I didn’t really get into Minecraft until after the Microsoft acquisition. Aside from things like Minecraft Dungeons and the story mode, were there other drastic game overhauls that “ruined” what Mojang had built before?
A lot of the newer updates seem to be pretty awesome but I’m curious what the OGs think
Microsoft immediately started focusing hard on the “Bedrock” edition and downplaying the Java edition. Bedrock didn’t and as far as I know never has actually reached feature parity with the Java edition, but most of all also does not support mods. Mods were and are very, very popular and extremely important to the Minecraft community. There’s a strong feeling among OG’s that the Java edition is the “real” Minecraft and whatever Microsoft is doing with Bedrock is just faffing around. Bedrock supports data packs which have become somewhat powerful, but do not match the ability for Java mods to completely interact with every aspect of the game.
(The Java ed. is also cross-platform, whereas Bedrock isn’t. This can’t be a coincidence, coming from the company who makes a certain closed-source desktop operating system you can probably name offhand.)
Microsoft also fairly recently started demanding that you get a Microsoft account just to play, even for the Java edition, which obviously rubs every Linux player the wrong way plus all of us who don’t need or want a Microsoft account because we don’t need to be tracked, profiled, or advertised at. The cutoff for getting a Microsoft account is 2023-09-19, by the way, and I’m already committed to not doing it. For perspective, I was an alpha backer of Minecraft. I’ve already moved on to Minetest and other games.
Dungeons and Story Mode were their own separate things. I don’t particularly care about them, but I don’t hate them either. They can do whatever they want with the IP, and these don’t affect the core game any. They weren’t even made by Mojang, so it’s not even like they diverted development resources away from the core game or anything.
For me the biggest problem update was 1.14 - villagers and villages really sit in a bad headspace for me. The old game was deeply lonely. I mean it felt like you were alone in the aftermath of a world, because all survival Sims were like this at the time - a dystopian point about how society would end and the future would be primitive again. Minecraft does this in such a subtle way it’s almost been written out. On the other hand, even extremely recent updates harken back to things the community has wanted forever. 1.16, 1.18 and the like are genuine to what mojang was trying to build 10 years ago. I think very few updates detract from this - polar bears, pandas, and a few other mobs. While other features that need it badly have gone without change. Dungeons, railroads / minecarts. The efficiency metagame is really a lot less enjoyable than it used to be. Bamboo farms? Villager iron farms? Its all junk that we’ve come to be used to. And not liking it, I feel left without options. Do it or don’t, there’s no second way or a less efficient method. And it all requires reading the wiki to understand these esoteric engine quirks and game knowledge… Which means I’m no longer learning and exploring for myself.
I didn’t really get into Minecraft until after the Microsoft acquisition. Aside from things like Minecraft Dungeons and the story mode, were there other drastic game overhauls that “ruined” what Mojang had built before?
A lot of the newer updates seem to be pretty awesome but I’m curious what the OGs think
Microsoft immediately started focusing hard on the “Bedrock” edition and downplaying the Java edition. Bedrock didn’t and as far as I know never has actually reached feature parity with the Java edition, but most of all also does not support mods. Mods were and are very, very popular and extremely important to the Minecraft community. There’s a strong feeling among OG’s that the Java edition is the “real” Minecraft and whatever Microsoft is doing with Bedrock is just faffing around. Bedrock supports data packs which have become somewhat powerful, but do not match the ability for Java mods to completely interact with every aspect of the game.
(The Java ed. is also cross-platform, whereas Bedrock isn’t. This can’t be a coincidence, coming from the company who makes a certain closed-source desktop operating system you can probably name offhand.)
Microsoft also fairly recently started demanding that you get a Microsoft account just to play, even for the Java edition, which obviously rubs every Linux player the wrong way plus all of us who don’t need or want a Microsoft account because we don’t need to be tracked, profiled, or advertised at. The cutoff for getting a Microsoft account is 2023-09-19, by the way, and I’m already committed to not doing it. For perspective, I was an alpha backer of Minecraft. I’ve already moved on to Minetest and other games.
Dungeons and Story Mode were their own separate things. I don’t particularly care about them, but I don’t hate them either. They can do whatever they want with the IP, and these don’t affect the core game any. They weren’t even made by Mojang, so it’s not even like they diverted development resources away from the core game or anything.
For me the biggest problem update was 1.14 - villagers and villages really sit in a bad headspace for me. The old game was deeply lonely. I mean it felt like you were alone in the aftermath of a world, because all survival Sims were like this at the time - a dystopian point about how society would end and the future would be primitive again. Minecraft does this in such a subtle way it’s almost been written out. On the other hand, even extremely recent updates harken back to things the community has wanted forever. 1.16, 1.18 and the like are genuine to what mojang was trying to build 10 years ago. I think very few updates detract from this - polar bears, pandas, and a few other mobs. While other features that need it badly have gone without change. Dungeons, railroads / minecarts. The efficiency metagame is really a lot less enjoyable than it used to be. Bamboo farms? Villager iron farms? Its all junk that we’ve come to be used to. And not liking it, I feel left without options. Do it or don’t, there’s no second way or a less efficient method. And it all requires reading the wiki to understand these esoteric engine quirks and game knowledge… Which means I’m no longer learning and exploring for myself.