There’s a huge list of videos on Youtube as of late arguing whether or not Minecraft has truly gotten worse. I'm far from the first to talk about this shit, and I doubt I'll have any groundbreaking points to bring up, but I just feel like posting about it so I can stop getting annoyed at it.
To make this post a little more unique from the various Youtube essays people have already done on the small selection of popular videos, I've chosen to discuss a video from a smaller channel called "Dom's WiFi". I will not make any links to the channel or video here, but will paraphrase information from the video.
Table of Contents
The Video Itself
The video is titled "Why Minecraft Sucks Now", and is about 11 minutes long. In the video, Dom begins by mentioning his recent Minecraft phase. He opens the game to experience a "nostalgic journey", but finds himself getting bored and quitting after an hour. He doesn't get the same excitement from the game as when he played 10 years ago, and chalks it up to a couple main reasons; which I will debate in this blog. Throughout the video he uses stock images of "nerds" and gives them whiny voices, which he uses as a stand-in for any who disagree with his points. These strawmen usually have simple arguments that he quickly "disproves", which makes Dom come off as very "higher than thou"; treating those with opposing viewpoints as if they're stupid (specifically at one point calling them "mouth-breathers"). I don't mean to make this a "bully Dom" post, though, so let's move on to some of his actual points.
Minecraft Doesn't Know Itself
Dom makes it clear throughout the video that he sees survival as the main gamemode. He believes that the game's main focus is on the hostile mobs and figuring out how to survive them. As such, he believes what he describes as "side quests" (such as fighting bosses and exploring for structures) do nothing more than distract from the main "fundamentals" of the game; which are danger, world manipulation, and resource management. Dom states that the game's shift in focus towards exploration rather than pure survival is what has ruined the game.
Like much of the rest of the video, however, many of his points here come from an inherently selfish view of the game. Viewing pure survival as the "intended" way to play the game is simply incorrect, as the game is purposefully open to a wide variety of play styles. Extra content for those who would enjoy it is in no way hampering his own ability to play the game in the same way he did back in alpha. The idea that one's personal way of enjoying a game is in any way more valid than someone else's is just stupid, simple as that. And while the main "fundamentals" of the game may be pretty correct, the idea that Minecraft is only those three fundamentals is just wrong. Minecraft, being the biggest game in the world, tries its best to allow people to play it however they want. If you want to explore, there are plenty of biomes and structures to discover. If you just want to build, there are ways to avoid the dangers of the night. There isn't one "main" way to play the game; it is a sandbox afterall.
No More Challenge
Another common argument Dom makes in his video is that the game has become far too easy. He states that in older verions it was near impossible to survive the night if you were stuck outside unprepared. The smarter mob AI, lack of sprinting, and inability to regenerate health during combat meant that you were effectively dead if you were outside at night. He also specifically cites beds as a major reason the game is so easy, as you can skip the game's main challenge whenever you want. Dom believes that this lack of challenge affects the creative aspects of the game as well, as it removes that satisfaction when you complete a build.
Many of Dom's issues with difficulty can be explained away with a couple simple concepts. First of all, he isn't a kid anymore. Obviously when the game was new 10 years ago and he hadn't yet figured out how to deal with the game's challenges, everything seems super difficult. But over time, he figured out how to deal with hostile mobs and blames his increased skill and knowledge on the game. And when it comes to beds, they're not a challenge remover 5000 like he thinks they are. Sleeping out in the middle of nowhere can be detrimental if your base isn't at spawn, since it moves your spawnpoint. Whether it's day or night also has no affect of caves, the Nether, or the End; so beds don't trivialize the vast majority of the game's challenges. Regenerating health during combat isn't even new to modern versions either, as you can easily eat a steak or two in the blink of an eye to quickly regenerate your health to full.
Flawed Thinking
Many "Minecraft sucks now" videos share similar nostalgia-blinded points that rarely take into account alternative play styles. The tendency to blame issues on the game's continued development rather than their own growth as an individual has led to a lot of hate being thrown Mojang's way. I feel these people either need to actually experiment and vary their way of playing the game, or just find other games to play. There is nothing wrong with not enjoying the game anymore, even if you do have a lot of good memories with it as a child.