Minecraft players are not thrilled with this years Minecraft Mob Vote 2023, with the ire so intense that a current change.org petition, “Stop the Mob Vote” has now amassed over 300k signatures.
The three new mobs, an armadillo, crab, and penguin, revealed last week all seem like well-intentioned additions to the sandbox title, with each mob providing new beneficial gameplay for players. However, since it’s a “Mob Vote” only one of the three mobs will be permanently added to Minecraft, with the other two being scrapped completely.
This is nothing new to the Minecraft community, the Mob Vote first began in 2017 which coincided with Minecraft Live, bringing new announcements and updates for the title. Mob Vote 2020 briefly saw some controversy after streamer Dream asked his fans to vote for the Glow Squid to be added, which well enough, overwhelmingly won that year’s vote.
Players this year have become more vocal about the vote. Holly Mavermorne, a Minecraft player started a change.org petition on October 7th following the full reveal of mobs, writing in 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. 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.”
Mavermorne also added the criticism from players that the vote can be rigged due to streamers with large fan bases.“Many have expressed their discontent with the Mob Vote in the past, with fan favorites like the Moobloom not making it into the game, and with content creators mobilizing their fanbases to vote for the least popular option for the joke of screwing over the other voters. This shows that the mob vote is inherently flawed.”
Currently, the petition is nearing 400k signatures, with the current goal being 500k.
The petition isn’t the only visible anger from the Minecraft community on social media. There’s a litany of images stylized to look like communist propaganda, jokingly demanding that the three mobs be added to the game.
It’s unclear if Minecraft will even respond to the criticism it has received from players since last week. Currently, Minecraft Live 2023 is still on schedule and will debut October 15th, introducing what players can expect in the next major update.