Minecraft players are done with the mob vote, petition for change

The Minecraft Mob Vote has become a staple of Minecraft Live, the annual event detailing the future of the game. But this year, players have had enough, and faced with the decision between adding a Crab, a Penguin, and an Armadillo, they went with a secret fourth option: Rebellion!

A petition on Change.org currently sits at over 352,000 votes as players desperately attempt to stop the mob vote. As per the petition: “The Mob Vote generates engagement by tearing the community apart, leaving fantastic ideas on the cutting room floor, and teasing content that will never be seen in the game.”

There’s truth to this statement. While either the Crab, Penguin, or Armadillo will be added to Minecraft, the two losers will likely never be added to the game. And in the past, fans have felt the mob vote has resulted in some poor decisions.

After the inaugural mob vote in 2017, the Phantom was added to the game. This mob defeated a deadly squid creature, a ravenous enchantment-eating lizard, and a Blaze min-boss. After some delay, and a China-exclusive Mob Vote in 2018, the 2020 Mob Vote set up for one of the biggest disappointments yet, as the Glow Squid beat out the Iceloger and Moobloom to win.

In 2021, the Allay won, defeating the Copper Golem and Glare. In 2022, the Sniffer claimed victory, defeating the Rascal and Tuff Golem.

One of the biggest criticisms of the mob vote is that these great ideas that don’t win are abandoned and never seen in-game. The fact this was a vote also gives fans more of a sense they’re missing out on something, rather than it being cut before the announcement or never thinking they’d get it.

Another major criticism is that the mobs included in the mob vote are well… kinda awful. The Phantom is a frustration that punishes players for not sleeping. The Glow Squid has minimal uses, although it is perhaps the most useful of mob-voted creatures as it allows for glowing text and item frames. The Allay also has extremely limited uses and is more of a novelty than anything. And the Sniffer, besides being huge, annoying and out of place, requires considerable effort to obtain for very limited rewards.

Beyond this, The practical realities of the mob vote voting system means a mob with as little as 33.4% of the initial vote can be added to the game, despite this meaning 66.6% of the community didn’t vote for them in one instance. Most mob votes have used rounds of voting, but in 2022 and 2023, just a single round of votes was used. Minecraft has experimented with multiple voting systems, and most recently confined voting to only being available in the Minecraft client.

Some critics have noted that fans of the game are somewhat spoilt. One particularly scathing meme posted by Twitter/X user @phisnom effectively calls Minecraft players spoilt:

Ultimately, what was meant to be an expression of fan freedom has become a disappointment for many. Gamers hate losing, and losing a vote is even more frustrating (Just look to the real world for examples of that). Will Mojang cave and add all three? We kinda hope so.

Stick with esports.gg for more gaming news!