Why the 1.20 Minecraft Update Failed

My thoughts about how Mojang has handled Minecraft, and why I think many players have the wrong idea when it comes to major updates.

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[aidanvenki]

I went into this Video thinking this would be a Horrible take. An immediate “1.20 bad here’s why” video with no decent points.
But this video, you my good sir, are different. A good different. Instead of bashing the sniffer, camels, new blocks, cherry groves and archeology for being “Boring and simplistic” or “lackluster and not fleshed out”, you instead tackled a serious debate in the MC community from a different perspective.

Minecraft does has a feature problem. Some say it’s not enough, some say it’s too much. But the idea that if Minecraft were bloated with features the same way Mods tend to be, it would end up Receiving DOUBLE the backlash? I couldn’t agree more.

Players will often ask for intense new bosses, tons of new gear and weapons, vertical slabs and many crazy, and somewhat stupid-, features and suggestions.
Yet the game is already jam packed with those same adventures and features, just toned down to fit the game.

Let’s say these players that complain are strictly 1.8 players, for the sake of this example. Those players want new bosses?
Try fighting a Raid! They’re incredibly fun and tough, and even more so because of the Ravager and evoker, two relatively boss like mobs!
Or go find the deep dark and try killing the warden. It’s a sandbox game, the warden can be a boss if you want it to be!

Those players want new blocks? Open your eyes, zoom out! Look around you- they’ve added 5 new wood sets, 3-4 new brick and stone sets, multiple new functional and decorative blocks, and plenty more unique building blocks to the game since 1.8, even as far back as source trapdoors in 1.13!

Those players want new mobs? Find a Fox and get them to trust you, ask a dolphin to help locate an ocean ruin using fish, get a turtle helmet using turtles and turtle breeding, I bet some players didn’t even know you could do those things!

All in all, a great video. Do I think the 1.20 update is bad and will ruin the game? No, but I do think what we got was enough and that the updates do deserve the time to grow and flesh out the world, inspiring players around the globe.

[jfagandesign]

i think this is why we need a "housekeeping" update of sorts, inventory update, new advancements, redesigned progression. all of these things should be looked at in order to increease the playability of minecraft again\

[ryanmundell]

I think the biggest problem is that Minecraft needs a performance update.

[thedeviousduck]

My biggest concern is how disconnected each update feels from the larger game. It’s not often we get features that closely tie in with an older feature already present

[CBMX_GAMING]

What can Mojang do to encourage players to stick around in their worlds for longer? The epidemic of people quitting their worlds so quickly is pretty sad.

[malachy]

I personally don't think there's too many features, just poorly implemented half finished features... Even though old minecraft had less features all of the blocks and mechanics served multiple purposes and interacted together in a much more harmonious way, which like you said made you feel like an artist with a pallete. I just think the features and mechanics we already have are not fleshed out enough, think the end, glow ink (like what is the point in it glowstone already exists???) copper, amethyst, the deep dark. A lot of the new features are really disconnected and don't do much apart from 1-2 things, they are good on their own but once you have interacted with them once there's no reason to really do it again, which then gives the werid paradox of there simultaneously being too much to do and too little to do.

[tuxedocat]

About the birch forest: Making it more interesting wouldn’t dilute the player experience; it would enrich something we already know and love/hate. Those are the kind of updates we need, not a new weird mob/biome/excavation mechanic.

[crackedmagnet]

With the mods vs mojang argument, I think something everyone always forgets is... When moders make a critical mistake, people just don't use their mod. If mojang makes a critical mistake, it threatens the value of a multi billion dollar investment. The stakes are different, modders can play it fast and loose because they have little to loose. Mojang on the other hand, needs to be careful that the decisions they make, don't make the number of new players less than the number of old players lost.

Also, I've gotta give respect for the length of most of these comments as I've scrolled down. And for some reason I feel like I've heard your voice and pacing somewhere else but can't quite remember where.

[Naretek]

I think there's another huge factor at play here - the "snapshot" method of development that Mojang uses. I think the time has come for Mojang to sadly stop releasing snapshots of new updates.

Think about it. The 1.20 update was first announced all the way back in October and we've been getting 1.20 snapshots for almost 6 months now. By the time the update actually drops, half of the content is ALREADY going to feel stale for a significant number of players. Having over 6 months between announcement and release is way too long for players to stay excited about a new update, especially smaller less impactful updates. So of course people are going to be asking for new updates faster - they feel like the update is old news before they've even played it.
What makes this even worse is content creators jumping on the new snapshots as soon as they come out. I don't blame them, I would do it too, but looking at youtube, reddit, tiktok etc you would think 1.20 came out months ago. Youtubers do entire series and playthroughs of the update before it even comes out. Reddit posts show off crazy builds with the new blocks before they're even released. This is not the original intention of snapshots - they are basically supposed to be open beta tests for the community to find bugs and provide feedback.
How many other games actually do this? There's a reason most games only announce new updates shortly before they're released.

Snapshots do have a big advantage, which is allowing the community to give feedback on new updates before they are finalised. The entire community collaborating on minecraft's updates is very unique and it would be a shame to lose that. But to be honest, Mojang has seemed to listen less and less over the years anyway. And new features can always be tweaked in the next update in response to the community.

tl;dr I think that Mojang switching to closed beta testing (instead of snapshots) and announcing updates just before they release would be beneficial in the long run, making updates more exciting to most players.

[lain]

Back then, ppl would make the most of every feature in the game and find creative ways to use the game's mechanics. Nowadays, ppl expect so many new updates and features to where it's overwhelming.

[thekiddfj]

TL;DR: Mojang isn't adding too much, their additions just have no impact on progression anymore.

We've "hardly touched our copper and spikes" because nobody wanted them, and even those who did want them were completely underwhelmed by their uses. The cave update wasn't anywhere near peoples expectations, and despite its massive size only seems to contribute to the constant inflation of items and content in the game. I personally think that 1.16 was the last actually meaningful update to the game because 1.16 was the last update to *improve* features instead of just bloating the game with uninteresting content.
The deep dark especially just angers me because its completely worthless, in every possible way. The warden is clearly built up as this menacing boss character, yet is completely unbalanced and unfair to fight in a biome that houses loot no better than a simple dungeon. Their philosophy of the warden being an "obstacle" rather than a boss is so disconnected from the core ideas of Minecraft that its just sad, even laughable.
The comparison of modders to mojang developers is completely unfair, yet I say this in favor of modders. The reason is because the difference between mods and updates is that mods (generally) add USEFUL content that contributes to the game, and while they may not be for everyone, their additions are meaningful in a way that Mojang devs have failed to replicate since at least 2020.
Take a mod like create as an example, which you showed in the video. Everything create adds has a meaningful, practical use, and create updates all contribute to the mechanisms and systems that are buildable in the mod. On top of this, other mod developers are given the freedom to write their own additions for Create that give more functionality and purpose to the mod. Create is a mod that has the style and professional graphics of new Mojang, while keeping the functionality and work ethic of old Mojang.
As I said before, Create is not a mod for everybody. That's okay. My point is to demonstrate that modders are compared to mojang in this sense because teams of 3 or 4 developers can create complex systems that all contribute equally to the game while the million dollar game studio releases updates that pollute the game with unnecessary gimmicks.
Seeing recent minecraft updates have made me develop a distinct hatred for "vanilla+" mods, and no update demonstrates this better than 1.20. And at the end of the day, I dont actually think the reason for that is the amount of content added. I actually think that minecraft, in it's current state, does need more content. The issue lies in the fact that none of the content changes the core part of the game- the progression.
Minecraft's progression has always been the same, with TWO notable exceptions. Get wood, get iron, get diamond, go to the nether, go to the end. When you boil it down its actually embarrassingly simple. The first update to change this progression in any notable way, while controversial for other reasons, was 1.9. Most people tend to hate 1.9 for the combat changes, (which I honestly think were needed but that's a separate topic). Most people overlook the actual change that 1.9 made, because it isn't really about the combat at all. 1.9 is an end overhaul. Before 1.9 there was no actual end game content. You simply beat the dragon, and then had to just figure out where to go from there. There was the wither, but it wasn't really necessary as beacons aren't particularly useful. After 1.9, the end became more than just a boss arena. The outer islands added depth to the end, and a reason to return after beating the dragon. Even if the elytra wasnt there, the loot in their chests was like nothing else in the game- enchanted diamond, iron, and gold. These were endgame commodities that kept people playing and added an important step in progression.
The second update that changed progression, and arguably the more impactful update, was 1.16. The nether overhaul COMPLETELY changed how the nether was viewed as a dimension. Rather than simply being a gateway to the end, the nether became it's own fleshed out world, with dynamic interactions between mobs, the addition of a completely new faction of piglins, new structures with great loot, and and actual use for gold. The greatest addition, however was the addition of netherite. While many will argue that netherite was unnecessary, I argue the exact opposite. Netherite completely changed the way you viewed progression, because now not only was it an actual challenge to get to a nether fortress, you also had a reason to return to the nether AFTER beating the dragon. Netherite became an end game resource that players sought after, which forced them to explore the new update fully and become enriched with all of the features.
I ask, now that you've read this, can you name 1 feature in 1.20 that is functional? That changes progression? That contributes in any meaningful way to the game? Archaeology is nothing more than pots and dusting, and the pots look average at best. They also really dont fit with the style of the game, and seem like something out of a furniture mod. The sniffer basically just has a huge nose and lives in the cherry biome (which also inflates wood types for no reason, the wood looks straight out of biomes o' plenty). Camels are replaceable by horses, and horses already arent used anyways. Bamboo wood is barely even wood, looks honestly quite ugly, and (again) inflates the wood types.
Almost every addition in this update is purely cosmetic. The only thing that changes progression is the changes to the smithing table, and they really don't do it well. Why do you suddenly need a little relic that lets you upgrade to netherite instead of just making it? I understand that it forces you to explore bastions, but why is that needed? You're never forced to explore end cities because they are end game content. The same goes for netherite. It's already enough of a grind trying to get the netherite ingots to begin with, and now suddenly you're forced to go back and get another item? You also lose the upgrade template when you make 1 piece, which means you now have to duplicate it for all 4 pieces of armor & all 5 tools (all of which will cost 7 diamonds to duplicate, if it wasnt expensive enough to begin with).
No amount of time will allow these updates to become "second nature, " because when youre able to see through it, theres really no features to get used to. Mojang doesnt need to slow down their updates, they need to rethink their process entirely. They need to change the way their additions are applied to the actual game. They need more functionality. I'm really sick of trying to defend Mojang's sloppy work when its completely in plain sight.
Good video though. Left a like.

[highvelocitytictac]

While I do agree with your point about players not exploring the current update enough to already want another one, its just because those updates are so lackluster. Copper as a block is interesting that it changes overtime without player input except it has large veins like coal, and are located EVERYWHERE, so if you don't want to use copper, its just a waste to have to mine an ore and get a block that does literally nothing. I hope Mojang can add more uses to copper in the same way iron and gold has over the years but until then, the current update was boring

[spookycookies]

This is actually eye-opening for me because I haven't played Minecraft for awhile thinking: "Oh maybe I'll play next time when there's a huge update and more content of the game" but what I realized is that no matter how much new content is added to the game, the more I stopped having fun after a few hours of gameplay..

[Wafflss]

This was a good video and I mostly agreed with it, but things I dont like about Minecraft's development is when their features seem unfinished and get boring after 5 minutes. The most recent example is the sniffer and it only having 2 plants it can dig up. 2 plants is an extremely low number for a mob who's entire use is providing special decorative plants.

[ThisAwesomeMT]

I think that, instead of adding more features they should focused on interconnectedness. Each new mod or item that they are going to the game should connect with several different existing systems in the game, the more the better. Doing this will help prevent useless mobs like the polar bear and panda, which practically don’t connect to the rest of the game whatsoever it will help the update sfeel less like DLC With less fully separate tech trees, but you can access with existing items

[jamesbe]

I agree with all of your points, I remember starting a new world last year after taking a break from the game since 1.16 and being pretty lost. But I wouldn’t use the term “dying”. When a game even just loses the smallest bit of popularity, people LOVE to use that term. I am pretty sure we all know minecraft won’t die and become lost into obscurity, it’s the best selling game of all time, perhaps the most recognizable video game, and has proven that Minecraft has the ability to save itself from a dark age.

[Plasmawiz]

I think one thing to point out is how the nature of the game and its updates has changed over time.
I've played since all the way back in 2010, here are some of my observations:

Early Minecraft (2009-2013) was updated frequently with lots of content because it was an incomplete game, it was still being developed as an indie project and features that had been on the to-do list for ages were being worked on rapidly. This was also during the time where the game was still an indie at heart, so even with all the new stuff being added it was still relatively simple at its core, most of the complexity stemmed from emergent gameplay and player creativity.

These updates were:
- Smaller in scope, greater in frequency
- More hap-hazard/random in what features were added (remember "Secret Friday Updates?")
- Filled in some hole that was present in the core gameplay
- Announced with little fan-fare, mainly just a blog post or dev video

Now I feel like updates are more akin to a corporate mandated "yearly DLC" that the devs have to fulfill every year:
- They always get announced with a large event of some kind
- They follow some sort of set theme, with an associated title and marketing
- They promise some major change/addition to the games scope, even if that thing compromises other features or bloats the game

Not that all the new updates are bad, some are great (like the ocean, village and terrain updates), but ultimately I think we have to accept that the nature of the games development itself has changed post Microsoft buyout. This is no longer about fleshing out an incomplete indie game, this is a carrot on a stick to keep players coming back (and at the expense of sounding cynical, buying minecoins).

TLDR: The main consequence of this is that we are accustomed to a frequent influx of updates, expecting a development model that does not reflect the state the game is in now compared to 10-12 years ago.

[borico]

Some points regarding updates that weren't touched in this video:

-Having too many updates hurts the modding community. Each time a new update gets released, mod developers are forced to update it so that it's compatible with the most recent version. Previously, they had quite some time between updates, but nowadays, they're so frequent that many developers will just give up on making the mod compatible.

-New content usually isn't available in old chunks. Each time an update adds new content, players are forced to travel thousand of blocks to find it. And then, after the next update, players will be forced to travel even further. Maps end up being huge, and many players will just give up their worlds and create a new one.

[migueeeelet]

The main issue is that whether you digest the existance of foxes and pandas or not, they're not going to add to the usual gameplay loop.
To me, Minecraft has always been a game with a simple loop: Get resources, build a base, get better resources, build a better base. And that works.
Exploration isn't interesting because all your resources and crafting blocks are left behind, and whatever you find out there isn't better than the iron you mined under your bed.

I think future updates should push towards making the player build a network of bases. Imagine having multiple outposts/bases connected by rails, each place being specialized at generating a specific resource, with the end result being something truly special. Something that rewards not just running around and raiding loot chests, but also claiming the lands.

Villages would probably be a good starting point - they generate at random and have enough nuance to them that turning them into a core gameplay part would work

[jbswreckfest]

Completely agree. I’ve been working on the same survival world for about 5 years, and every update feels more like a hassle to find the new stuff than anything