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Business Manager: Brendan Flaherty

Email: bflaherty1@umassd.edu

The new Minecraft mobs have been introduced, and, as per usual, the fans have a lot to say about it.

In classic fashion, the Minecraft developers have come out with three new possible mob additions to the game.

For those who are not familiar with Minecraft, mob is short for Mobile, which represents anything that is living and moving around. This ranges from hostile monsters such as zombies, skeletons, and spiders to passive animals like cows, chickens, and sheep.

Starting in 2017, the Minecraft developers came up with a new way to improve their game: to allow the players a chance to vote on new mobs to find/fight in their worlds.

While it was all very exciting to be able to choose something new to add to the game, it is also a consistently tough decision each year. The developers of the game have not made the mob vote an easy choice for players.

Most of the time, the developers introduce three concept mobs. The only exception has been the 2017 mob vote, which introduced four new mobs to choose from.

Time and time again, the players are pinned against one another in making the choice for the new addition to the game. Over the years, there have been many times where the community has been divided in three ways or sometimes a 50/50 split.

Each new mob that is introduced has a decent purpose in the game, making almost every option a viable one. Oftentimes, this would lead to a lot of hate from a significant portion of the fanbase who did not get the mob that they voted for.

This year, we are faced with another impossible choice: the new mobs include the armadillo, the crab, and the penguin.

The benefit of adding the armadillo to the game is that it allows players to make armor for their wolf companion.

The crab appeals to the builders in the game, as harvesting the crab claw allows for further reach when placing blocks. The crab claw would increase a player’s reach distance by two blocks. 

The penguin allows players’ boats to go faster in water, a similar ability seen in the dolphin mob.

Each mob has its own unique qualities that would make the game better in its own way. But, of course, we can’t have them all. We must choose one.

Or do we?

Fans have come to realize that this voting system has cheated them out of so many possible mobs that would’ve made everyone happy and the game more interesting.

What’s the harm in adding all the mobs instead of just one?

Fans are calling the developers lazy for just making one of the mobs they suggest when they have the capabilities and time to add them all.

In fact, some modders have gone ahead and created the mobs on their own, further proving that it is completely possible to add them all and that the developers are simply lazy.

Fans have come together, creating memes against Mojang and their insistence to add only one mob, depicting Mojang as a tyrant and an oppressor of fans.

However, some have come to defend Mojang on their decision to add just one mob to the game, arguing that having too many would be overstimulating and might have more unseen implications for the future.

Adding one mob at a time would ensure that its existence within the game is safe and bug-free.

To argue this point, there are already about 76 mobs currently in the game, ranging from multiple different versions of the same mob to completely different mobs.

Some of them are hardly spotted anymore, and some of them are regrettable additions to the game, with some players having come to hate them.

Those who defend Mojang say that the developers really are trying to add as much as they can to the game and satisfy as many people as possible. They argue that the players are being too greedy. 

It’s an interesting tactic for Mojang to cater to different areas of the community whilst constantly tearing it apart through this voting system.

On October 15th, at 1 PM, the new mob was announced along with a slew of new features to soon be officially added to the game.

This is exactly how some players are defending Mojang: with the argument that the addition of new building blocks, enemies to fight, and areas to explore makes the loss of the other contenders more okay.

The mob that was chosen through the vote was the Armadillo. While this does make a good portion of players happy, the other 2/3s of the community are displeased, knowing that they will likely never see their favorite pick of the mobs in the game.

Although Mojang ultimately didn’t cave in on their intentions to make the players choose, the players will likely continue to revolt.

A petition on Change.org was created to defend the players and to garner support for their demands. Players want the developers to see that they are tired of fighting over which mob is the best and getting upset over the ones that never get a chance.

Holly Mavermorne, the creator of the petition, pointed out the flaws of the mob vote, noting that sometimes “content creators [will mobilize] their fanbases to vote for the least popular option for the joke of screwing over the other voters.”

This is in reference to the 2020 vote, when famous Youtuber and Minecraft player Dream told his large viewer fanbase to vote for the Glow Squid, causing fans to feel cheated out of their choice due to a content creator rigging the vote.

This is just more evidence of the mob vote being a controversial event that causes much disruption amongst the community.

But now that the event is over, the hatred towards the developers and Mojang will likely die out as the players move to check out all the new features in the new updates.

However, it should be noted that what players are asking for is not completely out of the question, as it has been discussed that the trashed ideas could be added to a list of possible mobs to include in the future when and if they will finally grace the game is unknown.