For the past few years, developer Mojang has used its Minecraft Live event for the Mob Vote. This contest pits three potential new mobs up against each other in a community vote to decide which one is going to be added to the game. Last year, the Sniffer won and this year the vote is coming down to either the Crab, Armadillo, or Penguin. However, there is a sizeable chunk of the community that wants to see the Mob Vote abolished from Minecraft. It might sound odd at first, but the players do have some points that make some sense.
At the time of this writing, the Stop the Mob Vote petition has well over 300,000 signatures at Change.org. In fact, nearly 100,000 people have added their names to the petition just today. The biggest complaint most of these players have is that they don’t want to vote between the three mobs, because they think they should all be in the game.
“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,” the petition says. “That, mixed with the fact that Mojang somehow releases less content WITH Microsoft’s backing than they did without, means players see minimal content to the game they love, and watch as possibly the one thing to get them to play again is ripped from them.”
?#MinecraftLive is coming?
Tune in October 15 for all things Minecraft!https://t.co/0pvdxJeOlp pic.twitter.com/l6lFaeysDJ
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) September 13, 2023
The petition also notes that the vote is flawed in terms of how it’s conducted because content creators often mobilize their fanbases to vote for a specific mob, sometimes even asking them to vote for the least popular option as a joke. In that way, it’s not a true vote and the winner could be seen as illegitimate. There are also some players signing the petition pointing out that Mojang hasn’t been releasing as many updates as it did in the past, so having at least two mobs miss out on making it into the game every year almost feels like the developers are getting away with doing less work by putting the vote on the community.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely this petition will change anything in the immediate future, but it does seem that the community’s feelings on the vote are finally bubbling to the surface in a potentially productive way. If Mojang sees this and does something like add the option for the other mobs somewhere down the line, that could be a solid victory for the community. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if Mojang makes any kind of official response to the petition as it continues to grow in signatures.
When is Minecraft Live 2023?
Which mob do you want to join Minecraft??
?Crab
?Armadillo
?PenguinThe Mob Vote begins October 13 at 1pm EDT and will stay open for 48 hours. Hopefully, Jens makes it in time… pic.twitter.com/0UEpT7YkRe
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) October 6, 2023
Minecraft Live starts on October 15 at 12 PM CT. The Mob Vote ends 15 minutes after the event begins, so you’ll have until then to get your vote in if you want to participate. There will also be updates about all of the other stuff coming to Minecraft over the next few months.
Minecraft is available now on PlayStation, Switch, mobile, Xbox, and PC platforms.