(Photo courtesy of: Windows Central) “The latest Minecraft Mob Vote has caused controversy.”
Savannah Baker
Connector Editor
Mojang Studios, the video game developer behind Minecraft, has announced their annual Mob Vote. The Mob Vote allows the Minecraft community to vote on their favorite new mobile entity they wish to see incorporated into the Minecraft world. The reveal of this year’s three prospective mobs quickly sparked controversy, leading to a Mob Vote boycott.
Voting takes place on the Minecraft Launcher, Minecraft.net, or through the special event server on Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. The Mob Vote results are announced each year during the virtual event, “Minecraft Live,” on YouTube.
After the end of each annual Mob Vote, the two losing mobs get sent to Mojang’s ideas library. Mojang says that these mobs could eventually be added to the game, but there are no promises. Ever since the Mob Vote started in 2017, players have yet to see any of the losing mobs get added to the game. This year, users believe each mob deserves a place in the game and refuse to see any more mobs lost to the void.
The 2023 mob contenders are the crab, armadillo and penguin—all of which would bring new features into the game. The crab gives players the ability to pick up their claws, adding more range when placing blocks, the armadillo can be used to craft wolf armor and the penguin helps speed up the boat traveling process.
The popularity of all three creatures provoked a Mob Vote uprising. Players quickly took to TikTok with anti-vote propaganda and Minecraft-inspired revolutionary posters under the tag #BoycottMobVote.
After a devastating loss of the “Moobloom”—a buttercup-covered variant of the “Mooshroom”—during last year’s Mob Vote, players no longer want to suffer any more mob losses. This leaves the Minecraft community to ask: why show players all three mobs they could have in the game, only to give them one and throw away the other two?
Each year, the Minecraft community becomes divided over this small feature, and no one ever seems to be satisfied with the voting results. Players are tired of turning against one another and have united to point their fingers at Mojang.
Players are now demanding that Mojang give users all three mobs, abolishing the vote. The discontent the Minecraft community has with the annual Mob Vote has led to the Change.org petition, “Stop the Mob Vote: Put an end to the scrapping of great ideas.” As of Oct. 13, the petition has over 445 thousand signatures.
Players who are in support of the Change.org petition have been uploading videos to the site to share their opinions and feelings about the Mob Vote in hopes of gaining Mojang’s support. However, because Minecraft is owned by Microsoft, the final decision of whether all three mobs are to be added to the game or not is up to the players.
