The Minecraft Mob Vote has been getting more and more controversial every year, and this year it seems like the community has finally had enough and plans to boycott the vote.
Say, if you had to choose between a crab, an armadillo and a penguin, and only the one you voted for was added to your favorite game while the rest were shelved indefinitely, which would you pick? You probably already have a favorite, right? That's the basic concept behind the Minecraft Mob Vote, a community event which has been held around this time of the year for the past few years.
"Wait, but that's dumb," you might think, "why do they have to choose? Why not just add all three? It's not like Minecraft developer Mojang doesn't have the budget". And a large portion of the Minecraft community would agree with you! The purpose of the event seems to be to drive engagement with the game and spark arguments, but with every Mob Vote the community has gotten more and more frustrated with the event itself.
It doesn't help that the votes themselves have been plagued with rumors of foul play and vote manipulation. Minecraft's most famous (and infamous) content creator Dream has been accused of rigging the vote in favor of his personal favorite multiple times over the years. And the 2023 vote is especially contentious, as one of the choices comes with one of the most-requested features in the game's history, wolf armor.
Minecraft Players Are Planning To Boycott The Mob Vote
Well, it seems like the community has finally had enough and is organizing a boycott of the vote this year. A Change.org petition demanding that Mojang stop hosting the event and implement all three mobs instead has reached over 270,000 votes as of the time of this article. #StopTheMobVote is gaining traction on X (formerly Twitter) as well, with some users creating and sharing stylized propaganda posters. So far, the movement has not been acknowledged by Mojang.
currently obsessed with minecraft union propaganda on tik tok as people unionize to end the mob vote pic.twitter.com/aQz3iowf2I
— Mufflekip but spooky (@mufflekip) October 7, 2023
As someone who hasn't actually played Minecraft in over a decade (oh god, Minecraft 1.0 was released over a decade ago, I feel old now) I have no horse in this particular race. That said, it's extremely funny to watch the Minecraft community effectively go through the whole process of a labor union formation, recognizing that they're being pitted against each other and uniting against a common enemy. History in the making!
Jokes aside though, I do get where they're coming from. Although Minecraft is technically still in active development, new feature releases have become noticeably less frequent over time ever since Microsoft acquired its developer Mojang back in 2014, and having to effectively choose which two out of three new features get shelved forever must feel like rubbing salt in the wound for dedicated fans.
This year's Mob Vote is scheduled to open on October 13 and run until October 15. The results will be revealed at that time at MineCon, the annual Minecraft convention. Have you already decided which of the three choices you'll be voting for? Or are you abstaining and joining the revolution?
Either way, we'll keep you in the loop on the Mob Vote here!