By Cal Bieler
“Minecraft,” the popular sandbox game released in 2011, just held its sixth Mob Vote, and the community made their feedback heard. Mojang, the creators of “Minecraft,” created the Mob Vote to let fans influence what is added to the game. Mojang designs three entities, called mobs, to potentially add to the game. They showcase the mobs for two weeks before the community votes for their favorite mob over two days. Mojang announces the winner, as well as additional information on the next update, on a livestream. The winner is added to the game in the next update, while the two mobs that lose are never to be added to the game.
While Mojang believes that the Mob Vote brings the community together, many of the fans would disagree. In the 2020 Mob Vote, Mojang created three mobs, the Moobloom, a cow with flowers on its back; the Iceologer, a magician who attacks players with ice; and the Glowsquid, a squid that glows. All of the mobs stood a fair chance, with the community backing their chosen choice. However, the line from supporting a mob to rigging the vote is where most people were upset. Popular “Minecraft” youtuber Dream tweeted multiple times about his support of the Glowsquid. With his popularity, people believe that he used his fans to sweep the vote. His defense was that other popular creators talked about their support of their respective mobs, and that it was unfair that he shouldn’t because of his large fan base.
Another Mob Vote that split the community further was the 2022 Mob Vote. The three mobs were: the Sniffer, an ancient and extinct mob that sniffs the ground and digs up seeds; the Rascal, a playful mob, that gives you rewards if you play hide-and-seek with it in the mines; and the Tuff Golem, a mob that can hold and pick up dropped items. MatPat, a popular Youtuber who is the face of Game Theory, claimed that the Mob Vote was rigged. In a YouTube Short titled “‘Minecraft’ Votes Are RIGGED,” he claimed, “They set up a false choice, two lame options, and one clear winner.” He also stated that Mojang did this because in 2020 they had talked about an Archaeology update, which was released on June 7, 2023.
The community was done being divided. Between Oct. 3-5, Mojang revealed this vote’s mobs, the Crab, with its claw, lets the player place blocks further away; the Armadillo, with dropped scute that can craft into dog armor; and the Penguin, when in water, makes the player’s boat faster. This time was different for the fans, however. On Oct, 6. Holly Mavermorne, also known as Visualeyes on Twitch, started a petition to “Stop the Mob Vote: Put an end to the scrapping of great ideas.” This sparked a revolution in the community. They started making posters, in the style of Cold War propaganda flyers. They created slogans, the most common one being, “United we bargain, divided we beg.” Instead of just ending the Mob Vote, the fans wanted all three mobs added to the game, and a boycott from the vote.
The Mob Vote had gained lots of traction from the revolution. On Oct. 15, they began the livestream. The chat was filled with “Stop the Mob Vote,” and the petition had over 400,000 signatures. The Penguin was eliminated first, with the host adding: “Remember our little frog friends didn’t win the vote either. And they still managed to hop their way into the game.” which was in reference to the 2019 Biome Vote, where the Goats won with the Mountains biome. In the end, the Armadillo won the vote. Mojang made no reference or comment to the revolution or petition. Instead saying, this was the Mob Vote with the most participation, with over five million votes. Now the community waits to see if Mojang will do what the Mob Vote set out to do, listen to the fans.
