Real Goblin

The world’s most popular game has hit a big bedrock wall.

Let me run you through my relationship with Minecraft as it stands today. About four to five times per year, I will be suddenly struck by the urge to start a Minecraft playthrough. I will giddily re-install the game and wait through the load screens. That satisfying little sound plays as I click through the settings. I set up a new single player world and go. I wait as the percentage loads from 0-100. Let’s see what Mojang has cooked up for me this time.

10%, 40%. A thousand scenarios play in my brain as I consider how I’ll approach this playthrough. 60%, 80%. What biome will I settle in? Tundra? Jungle? Or will I live a nomadic life with a caravan of alpacas? 

90%, 100%.

I pop into existence in a new, functionally infinite expanse. I gather wood, I make a pickaxe, I mine some cobblestone. I climb atop a tree and get a big sweeping view of the surrounding area. That classic, ambient piano plays in the background.

What now?

If you are a longtime fan of Minecraft, then you too probably understand exactly how I feel at this point. And when I say longtime fan, I mean I was practically raised on Minecraft. This game has been a part of my life for nearly every stage of my development as a person. There is no concrete way to track total hours played in Minecraft. You can view how much time has been logged on a particular server or gameworld, but Mojang doesn’t track broad stats in an easily quantifiable way. This is probably for the best. I think I would be equally impressed and horrified to know how much time I’ve spent in Minecraft since I first discovered the game over ten years ago.

I first played it at a friend’s house when it was released on the Xbox 360. I didn’t have easy access to home internet growing up, as I lived in what some would call the “country”. My first console was the original Xbox, which I received around the time the Xbox 360 was first coming out. And I loved that thing. I understood I was a few years behind the newest releases, but it never bothered me. So consider my surprise at a game like Minecraft when my best understanding of what freedom in a game looked like was something closer to Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007. 

After I first played Minecraft, I went home and told my brother about it. I described it as being completely limitless because, to me, it was. I wanted to convince him to split a copy with me for our shared laptop. In my pitch, I told him “literally name anything and you can do it in Minecraft.” 

He asked, “Can you fly?” And I said, “yes.” For some reason that’s always a mark of true freedom of gameplay in a child’s mind.

His questions gradually grew more absurd, like “can you eat people?” for example. But I just started lying and saying yes to everything. I was 12 and only had 20 dollars to my name. I needed his investment to get this off the ground. Eventually, he agreed. And when he loaded into his first world, he was not disappointed. We shared an account for a while, building the classic 1st time structures in our joint single player world: a 5 by 5 tower made of dirt, a flying pirate ship made of dirt. We were at the age where dirt was an acceptable building material.

It wasn’t long before we discovered Minecraft YouTube and our understanding of what was possible grew. CaptainSparklz always seemed to be breaking out of a prison or building a town with a dozen other people. So my brother and I graduated to Minecraft servers. We would go to my grandparent’s house and use their wifi. He would play on their Mac, having purchased his own account, and I would sit in the same room and play on the laptop. Back then, he didn’t know how to program the right click function on the Apple mouse, so he had that feature bound to a key on the keyboard. It wasn’t perfect, but it was our Minecraft experience.

Minecraft was the game of my dreams. It’s safe and fair to compare it to Lego, where the only limit is your imagination. We had Lego long before Minecraft. In our shared childhood bedroom was a setup that stretched across multiple countertops and playspaces. There were always shifting battle lines and riveting space wars. There was a consistent canon to our world, with alliances forged and broken, a story expanded with each passing day.

For the most part, we still have a good portion of our Lego. They sit in boxes in a room at my parent’s house. When I go home and see them, I am struck by a nostalgic glee. It’s a feeling not dissimilar to the one I feel when I start a new Minecraft world. I occasionally will drag one of the large plastic bins out of the corner and kneel before it. I open the lid and look inside: a world of possibility. I scoop a handful and let the hundreds of little blocks fall through my fingers like water. What could I build with these pieces? What could I dream up? 

What now?

Beginning a Minecraft world is much like dragging your hand through your childhood toy bin. You pull out the familiar pieces and remember how much fun you once had. In a bin of Lego, I will seek out cool, unique pieces. A minifigure, the remnants of a half-built structure. In Minecraft, I gather wood, get a basic setup. But with both Lego and Minecraft, I hit a wall. With Lego, that wall is mostly a lack of patience combined with the fact that I’m now in my twenties. Lego is still cool and I will happily build with them any day of the week. But will I ever have that dedicated Lego space in my bedroom again? No. Sadly, I think those days are behind me.

With Minecraft however, the problem is different. Acting out the voices of plastic minifigures has become unacceptable at my age. But video games are different. Video games as a medium often consider replayability as a factor and account for it in the design. Some are more replayable than others, but some of the best, most enduring games are made to be played again and again. Multiple endings, branching storylines, a lot of modern games have this built into the core of its DNA. Minecraft is an open-world survival game that has always had an emphasis on freedom. But it doesn’t have a true story. It doesn’t have multiple endings or branching storylines. It’s not that kind of game. And that’s ok. If anything, it should and technically does mean that it has infinite replayability. Minecraft is a template. It’s what you make of it. You can approach it however you want. Build what you want, where you want, how you want it. Kill everything or harm nothing. Play on hardcore or play on peaceful. And that’s not to mention the thousands of available servers or mods that can redefine the way the game plays. Minecraft is like Burger King, if you will. “Have it your way”. 

Minecraft isn’t the only game of its kind. It has inspired a hundred or more games in the open- world, survival, crafting genre. Some are clones, but many truly stand out. One game that I often heard compared to Minecraft back in the day was Terraria. I recently tried it and it definitely lives up to the praise it has received for so long. While I can understand why it might have been compared to Minecraft at one point for its overworld exploration, monster slaying, mining and crafting, it’s an entirely separate experience. It is a colorful, expansive, creative work of art and it is clear to see how it won Steam’s “Labor of Love” award in 2021. 

When you view Minecraft in comparison to something like Terraria, the sense of “freedom” in each game is difficult to compare. Terraria is a 2 dimensional game with very defined borders. You can reach the edge of Terraria’s regular overworld in 3 minutes. In Minecraft, walking to the edge of the world would take you over 80 real world days, and that’s if you moved in a straight, flat line.

So why is it that Terraria feels bigger?

A friend of mine pointed out a distinction between the two games once. He said that in Terraria, the next task or mission is always right around the corner. He always felt like it was a question of “what should I do next?”. But in Minecraft, the question feels more like “what can I do next?” or “What’s left?” 

Despite Minecraft’s promise of freedom, I never truly feel free. I go through the motions of your typical Minecraft world. I get my tools, I build my house, I make my farm. But eventually I just lose the thread and that’s about where my playthrough ends. Then a few months or so later, I repeat, only to reach the same sad conclusion: Minecraft ain’t what it used to be. But how is this possible? Minecraft today has more to do than it ever has in the history of its existence. It’s incredible to see how far it’s come. So, much like with my Legos, I have to ask myself what the problem is. Am I too old for this? Has my imagination reached a dead end? 

Well, no. I don’t think so. I like to think my imagination is about as intact as it should be at this point. I play D&D, I understand imagination. I understand FUN, for God’s sake. Like I said, Minecraft is what you make of it. My longest playthroughs have been the ones that were collaborative efforts between me and some friends to build something together. But at the end of the day, we still hit that same wall, even if we do play together.

So is it me or is it Mojang? Consider Minecraft’s momentum. The game took off in 2011. Its near immediate success meant new content (for free, of course). These updates came quickly. Every few months or so, a significant addition came to the game. 1.4 added five new core mobs. 1.5 was the “Redstone Update”, which allowed for players to create functioning energy circuits. 1.6 added horses. Update 1.7 was the aptly titled “update that changed the world”, which added eleven new biomes. All of this occurred over the span of two years. But then Minecraft was purchased by Microsoft in September of 2014. 

The next update that followed was decent, almost certainly well into development before Microsoft’s acquisition. After that came the much maligned “Combat Update”. Minecraft had a fairly large PVP community up until this point. The changes to combat were not well received and these PVP communities either dissolved or refused to play with the new update.

Back in my day, I was always following the latest updates about the game. I would watch recap videos that detailed what was to come. And it used to be the case that I simply couldn’t keep up. New features would just appear one day and I’d joyfully find them through gameplay.

All of this isn’t to say that Minecraft hasn’t made positive changes since Microsoft’s acquisition of the property in 2014. But there have been some questionable choices in the years since 2014.

Bedrock Edition:

Microsoft wanted to create cross-platform functionality for all Minecraft users. To do that, it was simply easier to essentially recreate Minecraft from the ground up. In the case of Minecraft, cross compatibility means everything from a powerful PC to a mobile device. To make Minecraft possible on both ends of the spectrum, Bedrock was born. 

There are a handful of key differences between the two versions. Many of the third party tools that allow players to edit their worlds do not work on Bedrock. Additionally, many Redstone builds that work under Java are impossible with Bedrock. On the other hand, Bedrock works across many platforms, from a mobile phone to a Nintendo Switch to a Playstation 5. That in itself is impressive.

One of the more notable changes is that Bedrock edition allows users to pay for skins and texture packs. This is minor in the grand scheme of things. But it does introduce a marketplace for players. It doesn’t remove the ability of players to download third party add ons. But the monetization aspect is present.

Does that make Bedrock evil? No. Not really. It’s to be expected that Microsoft would implement a store option. Branded DLC is often released for free. And some boast that certain aspects of Bedrock are better. So there isn’t anything inherently wrong with it.

By having the two versions exist simultaneously, Microsoft has created a subtle, accidental experiment about player preference. Many people I know who have access to both versions prefer Java for a number of reasons. Personally, I tend to find that there is a distinctly different feel between the two games. Java just plays better. It could all be in my head, of course. 

Minecraft Realms:

The “Realms” feature is the most convenient and accessible way to play online with friends. Through either edition of the game, players can pay per month to rent a multiplayer server directly from Mojang. This isn’t the cheapest option available, nor does it allow the player much freedom in terms of mods, plug-ins, etc. Minecraft’s younger audience, which is to say the majority, would probably have a harder time navigating to and setting up a third party server through services like Bisect Hosting or Apex.

That’s how they really get you. Minecraft is a one time purchase. If you’re like me, you have only spent money on the game one time, when you first bought it. Maybe you don’t spend money on skins either. But I’ll be damned if you don’t want to play with friends. Unless you’re running a world exclusively on one console and splitting the screen with three friends or using a LAN server, you’re bound to seek out multiplayer options somewhere else. Minecraft is fun alone, but playing with others opens up a variety of new possibilities for gameplay (something that’s much needed).

But as it currently stands, there is no definitively free way to play online with friends. You could join one of the game’s popular servers. These are operated by independent creators, who put a great deal of work into making different, creatively implemented game modes work in Minecraft. But the more popular these servers become, the more the operators have to pay for upkeep. More players means more resources must be dedicated to accommodating them. The more populated servers can run up costs upward of several thousand dollars per month. These servers will seek sponsors or donations from the user base to cover the cost of running it. In exchange, the players may earn special privileges inside of these servers (skins, special titles, in game currency). And thus the cycle continues. 

I also recently learned of something called “Realms Plus”, which sounds like some type of niche joke, but sadly is not. Realms Plus is Mojang’s premium version of the existing service. Subscribing to this grants access to some of the previously paywalled marketplace content. Hence the “plus” part. But what is this additional content, you ask? Well, Mineville High School Roleplay, of course. On the bright side, the base version of Realms now only costs $2.99 on Bedrock. Java remains at $7.99. If this is all a bit confusing, here’s a handy chart to detail everything:

I won’t pretend that running servers is free. I understand that it’s far more cost effective for Mojang to charge its users to play. But compare Minecraft again to Terraria. In Terraria, for friends to play together, one player hosts the game for the others. This version of the game only runs when the host makes it available via their own PC. All of this is at no extra cost to the player. Your average Minecraft player doesn’t require much of their server. If two twelve year olds want to play vanilla Minecraft together on a Sunday in the comfort of their own homes, someone’s parents are going to have to fork over $7.99. 

Minecraft’s Content:

I recall a Q&A video with the Mojang team from a few years ago in which they were asked about their productivity. The question read “if mod developers can make all of your updates, why can’t you guys do it as fast as them?” A young woman answered the question. She said that Mojang strives for a high level of quality. She said that they test it extensively and “we hope that when we release it, you guys are gonna be happy to get what you get. So that’s why.”

That’s an insult to the modding community, certainly. But it also glosses over the question.

Minecraft doesn’t owe me anything. I paid for the game once over a decade ago and I can open a single-player world at no additional cost whenever I please. I’ve gotten many hours of entertainment out of it since then. The game hasn’t been abandoned. It still receives occasional updates, with a recent world generation shift that has forever changed the way the game is played. Where I, and many fans, get caught up is in the choices Mojang’s team makes for the game (or rather doesn’t make). How is it possible to have the largest, most well known game in the history of the medium and be this lazy with the property? Minecraft has sold more copies than any game. Period. It is about as widely known and popular as any video game can ever hope to be.

Minecraft’s updates have slowed to a near halt since Microsoft’s acquisition of the property in 2014. Intense quality control isn’t the reason that Mojang doesn’t update the game as frequently as contemporaries. There are a plethora of mods of high quality. To state that they strive for a level of quality that modders can’t replicate is a sorry excuse. The game’s creators have reached a threshold. The game that once reinvented itself update after update now hasn’t done anything to build upon its own limitless premise in years. Perhaps it’s Minecraft’s massive popularity that has the creators worried about certain changes. 

In the past, Mojang was pressured into changing a feature that allowed you to heal the parrot mobs with cookies, which would be harmful to actual, real world parrots. The lead creative designer, Jens Bergensten, reacted to this and said:

“If Minecraft has any effect on children’s behavior, we want it to be a positive one, so we’ll change the item used to breed parrots before the 1.12 update is released.”

It seems that someone at Mojang took this to heart. Subsequent updates adopted this same philosophy about the game’s effect on children’s behavior. The newer mobs added to the game don’t drop meat or experience when killed. Polar bears, dolphins, and pandas for example. I’m not some maniac who wants to live a fantasy of farming pandas for their meat. But these changes do suggest Mojang’s intent to steer the game in a slightly different direction with a focus on sustainability and awareness. Many of the newer animal additions are endangered in the real world. We should absolutely protect these animals. And Mojang isn’t necessarily wrong for making a change like this in game. But it is inconsistent with the game’s other elements. The player strips the world around them of resources and burns coal to smelt iron. “XP farms” can be created that pack so much livestock into a single pen that they die automatically just from the sheer volume of living things in a single space. Massive, horrible contraptions can be created that allow the player to farm resources from the game’s native population, the Testificates. 

Newer mobs, like the sea turtle, still drop items for the player. But these aren’t gained by killing the turtles. Instead, players must undergo a careful breeding process to gain their unique drops. Some of these new methods of resource gathering are fun and creative. The goat horns, for example, can only be gained by baiting one to ram into a solid wall. These can make for fun in-game activities. But Mojang has done nothing to change the ways of the past. The ones that let the player drop cows systematically through lava to gain cooked beef without ever having to lift a finger. 

And what about the “Wild Update”? The name implies some major overhauls to the wilderness. Maybe a few new biomes? Or some reworks of existing ones? Well, no. Sorry. You get the Mangrove Swamp, one new biome. And frogs. Those frogs were going to eat a new firefly mob, but it was discovered that fireflies are poisonous to real-world frogs. Rather than change the code to account for this by, say, making the frogs not eat the fireflies, they were removed entirely.

And we also got chests in boats. Not the bigger, customizable boats that players have been requesting for many years (especially following the nautical themed update that added shipwrecks, large diverse oceans and buried treasure to the game). But chests in boats.

Mojang is hesitant to make changes. That much is certain. Look at the yearly mob vote, for example. Mojang presents a trio of possible creature additions to the game. Players can vote for their favorite, which will eventually find its way into the base game. Putting aside the skewed vote rigged by the YouTuber Dream, the vote is still problematic. People will go back and forth about which is most beneficial or cute or fun. But inevitably, it is suggested that all of the available choices would make good additions. It is pointed out that Mojang has clearly done work on all three mobs already. At least enough to have experimental, in-game versions. So why not all three? 

Well, they’d rather have a consensus about what people want most. Over the years, the mob vote has become increasingly frustrating as the game’s content comes few and far between.

So, is Minecraft boring now? Or is it me? I think it’s a combination of the two. Try as I might, I can’t commit to the game like I once could. As I grow older, my imagination just isn’t as limitless as it once was. So in response, I start looking for Minecraft’s actual content. But it’s not there. Mojang is slow to update the game. They haven’t added a new boss since the Elder Guardian in 2016. The long promised “Combat Update” has fallen by the wayside. The biome overhaul for the desert and birch forest is nowhere to be seen. 

Maybe it’s corporate interference from the fat cats at Microsoft. Maybe it’s a fear of making the wrong move. Maybe it’s something we’ll find out about in a former staffer’s memoir in thirty years.

I am certain to try to rediscover the same feeling I once held for the game again. I am cursed to continue this quest several times a year, as are many. But unfortunately, I think the blocky sun has set on my best days with Minecraft.

The Unprecedented Times