SimplySarc – Are the Upcoming Biomes actually Good Enough?

In a bid to make ‘Minecon Live’ feel… Relevant? Necessary?, we’ve been getting annual votes on what we want to see added to Minecraft in future updates. 2019 saw the return of a Biome vote where the winner, like past years will find itself eternalized in the game’s code.

Opinions were divisive, but a winner was found. However there’s also debate whether these kinds of votes hurt the game and if the features they promise are meaningful additions or just a bit of superficial stunt-work. Minecraft is the biggest game of all time. For over a decade, it’s gone from strength to strength.

It’s established an iron grip over all our hearts and it’s demonstrated such an incredible staying-power that it’s envied not just by the gaming industry, but pretty much all forms of media. This may be a testament of just how brilliant the game’s core model is.

Because in spite of all that, Minecraft has received a lot of criticism over the years on it’s update roadmap. Many argue the game has been poorly managed on this front. For a game that is believed to have unlimited potential, some are disappointed with the

Lackluster scope of updates and how a meaningful direction seems to have been discarded long ago. These upcoming new biome updates are a great showcase of why this sentiment exists in the community. So… we’re gonna use this opportunity to look at all the proposed biome changes, dissect

Each of the new features, talk about if they’re good, bad and what it all means in the game’s design as a whole. So subscribe if you like what you see, I’m SimplySarc and… Are all these upcoming Minecraft biomes…. Good enough?

So there are 3 biomes that are getting updated; except there’s actually secretly 5, because Mojang has said that *all* biomes will get their changes eventually. And 2 of last years are still on the waiting list. This brings up a good point about output; Minecraft isn’t getting updated fast enough

And when it is, it’s not getting enough content. The 2018 winner was implemented in 1.14, so it would have been fair to assume the runner up and third place might have been added in 1.15 and 1.16 respectively. But with these 3 new contenders thrown into the fray it’s become unclear on when we’re

Getting what. If 2019’s winner, Mountains, is getting updated next, do 2018’s losers follow up or 2019’s? According to the devs, Mountains aren’t actually going to get here until 1.17 at the earliest. 1.15 should be here by the end of 2019 and 1.16 (the nether update) could see a summer 2020 release.

That means 1.17 could very easily be a year or more away. If, goodness forbid, we get another vote in 2020, do we then have 8 to-be added biomes? There’s quite a bit of a backlog here and it’s confusing when (or even if) we’ll see these biomes show up in the game.

So let’s start talking about these biomes. I’d like to begin by bringing your attention to a running theme you may have noticed, a pattern we can see not just in these proposed changes, but also in the patch notes in recent years […]

Have you noticed how many animals there are in the game, all of a sudden?! There’s been a serious uptick! And according to these votes, lots more are coming. We’ve seen Polar Bears, Llamas, Parrots, Dolphins, Turtles, Fish, Cats, Pandas, Foxes and now… Bees.

People have asked for these animals (and more) lots over the years. But now that they’re here, I’m beginning to contemplate their place in the game. There’s definitely an argument for immersion and ambience, but you do get that sense many are here just for the sake of it.

These animals aren’t just being added because they’re pretty though, Minecraft seems to want to take on the role as an educator. Turtles, Pandas and Bees for example seem to have been added primarily for their endangered status and the opportunity that brings to teach players about their conservation.

While this is a very positive gesture, I do think priorities are starting to get muddled up. As a game, Minecraft’s prime directive should be, “Is this fun?”. But you get a growing sense these additions were conceived for their message first and the details were worked out later.

The concern with all this is you end up with fairly shallow gameplay that doesn’t really impact the game as a whole. We’ve seen this quite a lot with the new wave of animal additions and I fear it’s gonna be much the same story with these upcoming critters.

In some cases, this even degrades the player experience. Cats were likely added because Ocelots are endangered and what role model would Minecraft be if it promoted children running into forests and capturing vulnerable species? But that milestone, that gameplay experience, that journey into the jungle to earn a cat is now gone.

Ocelots are obsolete and there’s no longer really any challenge in getting a cat. I do think things have gotten a little carried away with how many real-world animals are being included in the game. If you’re newer to the community you might not know this, but Minecraft once had a reputation

Of being kind of… weird. Like, updates would often take a bizarre unexpected turn and it’s the reason we got things like creepers, blaze and mooshrooms. I remember this picture circulating years ago and it was funny, not because it was absurd,

But because in the Notch-era, this kind of monstrosity could totally have been greenlit. We still see some of that creativity, but it seems to be limited to hostile mobs. I think there’s such a thing as the ‘daytime experience’ where Mojang wants the game

To be peaceful and ‘normal’ during the day, so you get these familiar critters from real-life, whereas at night and in the dark everything gets all twisted and corrupted and you get these odd, almost alien influences in the mob design. That’s fair, but I feel it’s somewhat creatively bankrupt to just simulate things

Grounded in reality. Meerkats, Ostriches, Vultures, Frogs and Goats sound fine on paper, but from a design standpoint, I’d much rather see original concoctions to fill those places instead of yet more bland simulations of the real-world. I think Microsoft have noticed this too.

In ‘Minecraft Earth’ (the augmented reality spin-off game), there are collectible mobs to be unlocked as you play. You might have noticed though that there are some new zany versions like dandelion cows and mushroom chickens. It’s rather telling when your official lineup of mobs doesn’t have a strong enough identity

To carry themselves that you need to step in with these sorts of inventions to remain marketable. All in all though the important question with these mobs is, do they improve the biome’s experience or are they just flashy distractions that don’t really get to the meat of the issue?

The taiga biome won in 2018 and added berries, campfires and Foxes. These features… were cute, but if we look back with a critical eye, did this actually expand that environment in a meaningful way? Not really. And this begs the question, do Mojang now consider the taiga biome ‘done’?

It’s been looked at, it’s been updated in their eyes, is this the last we hear about it? If so, it’s a little disappointing because that biome (and most biomes) still feel desperately neglected. And this feeling rings true with many of Minecraft’s updates, there’s that sense that only the

Surface was scratched with what they could do and lots of potential was left on the table. I’ve been a little critical so far, so let’s talk about some more of the proposed features and what I do like. If I think generic animals aren’t cutting the mustard, then what approach do I think

Would work better? Termites are actually quite a cool idea and not the type of thing we’ve really seen before. It could create this whole new recycling mechanic and maybe even act like a new hazard similar to fire, where your plants and vegetation need to be protected.

The same could be said for tumbleweed, is it block? Is it a particle? Or is it an entity? And if so, how will it’s physics and collision work? Storage boats are one of those things you think you’ve always needed, but when it actually comes to it… not so much.

Unless there’s some unexpected mechanics involved, I don’t think anyone would really use that feature. It’s too niche a purpose and you could just use a llama if you really needed that sort of function. Most of these choices involved the addition of a new tree or plant.

And it’s really hard to argue that these sorts of things aren’t good ideas, because a major problem with Minecraft’s biomes is their generation sucks. Trees are a really cheap, easy and effective way to alter the appearance of an environment without having to put too much effort in, so I’m all for new plants.

But of the tree choices, the mangrove in the swamps was the most needed; Palm trees in deserts would probably be quite rate, Savannahs already have a unique tree, whereas swamps have been rocking those modified oaks since like, beta 1.8. A dedicated tree-type is long overdue.

However, of all biome votes past and present, I think the Mountains had the best pitch (and that’s why it won!). Why did it win? Because it was the only biome that would get some actual generational changes. It’s not just all fluff, one of the biggest things that needs addressing is how the terrain

Looks and the Mountain option was the only one saying it was gonna do that. Mountains in their current state are one of my least favourite places in the game. Beautiful vistas are regularly ruined because some hideous mountain is spoiling the view.

Their biome tint is ugly, they don’t actually *look* like mountains and that dirty snow layer at the top was an awful addition all those years ago. All that said, we can’t get carried away. The optimist in you would hope the generation changes are tackled perfectly, but ‘Romantic

Views’ could just mean they stretch the height scale a bit and we end up with messy amplified terrain instead. So what exactly is it that I think isn’t quite right about these ‘biome updates’? I’d say my biggest complaint is that the scale and scope just isn’t there.

These features that I’ve criticized; they can all be forgiven, but you need a heck of a lot more content. Ambient polar bears are fine, but they can’t be your headliner. These biomes need 10x the amount of content that is currently being proposed.

2 or 3 minor changes doesn’t really have a significant enough effect, you need lots and lots more of those small additions to really start feeling it. But small changes, no matter how many you have, can’t carry it all the way. There also needs to be deep, fundamental restructuring going on.

You can’t just tack on new trees or add a new type of mound in the generator, you need to plunge your hand right into the heart of the game’s code and seriously reassess how biomes themselves work.

This is all very easy for me to say and it’s very likely that the exact work I’m talking about is currently taking place right now. But I think what really gets me so impassioned about biomes specifically is that Mojang’s gradual strategy doesn’t work here.

They’ve said in the past they purposefully take things slow as to not shock the playerbase with unfamiliar content, but you can’t do that with something like biomes (or a cave update). They’re too big, they’re too far reaching, teeny features added over the span of years

Is ineffective because to get to the root of the issue, you need to rip it all out at once. The way they updated oceans is an excellent example of how to do it. Oceans are definitely a biome, but they’re kind of more important than most biomes because

They take up so much space and connect everywhere together. And Mojang probably realised this. But can you imagine if they’d approached the ‘Update Aquatic’ like they’re approaching these biome votes? What if we’d just gotten a dolphin, a drowned and some sea pickles? The update would have sucked!

But instead they added dozens and dozens of new features and mechanics, some small, but there were some massive sweeping ones in there too. And it really shows, because if you go back to 1.12, that part of the game is almost unplayable retrospectively now.

And that’s the kind of feeling you wanna evoke with these Biomes updates (or I guess any update), that sense that you’ve been introduced to something you didn’t even know you were missing and can’t live without it from that point onwards.

Because of all that, these upcoming changes feel a little like busywork; like they’re buying for time and ultimately delaying what inevitably needs doing. You could argue that these votes were intended to just be small parts of otherwise larger updates and what I’ve suggested exceeds that intended scope.

While that’s likely the case, I don’t think these important, long-requested updates should be tied to these sorts of events if that means they can’t be done proper justice. So are these Biomes updates good enough? I think there are some desirable features here and there, but I also think their lack

Of direction, scale and scope really makes them miss the mark on the work that actually needs doing. I’m hopeful that if and when we see these new features, they surpass my expectations and make me eat my words. Let’s wait and see.

But anyway, that’s pretty much all I have to say on the matter. Well there’s actually a ton more I have to say, but we only have so much time in the day and I think I’ve gotten my main points across.

But anyway, thanks very much for watching, I’ve been SimplySarc and I will catch you in the next one