Reflecting on and analyzing the beloved game’s evolution with YouTuber Phoenix SC.

As the best selling game in the world, it’s obvious that Minecraft is widely beloved. The players are given full freedom over their game, with multiple game modes, limitless playstyles, and an ever expanding arsenal of creative tools at their disposal. 

Since its release in 2009, Minecraft has evolved into a monument of the gaming world. With multiple games, a massive presence on YouTube, and a vast user base contributing fangames, mods, asset packs and other fan works that promote the game, Minecraft is at no risk of becoming old news any time soon.

 However, recent events have diminished Minecrafts fans’ good faith in Mojang and the Minecraft team. 

After the 2020 update, production was slow. Fans were more understanding, as the pandemic was still throwing things out of order. But as things started to clear up, and as Mojang failed to deliver, fans became increasingly apprehensive. The game and brand still stand strong, but its community has grown increasingly worried regarding the quality of recent updates, and the corporatization of Minecraft as a whole. 

“It just feels like a corporate, politically correct, entity that’s spitting canned responses left and right, and failing to properly address its faults,” Hamish Chau, a Minecraft content creator better known as Phoenix SC, said in an interivew. “Mojang used to feel human. It needs to feel human again.”

Criticisms became fully apparent when the community reached its boiling point during the 2023 mob vote. 

Minecraft Live is a virtual event hosted on YouTube by Mojang. Prior to 2017, the event had been an in person convention called MineCon. During the event, developers would reveal the newest updates that were coming to the game. 

In 2017, Mojang introduced the mob vote, where fans were given the opportunity to participate by voting on a mob to be incorporated into the game. 

This backfired when the chosen mob,the phantom, quickly became one of the most hated creatures in the entire game. In 2020, the mob vote returned, which again was detrimental. The winning mob,the glow squid, did not meet fan expectations. Beyond that, it was rumored that the popular Minecraft Youtuber Dream had rigged the mob vote by sending his fans to the polls, outnumbering votes for the competing mobs. Despite its intention to let the community play a part in decision making, the mob vote has the opposite effect, making the player base feel ignored by only giving it a very small opportunity to contribute to its favorite game. 

The community’s ideas also aren’t limited to the mobs that Mojang has them pick, the community has always been vocal about its wants and needs.

 “Minecraft.net has a feedback page that is actually being used,” Chau said. “Just go with that and we’ll be fine. I guarantee that if we take away the mob vote, and deliver a physical convention again, the community will be delighted. Return to our roots, the game we used to admire for its organic atmosphere!” 

Still, the mob vote returned for the three years following the 2020 disaster. 

“I do not like the mob vote,” Chau said. “I do not like Minecraft Live in general. It’s very superficial and soulless. If it’s meant to engage the community, it does not do this. This year, it was a 50 minute YouTube premiere that wasn’t even filmed live.”

The 2023 Minecraft Live aired mid-October, and viewer reception has been generally negative, particularly in regards to the mob vote. Because Minecraft obviously developed all three mobs, fans questioned why all three mobs weren’t just added into the game. Fans began to protest, and boycotted the vote. The outrage became so prevalent that a petition on Change.Org was created to end the mob vote.

“Now, I don’t advocate for the boycott petition,” Chau said, “but this speaks volumes for just how incensed the community is. It genuinely does feel like two lost mobs over one gained. And it, for sure, is a mere surface-level way to generate engagement during Minecraft Live. They have to bring back the physical convention – please!”

The fan response to 2023’s Minecraft live was not out of the blue; fans had been concerned about updates for years prior.

Updates have always been crucial to Minecraft. Yearly updates have been cemented into the game ever since its debut in 2009 – with the exception of 2015, when no major update was made available, presumably due to company adjustments after being bought out by Microsoft. 

In recent years, Minecraft updates have become less and less significant. The last major update that had a smooth reception was update 1.16 in 2020, when developers rehauled the Nether dimension. The following was the Caves and Cliffs update. In mid-April of 2021, Mojang announced that Caves and Cliffs was going to be released in two parts: Part One would add the new features, and Part Two would overhaul world generation. The two parts were released nearly half a year apart, and though the response was generally understanding, when multiple features, such as archeology and the bundle item, were left unincorporated, fans were left confused and upset. Archeology was added later in the Tales and Trails update, though bundles were still only accessible as an experimental item. 

Nonetheless, the community had been clear about the need for a long overdue cave update, and the content that was added satisfied that need. 

“Yes,” Chau said, “we all know the jokes surrounding the update split. I still consider it as one update!” 

The Wild update (1.19) was next, which was playfully dubbed “Caves and Cliffs part three” by fans, due to the incorporation of the Warden, a mob originally designed for Caves and Cliffs. The Wild update had already had an underwhelming impression on the community, and this was compounded when Mojang took back several features that they had shown in the trailers. Fireflies were planned as an aesthetic particle effect that would glow in the night, and act as food for the new frog mobs. Mojang’s reasoning for their removal was that many species of fireflies are actually poisonous to frogs. The community was quick to point out that the fireflies could just be a particle effect, and not have mod interactions. Notably, it’s already possible to poison animals with food items in the game, as parrots can be killed by feeding them a cookie. 

In addition, Mojang had shared art of redesigned birch forests during their Wild update presentation at Minecraft Live. Later, they confirmed that the art shown had just been concept art, leading many to question why they wouldn’t have shared that in the presentation. 

The Tales and Trails update (1.20), was also fairly small, primarily adding decorative blocks. Because of the grand scope of the previous versions, the newer, smaller updates have become far less impressive. Despite its hard points, Caves and Cliffs was still incredibly transformative, and 1.16 vastly improved upon the previously barren Nether. The most recent versions added decent content, but in comparison to the updates before them, they seem underwhelming.

“I … don’t particularly like 1.20,” Chau said. “It could have been so much more, especially Archeology. I’m glad it’s getting some reworks though.”

The controversy surrounding updates pales in comparison to the outrage caused by the integration of Chat Reporting in June of 2022. Microsoft introduced a highly restrictive chat reporting system that allowed players to get each other temporarily and permanently banned via the public chat forums. 

Though the general idea was to create a safer environment for young players, the consequences were detrimental to a significant percent of the player-base. Players could now lose their accounts due to a misunderstanding, an argument with a friend, or something as simple as cursing in the chat. Usernames with “inappropriate” language could also be penalized, affecting players even if they played strictly singleplayer. 

Not only did the new standards jeopardize the security of players’ accounts, they also prioritized Minecrafts’ younger audience over older players, limiting the game to be strictly kid friendly. Many assume that the change was made because Microsoft wanted to avoid scandals, and not because of real accounts of cyberbullying or harassment. Prior to this, Minecraft had run on an honor system, having good faith in users to keep the environment safe for everyone. Not only did these new regulations signify Mojang’s distrust in its community, it damaged the community’s trust in Mojang.

Minecraft has come a long way from its origins of buggy, jumping enemies and massive repeating walls at the end of the world. It has become a creative platform that is frequently changing, and expanding. Though, with the recent inconsisten evolution of the game, it’s becoming hard to tell whether all of these changes are for the better; it’s worth questioning if updates are worth the hassle. 

Chau explains that updates are overall good, and that – while some changes, like chat reporting, and the combat update may have tipped the scales away from Minecrafts’ favor – there’s still a lot to look forward to.

“I mean, imagine if we didn’t get updates at all,” Chau pondered. “That would be terrible! Even if the community generally dislikes the update, they’ll come around eventually.” 

Some features Chau himself would like to see included a new dimension (one that fits), new bosses, and maybe an End update. 

People love Minecraft. But at what point does the game evolve past what made it so special to begin with? At what point does Mojang risk making things worse in the pursuit of improvement? How can Mojang make improvements without compromising its originality?

“For all intents and purposes of the word, the originality of the game pre-2014 is already lost,” Chau said. “Many argue that the new updates have changed the game in ways that have alienated a sizable percentage of the playerbase. There are rumours that existing mobs will be updated to fit these new criteria. 

“I think ‘originality’ is a subjective test  – everyone will have a different answer to this question. But for me, it’s been lost. That may not be a bad thing, and I think it’s unavoidable.”

Article by Maia Kinch