Minecraft’s developer, Mojang, has announced it will abandon its controversial Mob Vote and update the game more frequently. In a post published today (Sep.9) on their official website, Minecraft’s devs revealed that they would be changing the format of its annual Minecraft Live event, removing the Mob Vote, and hosting the event twice a year.
The company also committed to more frequent updates to align with this twice-a-year showcase. They company revealed that it had been testing these smaller, more frequent events for the past 12 months – In December 2023 they updated the look of Bats in-game and added more functionality to pots. In April, they added Armadillos, Wolf variations, Wolf armor, and more.
Compare this to the previous update schedule, which often took years or longer, such the Caves and Cliffs Update which took almost 18 months for all features to be added in-game, with some still awaiting inclusion.
But perhaps the most notable news is the ditching of the Mob Vote, which had been highly controversial. The Minecraft Mob Vote would see players vote between three choices for a new mob (allied or enemy) to be added to the game.
Criticism had been levied at the fact this effectively denied players some content, and instead of being a fun experience, was disappointing, often to the majority of players (in a three way vote, as high as 60% of the voters would be missing out on what they wanted).
Image Credit: Mojang
All the way from the first mob vote, which added the Phantom, critique of the system has been high. What’s more, the mob vote creatures often become some of the most disliked creatures in the game. For example, the Phantom is seen as a frustrating annoyance, Glow Squids are rarely used in-game, The Allay has limited functionality even now, and the Sniffer is almost never seen or used by players.
The final straw was the 2023 mob vote which saw the Armadillo win out vs. the Crab and Penguin. Players rebelled, demanding all creatures be added to the game. This hasn’t come to pass, but fans remain hopeful the Crab come be added in the new, more-frequent updates.
Beyond this, the long timeframe between updates was often pointed to as a shortfall for Mojang and Minecraft. This even helped bring rise to a genre of content where YouTube Minecraft Creators would make unofficial updates in just a limited amount of time.
Overall, this change should bring players more content in a quicker manner. With the Minecraft movie making headlines for all the wrong reasons, it’s great to see something positive for the game materialize.
