The annual Minecraft Live is approaching, and with it, an opportunity for the community to once again participate in the Minecraft Mob Vote.
The vote will take place during this year’s Minecraft Live (previously Minecon)— an online event that serves as a platform for the developers to deliver news about Minecraft, encourage community interaction with each other and content creators, and participate in the development of the game. This year in particular, viewers are expecting to be updated on the progress of part 2 of the enormous Cliffs & Caves update, hopefully discover some information about the future of Minecraft Dungeons, and perhaps most importantly, vote on a new mob to be added to the game.
The Mobs
This year players can vote on either the Copper Golem, Allay, or Glare.
According to Minecraft Game Designer Ulraf, their aim was to create three mobs that can collaborate with the player in some way. Though, the specifics of how that will work is yet to be finalised. Despite the full details of the mobs having not been announced, campaigns have begun across various social media platforms to sway the vote in the direction of a particular candidate.
There’s also been a slight bit of drama, with popular twitch streamer Dream suggesting that he might ‘rig the vote,’ presumably by encouraging his large fanbase to vote for a specific mob. But, perhaps in light of the slightly vitriolic response he received, he later announced that he would not be advocating for any of the mobs instead intending to leave it up to the community. However this begs the question of how much of the Minecraft community is actually active on the platform where the vote will take place, with some players arguing that the vote is more of a PR stunt than a real attempt at community engagement.
Drama aside, players seem generally happy with the options available, and it’s a testament to Minecraft’s staying power that Mojang can generate this much engagement for a game over a decade old.
The Copper Golem is a player-constructed mob that enjoys pressing random copper buttons. Like other copper items it oxidises over time, and once fully oxidised becomes a statue. That said, a lightning bolt to the head of the copper golem will deoxidise it. And thankfully, like copper blocks, the golem is able to be waxed in order to prevent oxidisation.
The Allay is a flying mob that likes music and tries to find items in a specific area that are similar to whatever the player gives it. However the Allay will not generate or create items, nor will it open containers or break blocks to find them. Players theorise that the Allay could be used to create sorting systems for items that cannot utilise current redstone machinery, or potentially retrieving dropped items from dangerous locations.
The Glare is a flying mob that is attracted to darkness, but besides that, not much is known about it. Theoretically, the Glare is to be used to locate undiscovered (unlit) caves and zones for exploration within an area. Currently, this seems to be the least popular mob given that lighting changes will arguably invalidate their use.
You can vote for the mob of your choice on the Minecraft Twitter when the Minecraft Live stream begins on October 16th at 12PM ET (which is actually 3AM on October 17th AEDT for Australians).
About the Author
HenryJ
he/him
[He/Him] Freelance writer and photographer who enjoys writing and reading about digital media, online culture, fashion, and mental health--his interest is in the distinction between how we communicate the individual and the universal. He does his best not to be too pretentious, but can’t help that he loves an em-dash and a latte from a local cafe. He lives in Naarm, Melbourne with his girlfriend and his cat.
