Let us see what Minecraft has been up to!
Per tradition, every year Minecraft hosts a mob vote, an opportunity for players to vote for what creature they want next added to the game. Each mob usually focuses on a certain biome within the game, so the winner of the vote usually includes new items and features as well. This year, Minecraft introduced three new mobs the Tuff Golem, the Rascal, and the Sniffer. On their official Youtube channel, they have uploaded a video for each mob introducing them to new players.
The first video uploaded was for the Sniffer. At a first glance, it seems to be a dark red bird-turtle hybrid with a coat of green grass on its shell, as it spawns from a spotted egg found underneath the ocean. The main feature of the Sniffer showcased was its ability to pick seeds off the ground and to make them usable to the player. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like too much, but what really has the Minecraft community talking is the potential plant update that they promised along with the added mob if it won. With the many biome updates Minecraft has been focusing on, there hasn’t been much news of a plant update since the game added a new tree type. On top of that, the more nature-based mobs from previous years’ mob votes (the Moobloom and the Glare, which was a golden cow with daisies and a large shrub with eyes respectively) have lost the vote. Many players have been rooting for the Sniffer for this reason, as the Sniffer winning would finally introduce new plants created for the mob specifically. It would certainly add more items to the game and potentially create more immersive biomes.
The second mob Minecraft introduced this year was the Rascal, a mob that was shown to frequent the cave systems of Minecraft. In the video, it explains that the mob enjoys hiding in different walls and crevices, and if the player is able to find the Rascal three times, they will receive an item. The Rascal is a bluish-gray in the video, appearing to wear a coat made of lichen to help it blend in. At first, the mob reminded many players of a similar mob in the game, called the Stray, which is the name given to skeletons that spawn in colder biomes. While the color scheme may be the same, the Stray is a hostile mob while the Rascal is not. Still, the Rascal may remind players of the allay and the wandering trader, with its items and short appearance. Similar to the wandering trader, players worry that if the Rascal drops useful items, it is likely to be farmed.
The last mob introduced was the Tuff Golem. The Tuff Golem was showcased in a house, and it has the ability to hold items and move around with them. It has a short, dark gray appearance, similar to the block it was named after, and it appears to be holding a red tray with golden tassels on the edges. Minecraft already has an iron golem as well as a snow golem, both of whose purpose has been to defend. During the 2021 mob vote last year, another copper golem was also going to be implemented into the game, with a purpose tied to redstone functions (the game’s version of electricity or automation) but it did not win. Many fans speculate that if the Tuff Golem wins the vote, it could possibly have ties with village updates, if the spawn rate is not related to the player.
Ever since all three mobs have been properly introduced, fans have already begun debating which mob would be the most beneficial to Minecraft. Others, however, are starting to worry about the validity of the votes.
In the past years, the Minecraft mob vote was hosted on the popular social media platform Twitter, by Minecraft’s official account. However, this was not fair to a part of the Minecraft community who did not have a Twitter account, especially since most of them were too young to create one. Another major complaint was the mob vote being rigged by Minecraft’s top content creators, as the creator with the largest fan base would almost always win since their fans would also support the same mob that their favorite creator chose. Fans point out that this has happened twice already, with the fastest-growing Minecraft streamer Dream being criticized for rigging the 2020 mob vote in the glow squid’s favor, and his friend GeorgeNotFound for rigging the 2021 mob vote in the Allay’s favor, despite both mobs already being the most popular choice without their support. As a result, this year Minecraft chose to host the vote on their official website, Minecraft.net, in order to make the voting more accessible for all ages, as well as being easier to monitor in general.
The polls will be open on Friday, October 14th and will close during their Minecraft Live event this Saturday, October 15th, at noon EDT. The results are announced during the Livestream on their official Youtube channel! If you happen to be a fan of the game, remember to cast your vote!
