Lets talk about the Mob Vote

I think adults underestimate just how many kids play Minecraft, how much they like the pets and how excited they were about dog armor. So it's not surprising that the armadillo won and I don't think it's worth getting upset about. That's just how voting works, someone wins and someone loses. I was just glad that I was finally able to vote at all starting last year, since before that you had to have a Twitter account to vote which left so many people out.

I do agree that we aren't given enough information about each one to make a proper decision on which to vote for, but that also gives them flexibility on how it gets implemented, allowing user feedback to have an influence.

Definitely. When I played Minecraft as a kid I made a basic hut and got like 10 dogs all with different coloured ¿"necklaces"? (I completely lost the word for it) and matching carpet bed. Then I run around with my dogs and try to get a bunch of cats and then I give all of them a bed, in the house. I also worked ob collecting every sheep and mushroom cows.

Kid me would have been all over dog armour. Like it's armour for the dogs and maybe it can be coloured to match them.
- It would be great if they would use this opportunity to make some other improvements for dogs, maybe better pathfinding, maybe even a set of new dog types with different colors and markings like cats have. And of course it would be fun to be able to dye or trim the dog armor too.
  
  Personally I wish we could toggle the teleportation function on and off so we don't have to keep them frozen in one spot all the time, and I think kids especially would love to be able to pet them (say by right-clicking while crouching with an empty hand) and get heart particles for that. Lots of possibilities and they do listen to feedback so users should advocate for what they would like to see.
- The word you were looking for is "collar"
- Remember the time they only had red ocollars, or when they weren't even in the game. Trying to find then in the forest with friends, racing so you can say you had the first one on the day of the update.
  
  Man, is this the feeling of being old? I'm not even that old, im in my 20's. That kinda sucks.
If twitter accounts were still required to vote, Crab would've had better chances of winning. It would've filtered a lot of young players and crab claw seemed like the better choice for experienced players.

This year I decided to let my 8 yrs old nephew decide for both of us and as you said he picked the dog armor without hesitation.
- The slightly irritating thing is that dog armour won't actually do anything because pretty much every dog that dies does so because it walks into an arrow I'm firing, or it falls into lava or falls off a cliff. It's very very rarely due to combat action.

You're spot on in that it divides the community.

I'm also not a fan of them adding these mobs seemingly for no reason. If they really wanted to give players a voice in what goes into the game then they need to let us voice what we actually want instead of taking the easy route by providing the illusion of choice.

The majority of the mob vote mobs have had a single purpose. Armadillos drop wolf armour. Sniffers find a certain seeds. Allays fetch items. Glow squids drop an item to make item frames light up. Pandas do a funny sneeze. And phantoms simply punish players for the crime of playing the game.
Actually, at least phantoms also drop something that lets you repair elytra.

I just wish these mobs felt more integrated into the game. They all seem so surface level. There's just not all that much to them.

I agree that more information about each mob would be very beneficial. In either case, what about a ranked choice voting system?

That wouldn't really be any better because it would still only choose a single winner. People can get their 2nd favourite in, sure, but I doubt it would affect the results in a meaningful way. Plus, it doesn't solve the problem that the vote itself is rather divisive.

How about implementing the winner, and having the runner-up participate in the next Mob Vote again?

Or have both the second and third place come back next time, with one fresh mob, with the option that a mob that has been on the ballot three times without winning is out for good.

I think they should have second place in the next update and third in the update after. That way you have a steady stream.

Remember that there is an official Minecraft Live 2023 survey where you can give feedback: https://aka.ms/MinecraftLive2023SurveyDiscord

This is more about the event itself rather than the vote. But even so, I still filled it out and mentioned the divisiveness of the vote.

The Mob Vote is a trash idea that obviously came from Microsoft (a dumpster of a company).

I agree with everything said and would add that it feels like we are losing more than we are gaining (especially if the mob you like the most doesn't win like it hapoend to me almost every time). When it comes to fixing the vote I have 2 ideas:

Vote is held every 3 updates, every mob is added and order they are added is based on the votes. This way everyone will get what they want at some point, developers will have enough time for every mob and not detailed descriptions of mobs won't be that big of a problem.
All mobs are added in the same update but because of that time between two updates is increased. In this case add the mobs to snapshots in order based on votes. I'd rather wait a bit more for new update than have features I want erased. This is better than 1st option in my oppinion because Mojang will get comunity engagement every year like it is now and mobs would be added faster.

I think it's a great concept but they really should have added some old mob candidates by now. 1.21 is the PERFECT update to add the copper and tuff golem, and I think 1.20 could have fitted the moobloom in somehow.