Why the 1.20 Minecraft Update Failed

I’m about to say some things that many of you will probably not like. At least I can only assume, because for the last few months, I’ve seen nothing but people saying that Mojang, is responsible for  the “death of Minecraft” In anticipation of the 1.20  Tales and Trails Update,

There’s been countless memes about how lazy Mojang has been with its development. They’ve all been really funny, from one showing Mojang  developers passing out after Just 30 minutes of work, to another showing them panicking after being told to add one more pixel to the game. While these memes are hilarious,

A lot of people do geniunely believe that Mojang  developers are lazy, and even incompetant. After all, shouldn’t the billion  dollar company that owns Mojang be enough to get us more than one update a year? Don’t we deserve more frequent updates as players, from a company who should  be able to easily make them

Well I’m gonna tell you my take,  which I’ve never seen said before. I believe what Mojang is  doing, is very much intentional And not a matter of some nonexistant work ethic. Many have been happy to know the 1.20 update is slated to release soon, but I’m not as excitied.

I don’t believe Minecraft is “dying”,  because Mojang is updating it too little. I believe Minecraft is “dying”,  because Mojang is updating it too much. I have heard so much  complaining about how much time it’s taken Mojang, to update Minecraft to it’s next version. While I can understand people being frustrated with the delays,

And split release of the Caves and Cliffs update As well as the removal of fire flies. My agreement with the majority  of the playerbase ends there. The time between updates, is just too short. Let me emphasize. I don’t think Mojang released  updates in a well timed manner. I believe they should’ve waited longer.

You see with every update, features are  integrated into the survival experience With the intention of refreshing, and  expanding the game for it’s players. The hope is that by updating the game, 1. players might become more  interested in the game and 2. The long term player experience, might be better.

While I think the number of updates we’ve gotten, has definitely gotten players  interested in the game. It’s not improved their experience by any means. When an update is added, It naturally feels like outside DLC. Even if it looks “vanilla” it still feels removed   from the rest of the game  that players already know.

Which is normal. When new content is added,  players need to digest it in order for it to feel a part of the wider game. No matter how many youtubers they watch  explain every feature through patch notes, it still takes time for them to add the  features to their own routine experience.

It’s kind of like how you play Terraria,  or Don’t Starve for the first time, you have to do hundreds of playthroughs before   you have a complete idea of  what you can do in the game. Perhaps before you would start a  world only focused on the basics

But by the time you become  aquainted with the features enough, through long periods of trial and error, you naturally have an edge and scope  of what you can do in a new world. While Minecraft is a much less  complicated game than these examples, It’s updates function the same way.

Sure you know that amythest geodes exist, but do you know where to find them? Do you know everything you can do with them? Do you see them as a natural part of your world  that seamlessly fits into your experience,

Or DLC you really have to venture out of  your typical gameplay loop to interact with. Maybe you do know everything about them, But believe it or not, I’m willing  to say the majority of players, have not done much besides look at them once, and never again.

You think that’s a crazy thing to say? Well guess what, that’s not even accounting for  the tens of thousands of players, who haven’t even killed the Ender Dragon yet. And it’s the same thing with  bees, bastions, and even conduits. It takes a long time, for the larger playerbase,

To become aquainted enough with features  to see them as a passive part of the world, rather than a closed off one, they have to venture out with to interact with. And with every update, that only gets compounded, and exponentially increases the problem.

But even if you are someone who knows  every single feature inside out. You’re never gonna use them all. Of course there’s probably some players out  there who have been working on the same world, since the game came out, steadily becoming acclimated and enjoying the  supply of updates that give them more to do.

But that’s not the majority. I don’t have stats, but I don’t think  you could argue with me in saying that 90% of players, that start  a new world from scratch, Do so every year, If not month. And when they do start a new world,

They have to choose which part of  the game they decide to pursue. Because they haven’t had  enough time for the updates to feel like a normal part of the game. There’s just too much content that  has not had enough time to process, and become a part of the player experience.

Having to choose between whether you give  attention to the ocean or the Deep Dark Because you know you’ll get bored before you  can do both is not a good player experience. But it’s not your fault either. Had these features been released less frequently, The majority of players would  feel much less overwhelmed,

And much more attuned to their gameplay. No doubt leading to longer, more dedicated worlds. In fact, while I already made a video  about why Minecraft SMPs die so fast, this arugment actually contributes to it. When the majority of players get onto an SMP

It’s likely they feel disconnected from  the world that they once had a mastery of. Now I’m not talking about the initial grinding  stage of getting wood, iron, and diamonds. That’s many players favorites. What’s really happening, is that players are  thinking about how much they’ll have to do,

To make the most out of their world, and that’s why so many of them stop  past the early game stage and restart. They’re understandably overwelmed with how  bloated and complicated the game has got. So they decide to remain in the simplier stages, where the world actually still  feels like they’re molding it,

Rather than having a set path  they’re expected to take. “Our world only lasts a week!” Well yeah, a world’s life is built on motivation. And nothing drains motivation faster than seeing  a giant mountain of content in front of you, that you’ve barely had enough time to chew on.

One of the reasons why older versions of  minecraft were so much more addictive, was because it took less time to  master the limited amount of features, and then build off of them using your imagination. Which made everyone feel much more engrossed, and in control of their experience.

It was like being a painter with a pallet, having all the tools at your disposal, to make whatever you wanted. But now, the majority of players are just  trying to figure out what these tools do, and don’t feel free, to just  work on their creations.

Now you can’t play on a world  without thinking about how   you haven’t had enough time to  touch 90% of the games content and meanwhile there’s people saying that Mojang should add all 3 mobs from the mob vote. Are you serious? Are you telling you’ve tamed so many foxes, interacted with so many pandas,

And just visited so many polar bears, that you think we need 3 more  of these ambient space wasters? Unless you’ve been playing the game  for 18 hours a day since it came out, I’m willing to bet you can’t  have thouroughly explored coral, Lush Caves, and the Mangroove Swamp enough  to justify demanding more.

Minecraft is a sandbox, but the lazy  and uncreative want it to be an RPG, and mistake Mojang’s unwillingness to  pollute the game with a bad work ethic. They rush to progress their armor and tools, build a starter house, and visit the new biome  for 5 minutes before saying theres nothing to do.

If you want more exploring and adventuring, play with mods. That’s a great way to get more  out of your Minecraft experience. But don’t expect to shove that amount of content,  onto the base, vanilla version of the game. The majority of the playerbase  is simply not ready.

One of everyone’s favorite things to talk about when it comes to Minecraft’s development, is how much more a modder can add  to a game than a mega corporation. Well guess what? The reason why that comparison  seems so bizarre (jojo reference),

Is because believe it or not the mega  corporation can add those features just as fast, they’re just smarter than that. If you flooded the game with a new dimension, 18 mobs, and 50 features every week, it would die. It’s already been diluted and  oversaturated with content as it is.

Was an update necessary to keep the game going when Update Aquatic was released? Yes, But if you look at the disproportionate  amount of major updates that have been added since then you might realize the reason  why minecraft is “dying” is   the exact opposite of what most people think.

I remember players begging for an update to caves, and we got one so massive it  had to be split into two parts. But suddenly, people are gonna riot if we don’t  get more interesting birch forests, please.

You wanna see what Minecraft would look like if  we had it the average double the content fans way? Welcome to Nether You want every biome that’s ever been  shown to us to be added tomorrow, yet you’ve hardly touched your copper and spikes. Do you know what would happen if Mojang showed

The 2023 Minecraft community, just how many biomes and mob concepts they’ve  been too scared of never hearing the end of? It’s understandable, but just ridiculous,   how we’ve made the mistake of thinking Minecraft  needs more content for it to be interesting. Do I think there’s too much  stuff in Minecraft right now? Yes.

Do I think it should be removed? Absolutely not. The reason why so many parts of Minecraft come  natural to those who have played it for years, is because they’ve had years to play  it and become aquainted with it. As a player, you need to  process and use content enough,  

Before it can contribute to your world’s success. While I don’t think fans would  respond well to Mojang slowing   down and releasing updates less frequently, it would definitelly help  out the player experience. The updates we do have right now are great, They just haven’t had enough time to  become cemented into our playthroughs.

With time, every update will become second nature, a staple of the game. That’s just what time does. But when the average player sees an array of   features they haven’t had  time to get familiar with, with another batch on the horizon, Chances are they’re not gonna  want to press their brain

Trying to force it into their game. When it comes to the development of minecraft, theres no greater game where less is more. Instead of complaining about  not having enough features, start using the ones you have, or you’ll never be able to appreciate them. Unfortunatly this is an  attitude very few players have.

And so due to it’s limited features, 1.20 will be considered a failure. If you found what I had to  say in this video interesting, please consider hitting subscribe. I’m a new channel trying  to get my videos out there, and subscribing would really help me out.

If you made it this far, thanks for watching, iAmLufa.