Why was Minecraft 1.9 SO Bad?

Why was Minecraft version 1.9 SO bad? Minecraft’s  Java Edition version 1.9, aka the combat update,   despite being an objectively minor update,  changed a lot of stuff and caused a lot of   uproar. Things were particularly spicy amongst  PVP and competitive Minecraft communities. Now  

Before I get into this, I do want to say I’m going  to present the facts in a more neutral manner, and   try not to bash the update too much. I personally  am not a fan of it, hence the title of the video,  

But it’s important to report the facts alongside  of the opinions. Let’s start with the combat   system upgrade. In case you somehow don’t know,  Minecraft pre version 1.9 had an entirely   different system of melee combat. It was, well,  essentially spam-clicking to do damage. There  

Was no sweeping attack, no melee timer, no shield  or second hand actually at all, and swords still   reigned superior to the axe. Which to most people  sounds and maybe kind of was boring compared to  

What we have today, and we’ll get to those “most  people” , but I want to start with why this old   system was so popular for PVP players and servers.  You see, despite the combat SEEMING easy and   braindead back then, it actually arguably had a  bigger skill ceiling than it does today. It really  

Wasn’t just spam-clicking and hoping your internet  connection was better than the other person;   there was strategy on when to rush forward,  strafing was huge, and you better hope your   clicks were accurate, because one misclick meant  certain death. And so yeah, it was pretty easy as  

A casual player to get into PVP a little bit and  have a good time, but the skill gap was immense.   Now I want to make sure everyone knows, I am  famously bad at this game that I love so so very  

Much. I am even more abysmal at PVP. I get excited  over the smallest of victories. “just hit them.”   “OHH let’s go. Let’s GO!” That being said, I  can’t really speak for the competitive community  

As a whole, but what I can do is funnel what I’ve  heard and read over the years about these changes.   Anyway, when servers were forced to upgrade to 1.9  for mods, plugins, and what have you, this was a  

Huge step backward in their communities. And there  were quite a few PVP servers that disappeared   forever. The bigger ones, like Hypixel, integrated  and backloaded the old combat system into all of   their mini games and PVP events. And that of  course is still the case to this day. Nowadays  

There are two main types of PVP servers:  there are those that run on the classic 1.8,   or modern day servers that have implemented the  old combat system. Now is this a problem though?   I mean…it’s a headache for modders and server  developers, but it still does work, and despite  

Killing servers for a little while, 1.8 PVP has  never been more popular than it is today. I think   the only people who have a problem at this point  are Mojang due to this slap in the face about   their underwhelming update. One cool PVP thing  it did do though was make bows extremely popular,  

Which I think is cool, because bows and PVP are  super fun, and really hard to be good at.    Now what about casual players? Most people don’t have  a strong opinion either way about 1.9, but I do  

Think it affected casual players more than you may  think. I believe survival Minecraft’s PVE got WAY   easier in 1.9. Not that it wasn’t already heading  down the path of easiness, but man, I’ve been   playing the older versions lately and they are  HARD. Like, unbelievably hard. In Minecraft today,  

Once you get a shield, and maybe some iron armor,  you are effectively unkillable besides accidental   falls and surprise creepers. Sure, you used to  be able to block with your sword which was kind   of weird, but that essentially did absolutely  nothing for you in comparison to shields. One  

Of the things that didn’t really become *quote  unquote* “easier” with this update is taking on   hordes of mobs. Despite being able to hit multiple  targets with your sword, it actually takes way   longer to take out the huge horde of Minecraft  enemies than it used to. But yeah, it would be  

One thing if Mojang added new balanced weapons or  something to make PVP more interesting, but nope,   all we got added was the shield. It’s called  the combat update and we didn’t even get any   new weapons! Something super interesting — four  years ago, Jeb released a combat update 2.0 custom  

Snapshot with hints at adding it into the game in  a future update. I won’t go too into depth into   the Reddit post for this video, as it could be its  own topic entirely and is already covered all over  

YouTube, but I’ll leave some links below so you  can learn more about it if you want to. It fixed   some of the complaints people had, like nerfing  shields, making attacks overall much much faster,   and removing the sweeping attack for swords  without having the sweeping edge enchantment.  

But this post was made in 2019. Here we are in  2023 without any official news of it being added   the game. And I think really the overwhelming  majority of people might see it as a form of   doubling down on Mojang’s bad feedback instead  of having a simple solution…like the ability  

To toggle the combat styles on and off! Like,  seriously dude, just one simple button in the   menu would solve everything! I wouldn’t even  be making this video if that was the case.   But, what else released in version 1.9? It was  called the combat update, but actually combat  

Was one of the least updated things in this  version. This was the version that the elytra,   end cities, and end ships were released. It’s a  pretty major change to the end, so why not call   it “The End Update”? Focusing it all on the combat  changes kind of set up the channels for negative  

Complaints, and dwarfed the good things that came  out of the update. Although I do really think the   end still feels empty and unfinished. There’s not  much to do in the end Islands other than find the   cities and look for the elytra. I’m hopeful though  that there will be another Nether Update-esque  

Change to the end someday. Minecraft today doesn’t  feel as much like this, but back then there were a   large amount of complaints from casual players  that the environment felt lackluster, and that   many features and biomes and other things felt  really empty and lifeless. And that’s another huge  

Problem with 1.9. It didn’t focus on what people  were REALLY asking for. Like I said, we got some   cool stuff in the end, but the end islands make it  almost feel MORE empty and lifeless than it used  

To. But hey, at least we got igloos! Did anyone  else –*pause for laughter* –did anyone else   completely forget that these existed? I haven’t  found one in survival Minecraft in literal YEARS.   In all seriousness though, it really seems like  Mojang just slapped together a bunch of random  

Features, threw it all under the guise of the  combat update, and called it a day. In fact   it is really one of the least cohesive updates  ever released, especially when you compare it to   things like Buzzy Bees, Caves and Cliffs, and the  Wild Update. People were so mad about the combat  

Changes, that the other features they DID release  were forgotten about due to the sour taste left in   everyone’s mouths. Oh yeah, and at least we got  the most useless food item in the entire game   added in 1.9 though! I mean come on…really?!  Another interesting take on these changes is that  

1.9 was the first update released after Mojang  was bought by Microsoft, and right after Notch   retired. And many people thought Microsoft took  over and led the game astray almost immediately,   especially those who followed Notch and his ideas  extensively. Not saying that Notch isn’t a fan of  

The combat update, because there’s no evidence  for that, but there was a lot of “WWND” floating   around back then. People really were thinking  doomsday, and how 1.9 was the beginning of the   end of the unified Minecraft community as the game  got more commercialized. The combat changes caused  

Such a divide that the gap between groups and  subgroups of Minecraft communities grew larger   and larger. Devil’s Advocate real quick and  one look at the other side. There ARE good   things that came out of this update. At least we  finally got something in the end, and the elytra  

Continues to be one of, if not THE best item in  the game, and a huge goal to work toward in your   survival worlds. And one of my favorite parts  was that skeletons got a major overhaul with   their animations and AI. This is when the bow  drawing animation was made, and skeletons got  

Smarter and shot faster, becoming much harder  to deal with. It gave them a lot more life and   added to the overall scariness of nighttime  in the game, which I think is a good thing.   When it comes down to it though, people just hate  change. And that will never really change. It was  

The spammy sword literally since the game’s  inception, and people just couldn’t cope with   a major change to what they were used to. Again, I  disagree with how Mojang went about their changes,   but to their credit any change to the  combat at all would have caused backlash,  

No matter what they did. And that really is how  the birth of controversy happens all the time. And   one final note, it’s important to remember that  the vast majority of Minecraft players either   like or don’t have a strong opinion on Minecraft  version 1.9, and like most controversies in life  

There is a vocal minority. And in Minecraft’s  case…the vocal minority is deafening.   What do you think about version 1.9? Leave  a comment below with your thoughts and any   information I might have missed in  the video. If you’re still watching,  

Thank you so much! Like the video if you enjoyed,  and subscribe if you’re brand new. I’ll be making   some more version reviews just like this very  very soon, as I love making this style of content,   and it’s so fun to look back on these old  updates. You won’t want to miss any of  

That. And let me know if there’s a version that  you’d like me to cover in the future! I love you   all so so very much remember that you’re so  beautiful and I’ll see you in the next one!