Most of Minecraft's fun comes from how much freedom players are given to mold the world presented to them. However, Minecraft's realm is far from an empty one, and players regularly come across various Mobs that can be passive or dangerous. With the annual Minecraft Live Mob Vote, players get to decide on a new Mob that will be added to the game, though the recent trend of Mobs winning by a landslide has taken the excitement out of it.
The Minecraft Mob Vote is less fun when fans can predict which Mob will win days in advance. Mojang could fix this by revealing the Mobs much closer to when voting commences. With this strategy, fans would be far more likely to vote based on their personal preferences rather than what their favorite YouTuber or online community says. This would inject some mystery back into the Mob Vote, and it may lead to some nail-bitingly close results.
Minecraft Live 2022's Mob Vote
In 2021, the Allay claimed Mob Vote victory. It won gamers over thanks to its dancing skills and its knack for finding things. This year, gamers had to choose between three very adorable Mobs. There was the Rascal, a Mob that lives deep underground and loves playing hide-and-seek. It rewards players who find it three times. Gamers could also vote for the Tuff Golem. Tuff Golems mostly act like statues, though they can hold items, and they can wake up and walk around.
The winner of this year's Mob Vote was the Sniffer. It's not hard to understand why, as the Sniffer makes itself easy to love. Sniffers come from eggs hidden underwater. Once they have hatched, Sniffers will wander about and search for seeds. These seeds can be planted or collected, depending on what players prefer. Thanks to its usefulness, the Sniffer beat out the Rascal and the Tuff Golem, but things happened in a way that took some fun out of it.
Landslide Victories Are No Fun
The Sniffer didn't just win -- it won big, securing 55.1% of all votes. The second-place mob, the Rascal, only managed to get 27.7% of the votes, while the Tuff Golem got 17.2%. Before voting opened, the Sniffer was already getting support from popular YouTubers, which in turn triggered support from fans and smaller content creators. As a result, by the time voting started, the turtle-like Mob already had an ardent fan base behind it. While nothing about this is against the rules, it does take some fun out of it when one Mob steals the spotlight from the get-go, and it becomes obvious which one will win the vote.
This issue could be mended by not revealing the Mobs so early on. For a game as big as Minecraft, 48 hours is more than enough time for all three Mobs to be revealed simultaneously and for fans to vote. With voting done rapidly, fans will have to rely on their own judgment rather than turning to influencers and popular content creators to guide their decisions. This will help to make the results of the Mob Vote feel truly unexpected, as they will be based on individual preferences rather than groups rallying together.
For players with a green thumb, the new Mob is probably a great addition to the game. The Sniffer will likely make its way into Minecraft with update 1.20 which will bring a host of features including new default skins, hanging signs, as well as bamboo wood and rafts. There is still plenty more that will be revealed about the massive update, which is expected to arrive in 2023.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
