Mojang Studios is taking away one opportunity for players to pick the kind of content they see in future Minecraft updates, and that could actually be a great thing.
The Minecraft developer announced that it is retiring its divisive mob vote via a blog post on Monday. Started in 2017, the mob vote was a community event where developers would present players with a selection of possible creatures that could be added to the game. In it, people would vote to pick their favorite and developers would add it. It sounds cute enough, but the event eventually went on to garner mass criticism from fans who argued that the practice scrapped great ideas; in 2023, players organized a organized a Change.org petition to get rid of the mob vote that more than 530,000 supports signed.
The canceled event is part of a larger shift at Mojang where the team will change the frequency it engages with fans, and how the team releases updates. Now instead of doing one big old Minecraft Live per year, the team will do two, and each event will be a “more focused” broadcast with information on what the team is working on and general Minecraft news. In addition to changes in community events, the team will also change cadence for releasing new content. The team won’t just provide one free update in the summer, but will release a “number of free game drops throughout the year.”
The post also emphaized that the team values player’s thoughts on the game. “Your feedback doesn’t just help inspire what goes into the game, it also helps us iterate on features throughout development, too,” the post said. So while you might not be able to vote so you can get an adorable penguin added to the game anymore, there are at least some avenues for players to provide feedback.
