement. Will keep the one tank for a while, try to cut my losses, and go for the prize. Wish me luck!

Day 53 Thoughts and Reflections

I'm making another midday blog so I can rest up for my big push tomorrow. It is only 5 in the afternoon and I've already increased 36,000XP, so I should have a good chance of finishing my quest tomorrow. Ideally I would like to finish tomorrow afternoon so I can make a video to announce my completion. If all goes well I will finish in 53 1/2 days. However tomorrow night and 54 days is still a possibility.

Like I said yesterday, I was a little surprised that I fell short of 600 mill. Now, however, I am under 200,000 away with 400,000 of Grunts (3 tanks) to sell tomorrow morning. I haven't done any lion fish tapping, but I might put a bit in now seeing that I should clear my goal by about 200,000. It is still a little scary though. Perhaps I should wait tomorrow morning when the grunts are all sold, or keep the lion fish down to about 30 tanks of so. With over 75 tanks selling Greenies, I don't need the Lion babies as I did when I had to deal with all those eels. There is also the unknown factor of how many bonus coins I will get after hitting Level 80. If anyone out there knows let me know.

Thanks, by the way, for all the email messages on Facebook and elsewhere. I'd love to reply to them all, but first let me get this challenge out of the way.

By the way, if I do make it tomorrow, don't expect a long, poetic blog. It will probably be a very technical one in order to cement the validity of my claim. The day after, however, I promise to give a good account of my quest and probably blog a bit about it for a bit afterwards. There are many good questions that I would love to answer and will definitely use this blog to continue it. It will also go into some tips and strategies for Tap Fish. Please keep reading.

Just as a reminder, I will make three videos: just before I put in the Great Whites, while I put in the Great Whites, and the state afterwards putting in the Great Whites. I will post the first and the last on YouTube. The second one might be too big for YouTube, but I will keep it in case Tap Fish requires more proof of my quest. I will also post online a picture of all 80 tanks for you to see. (That might not be so interesting, however. What can I say? It is a necessary technicality.)If there is anything you the reader would like to see in regards to my finish or blog, please let me know.

Well, if I really want to finish by this time tomorrow afternoon, I guess I better get tapping! Still 63,000 XP to go! Come to daddy, you lovable Great White Sharks!

Day 52 Thoughts and refections.

I post this blog a little late today because I thought I would have a nice surprise with my coins all at 600 million. Turns out I'm about 300,000 short (probably too much lion fish tapping). I should get a 55,000 coin bonus for hitting 79 tomorrow, and I put in three tanks of grunts just now to hopefully make up the difference.
I had to tap fast today and ended up mass selling three tanks of Grunts instead of hand selling them as I should have. That might have also been a factor.

Despite spending the whole day with my friends at the beach. I still cleared 50,000　XP again. That puts me less than 100,000 XP away from my goal. Should be done in 2 days or even sooner. It looks like the record will be set in 53.5 days or 54 at the most. With 75 Greenie tanks tomorrow, my tapping will be relentless. Eyes are on the goal! I can almost taste that shark fin soup! (Bad joke, I'm vegetarian. I promise to let all my 4000 Great Whites go free in the wild when this is done.)

Day 51: Thoughts and Reflections

With no eels to worry about today and 60+ tanks of Greenies at my command, I had my best tapping day ever with over 50,000 XPs, enough to open up level 78 and give me a good start on Level 79. I am also only 14 million coins away from my goal, which I should easily get when my eels mature tomorrow.

I have 65 greenie tanks ready to go for tomorrow, but I have to go to a beach party. This means it will be hard to steal away the time to tap to the fullest. The glare of the sun may also affect my play and it will be hard for me to recharge my iPhone whenever I like. Actually, my IPhone is beginning to show some wear. It got so hot today from the weather and constant tapping that the glue that held the volume control melted and that tiny piece of silver plastic fell off. I still have it but it means there is not adjusting the volume. Good thing Tap Fish doesn't need volume.

I talked with the people at Bayview labs today and they seem very supportive of my efforts. Now all there is left to do is get down and sell those greenies, collect those XPs and set this record. Sorry, folks, this is all for today. I am so energized that I want to get back to tapping as so as I can! Have a great day and keep those comments coming!

Day 50 Thoughts and Reflections: Bye Bye Eels

Today was my last big eel selling day as I hand-sold 71 tanks of them. I started at 3:30 in the morning and ended at about noon. There was a 90 minute break in there and I also sold about 40 tanks of Greenies in that time. Funny thing was that I missed the greenies. The eels were a horror to sell, but I guess they did their job, as I am presently at about 584 million coins, very near my goal of 600 million. The 600 mil should be made in two days from now as my last 4 tanks of eels mature. That, plus 20 odd tanks of grunts that I have going now, should put the coins over the magic number.
XPs are lagging behind, which is funny because many people thought I would get to level 80 before I could get 600 million. I guess it is difficult to time it perfectly, I surely couldn't do it. I think can hit level 80 on day 53 or 54. Today I have made 32,000 XP so far, but I still have 5 hours or so until my 11;45 deadline, so I should be over 40,000 XP no problem. With only a few grunts and eels to worry about now, tomorrow should be even easier.
Overall, I am a little sad I couldn't complete it in 50 days, but such is life. I will just keep focused and try to tap as much as I can. Keep cheering for me over these last few days!
Thanks for all your comments as well. Keep them coming!

Day 48&49: Shark Attack

First, sorry for no blog yesterday. All I had with me on my business trip was a cheap netbook computer that wouldn't listen to me., so I thought to put two days together into one.

The netbook computer was not the only thing that went awry. As my title states, I was attacked by sharks! Luckily I survived and learned something from the incident. Yesterday I got back to the hotel at 4:30 and basically tapped baby Lionfish from then until two in the morning. In spite of that, I only managed to move up 25,000 XP in that time. The problem was that Tap Fish was painfully slow last night. I couldn't believe how slow it took things to move, so I emailed a friend about it. She told me that Tap Fish becomes painfully slow when the developers at Bayview are working on it. It also become very slow when something new is added and you haven't downloaded it properly into your game.

Sure enough I checked the Tap Fish store, and saw a new fish was added, the Whale Shark. I downloaded the icons on my phone, and presto! Full speed ahead. I had real good speed for about twenty minutes until it suddenly slowed down again. This time apparently, the developers were having trouble introducing a new back ground called Shark Tank. There was a space for it on the backgrounds page but no actual background was there. With nothing better to do, I tapped slowly until two in the morning and then went to bed.

I got up at 5 in the morning (that's right I'm writing this on 3 hours sleep!), and presto! it was fast again. I learned that if Tap Fish becomes slow you should exit the app and re-enter it once again for speed to return. Like clockwork, however, the game slowed down again after twenty minutes. I looked into the store, saw that the Shark Tank background was fixed, and downloaded all the icons on my phone. Presto! It was full speed ahead again.

The speed was good for most of the day today, when then it began to slow down again at about two in the afternoon. I looked around the store and saw another new background, Los Vegas, was added. Like before, I downloaded the icons and the speed came back again.

All in all, it was a frustrating two days, but I learned a lot about what makes Tap Fish speedy or not. If your game gets slow, first close the app and reboot it. This should restore the speed. Second, if it slows down again check to store to see if something new has been added and make sure to download all those items on to your phone. This should allow you to have a fairly good playing speed.

On other details, I got through Level 76 almost entirely on selling baby Lionfish---no easy task! The eels in tanks 72 to 75 matured and were sold. I was originally going to replace these tanks with grunts, however seeing that there is no way I can finish before Day 52, I decided to load these four tanks with one more cycle of eels. They will mature the night of Day 52 and give me 12 million of the 15 million I need. The rest of the eels will be sold leisurely tomorrow morning between 4 and 7 o'clock. To make up the 3 million coins still needed, I will run 30 tanks of grunts, with the remaining 40-odd tanks running Greenies. Oh Greenies! You've come back to me! I've missed you. I will still sell the odd tank or two of Lionfish, but, all in all, I'll be happy getting rid of the eels.

Anyway, the 600 million will be ready by day 52, it is now up to my Greenies and my thumbs to collect the remaining 240,000 XP needed! Off we go!

Day 47: On a business (fishing) trip

This is the image I have been looking at most of the day. My two green grunts matured so I took them out of the tank and put them in the breeding tank. They get to witness me selling Lion Fish mere seconds after I put them in the tank. These are great breedables by the way. In 14 hours they mature to 12,000 Coins each, or enough to pay for three tanks of baby lions. Unfortunately, I only have eels in my tanks, so I my breeding tanks will remain empty.

How was my day? Well I tapped when I could and moved up about 10,000 XP　and the beauty of it is I have about three hours from now to tap to my hearts content. I wonder how close I can come to level 77 in that time. Tomorrow will be even easier. My business will mostly be done about two, so I will take whole afternoon, evening, night to tap.

Let's then take some time to talk about everybody's least favorite item in Tap Fish. That's right! The Fish Buck! Now I am not using them on my quest, but I totally sympathize with why they exist. Heck! If I had a popular game loved by thousands, I would probably trying to get as much out of it as I could too. This is how they make their living. We must remember than most video game fads are short lived. Bayview labs have about five years or so before Tap Fish become just a memory blip. It is better to milk the cow for all it is worth before it goes dry.

That said, it is hard to like fish buck and the way they are presented to the public. First of all, they are a bit pricey, 180 fish bucks for the Outer Space background equals about seven dollars of real money--a lot to pay for some cheap data. The prices also limit the amount of Fish Buck fish we could buy. Tap Fish's app page shows a beautiful tank filled with sting rays. What they don't tell you is that tank would cost over 50 real bucks to duplicate in real life. I would love to have tonnes of Zebra Angelfish, but I have to make due with just one in my main game.

The main problem these days is that the focus seems to be more and more towards the fish bucks. For example, back May there were 40 fish total of which 14 (35%)Fish buck fish. Today there are 87 fish of which 42 (48%) are fish buck fish. It is hard for the consumer to see this an anything other than a cash grab. I heard a lot of people groaning when only one of the new five sharks could be bought with coins.

Still, I don't fault Tap Fish. If I were running their business, I would be doing something similar but as a consumer I can't help but feel discouraged after seeing yet another fish available only in Fish Bucks.

Is there a solution? This is what I suggest. Make Tap Fish available on subscription. People who buy the subscription would have unlimited fishbucks for a limited amount of time, say 6 months. Of course the subscription should not be cheap, I would put it at a hundred bucks or so. However, a hundred bucks will still make Tap Fish a lot cheaper than other forms of entertainment, and the people who buy it can use it freely without the negative attitudes towards fishbucks or the need to download new apps for free fish bucks. When the subscription runs out they either revert to buying fishbucks individually or renew for another six months. I'm not sure if this will make Tap Fish as much money as they do now, but it will improve their image as a company that puts it's customers first.

I love Tap Fish, and I plan to buy tonnes of Fish Bucks when my quest ends next week. They made a great product and deserve to make a good profit from it. It would be nice, however, if this one negative aspect could be corrected in a way I suggested. Let me be your first subscriber, Tap Fish!

Take care everyone, and have a good night.

46 End Game Strategy

First of all, I would like to say that, unlike yesterday, the numbers at the top of the blog are indeed correct. I have a net worth of 359 million, not the 380 I wrote yesterday. With these adjusted figures I should finish Day 49 fifteen million coins short of 600 million. If I sold 79 or 80 tanks of grunts on the last day, I will still be 3 million short. Tanks 72 to 75 will mature on day 48, but the 1.2 million extra they make will probably be eaten up by my baby Lion fish habit. Therefore coin-wise my journey will definitely not end before day 52.
How about point-wise? Well with a mere 6,000 points tapped today, there is no way I will be on level 79 or 80 without doing something drastic.

So, then, let's do something drastic!

After I finish this blog, I will take one full hour and see how many Lion fish tanks I can sell in that time period. My estimate is 45 tanks. If that is the case and if it takes 533 sold tanks to reach 80,000 XPs, I need to work 11.8 hours a day to move up one level. This amount cannot possibly be achieved.


Or can it?

Here is the scoop. Starting tomorrow, I will have a two-day business trip. The trip itself is very easy. Basically I just have to show up, meaning I will have lots of time to tap. I could return to my hotel room at about 3 in the afternoon, then tap until three in the morning without the distraction of family. Tapping twelve hours straight may be one of the most boring things in my life. Mentally and physically, it might even be impossible. Still, sacrifices have to be made if one is really truly serious about one's quest. This is a sacrifice I am willing to make. If it goes well, I could see myself two days from now on level 48 with four days to get 2 more levels before day 52. This is, of course, a big if, and it depends a lot on my endurance and stamina. But, what the hell, let's give it a shot, shall we?

In other news, some people are wondering what will become of me and my blog once I am done my quest. Well, I am not going to let 4000 Great Whites to die just because I finished my quest, so I will continue on with Tap 5 until they are all mature and sold. I will then leave Tap 5 and may restart my main game enjoying what is left of the summer. As for the blog, I believe there will be several more entries after the quest where I debate strategies and things I should have done differently on the quest. I might also go into my take on certain issues in Tap Fish if anyone is interested in what I have to say. In short, the blog will continue for a little while after the quest.

By the way, I will be making two more videos to verify my claim as the fastest tap fisher. I will make one video that shows the date and time, and my tank to show that I have 80 tanks and my coins are over the amount needed to stock all of them with great whites. The actual stocking will be filmed but not posted because it will take too long (over an hour). I will then post a video where I show all the tanks with the Great Whites in them and my final time. Hopefully this will be enough for the makers of tap fish to legitimize my record.

Finally, since I am going on business trip, I don't know if I will have the means to write my blog. I'll do my best, but if I can't , look for the next blog to come on day 48.

Take care and please keep those comments coming! (Don't use anonymous, there are too many of them.)

Day 45 What an ordeal!

Today's blog will be very short, because, as you can see by the time it was posted, it is three in the morning where I am at. In short, it took over four hours to hand sell 2,700 odd Eels. Next time will be even worse. No pain no gain I guess. Please note that the stats at the top of the blog, especially the total next worth, were computed hastily and may indeed be off by quite a bit. I thought it would take about 2 hours to sell all those eels! Boy did they show me. FOUR HOURS! Do try this at home kids. How on earth will I ever sell off the 75 tanks I have now? Stay tuned for that adventure in 4 days.

Like I said again. Sorry for the short blog. Will try to post longer tomorrow if I have any strength.

Day 44: Level 76 and a Decision

Today I accomplished my main goal of reaching level 76. This will give me one extra tank to play with when I restock Eels. It was only about 30,000 XP away, but it took a huge effort as I had only 20 Greenie tanks to work with. Half the the XP were acquired by selling the Lion fish babies. I estimate I sold a hundred tanks of them today.

Yesterday I commented that I after selling my Eels I would devote all my tanks to Greenies until I reached 79. However looking at my schedule for the week, I had second thoughts. I seem to be busy on Monday this week, so it would be a little pointless to be working all Greenies then. I have much more time on Tuesday, Wednesday, but what would I do about Monday?

As one commentator mentioned in my comments yesterday, perhaps abandoning Greenie tanks on Sunday and replacing them with Grunt tanks would be a way to make up for the coin shortage I am expecting. Indeed running an extra 20 tanks of Grunts tomorrow will make me an extra 2.8 million coins at a loss of only 15,000 XPs I got from the Greenies.

I decided to do him one better, however. I changed 16 tanks from Greenies to Grunts and the other four (tanks 72-75) I made Eels. That means these four tanks will mature a day earlier than my main tanks, easing my overall selling burden and giving more free tanks to work with as I near the end of my game. It will also give me a rest for most of the day tomorrow (except my baby tapping tank 76) as I prepare for a long Eel selling process tomorrow.

I won't, however, entirely be abandoning Greenies. My eel tanks tomorrow, while all maturing, will mature at different times. The first will be at four in the afternoon and the last at 11 or so at night. Given the lateness of this selling, I will not immediately restock with Eels. I will do one round of greenies overnight and restock the new Eels in the early morning. The reasoning here is that the one round of selling the eels followed quickly by a Greenie round will give me a good boost towards level 77. Also, if everything ends at night, I will be too tired to organize the video recording of when I put in all the great whites. Better to have them mature in the morning when I am a bit rested and organize the final push from there. These late nights like tonight take a lot out of me, so I would like to put it to morning if I can. I therefore decided to fill 71 tanks with Eels Monday morning to go with the four I filled tonight. Tomorrow's plan will be to focus on Lion Fish selling in the day, sell the eels at night, put in a round of Greenies, and then restock Eels Monday morning. Lets see where this takes me.

By the way, thank you for the emails and comments both here, and on Facebook, even the petty, negative ones. Especially the negative ones, they are quite funny! It is amazing how condescending and judgemental some people can be given the anonymous security of the Internet. I got a real funny one from some animal rights group. They basically said I was wasting my life and that I should write a blog about feeding a thousand birds instead. Hate to say it guys, but if went down to the local park here and started to feed all the winged rats (excuse me, pigeons) someone would report me to the police. It's not allowed in many parks in Japan. No feed the birds Mary Poppins, not when they have to clean up all their poop! If what I am doing so offends you, then don't read my blog. I can do without the advice about how I should live my life. Just to let you know, I'm not a hermit. I took my family out to dinner tonight, and played with my daughter until bedtime. If anything has changed, it is the time I usually spent on other leisure activities has been channelled into Tap Fish. I've watched no movies, TV shows, or surfed the net much in the past 44 days. That has been the biggest change. And the beauty of this quest is that in about a week, it will all be over and I will be on my next challenge in life.

All of you have a wonderful day. Enjoy tapping and living!