B.F. - Before Fishbowl

Runescape has introduced a few new items to it's game. Where previously we would have to buy or scavenge wedges of cheese for cooking, we now have "dairy churns" to make cream, butter & cheese. We can bake potatoes, and adding butter & cheese to them creates a tasty treat with good healing power. However there is another addition that I'm not so pleased about - the fishbowl, for pet fish. I've decided these new oddities will be the downfall of the glass-making industry. Why is that? I'll tell you. To make a fishbowl, one has to be of a certain glass-making level, which I have. The ingredients for making glass is range-cooked seaweed (ash) and a bucket of sand, which is placed into a furnace to melt together. You then use your glass-blower to create your chosen item within your ability range.

Being generous, I agreed to make a fishbowl for a fellow player who did not yet have this skill. I went to my usual spot for collecting seaweed and saw a mob of players in a teeming, twisting mass of "gotta get the seaweed first" competition. I plopped my character right over a respawn location and collected two seaweed before getting the hell out of dodge. I made the fishbowls and then headed back to runescape civilization before finding out that you can't trade fishbowls. Only the player that made the fishbowls can use them. Well hell. So, here I am stuck with two fishbowls. Being of a curious nature, I decided to see what the fuss was all about and promptly had to go get yet two more seaweed (since fishes like to have greenery in their bowl - or so the fish guy told me before letting me buy a tiny aquarium net to catch the fishies with). This would be a challenge since I was a considerable distance from my usual collection spot. So, being resourceful, I pull out my fishing net and do some fishing, collecting a few seaweed in the process. I finally get my little blue pet fish and then discover that I can't BUY fishfood, but have to MAKE it using...guess what?....seaweed. Back to net fishing and then crafting up fish food. I thought it would last for awhile...ha! One seaweed and one guam leaf ground up equals one serving of fish food. WHAT? I knew at that point I wouldn't be keeping any pet fish. During this realization I saw that seaweed, which was previously discarded as non-valuable, now being sold for 1,000 gp each. Crazy! There was no way I was going to waste precious glass-making seaweed and potion-making herbs on a pet fish.

Just to humor myself, I looked at the options of how you are to interact with your fish. I chose "Talk-to fishbowl" and saw my character say "Good fish. Just keep swimming..swimming..swimming..". The response? "The fish swims. It is clearly an obedient fish." An obedient fish...

I thought I'd try try feeding it again, forgetting that the box of fishfood was empty, and got the following message. "Your fish looks at you strangely. You get the feeling this will not work." I leaned on my desk in a fit of giggles.

Finally having gotten all of the entertainment out of my system, I employed the usual discard methods of "dropping" items (in a remote location where there were no witnesses). I assumed it would sit on the ground like other discarded items, but alas...the fishbowl breaks and your fishies die. So, my fishies are all dead, but the seaweed will be all mine....

Yeah, the time of plentiful seaweed is now in the past...B.F. (Before Fishbowl) if you will. It is now the Age of Fish in the land of runescape and the economic impacts will reverberate for some time to come...

Pass me the kleenex, will you?