Minecraft 1.9. What do you think?

Sorry, but I'm getting tired over this 1.9 talk.....
Mojang thought that we players were complaining about the game's combat forever. So, they decided in the middle of last year to start doing something about it. By the time in April that we knew that Mojang was up to combat changes, we started to panic, worry, etc. about what they're going to do. Then when the combat changes were released in 1.9 snapshots starting in August, we retaliated back at Mojang with destructive criticism. To this day, long after the combat changes were finalized, we're still fighting about the new combat system at each other and Mojang.

Minecraft 1.9 has become of the most controversial major updates to Minecraft in its history, and it's all because of the changes to combat. Although, Mojang is not alone to causing the amount of controversy we've seen this year. I've also heard about an immense amount of controversy regarding Jagex's Runescape and Nexon's Mabinogi: two once popular online multiplayer video games. Both of these games had their combat systems change dramatically, and they too were controversial by their player-bases. My brother used to play Mabinogi, but decided to stop playing because he didn't want to relearn the game's combat after it was overhauled by one update.

So, basically what I've seen is that changing the combat, no matter how little or how big, of ANY popular video game through an update OR a later installment to a series causes the most amount of controversy, attached with anger, death threats, etc., out of anything else you change about the game. And players will rage quit and will almost never return from the game because of their pessimism towards how its combat changed.
Now, WHY do video game players of Minecraft and popular MMO's, PvP games, etc. value a video game's "combat" as much as they do?!
WHY do video game developers change the combat of games already released or of another game under the same franchise/series, despite the insane controversy they'll create?!

Well, I've had enough. I don't think I should be bothering about any pessimism gamers express.....
(Maybe I'm just burnt out to say anything else intellectually... I know something can be done about it. Should education by valued more? Should requirements for college graduation and job hires be more strict to filter out bad people?
....................
For those who can't keep their distress away from non-family humans, you MIGHT be the blame for all of this pessimism on the Internet.

im pretty sure that the swipe attacks go like this:
main mob: the same sword damage as nomal
other mob 1 damage

To answer that question is to answer something lots of people don't understand sometimes.
You see they change the combat system of games because the combat system has flaws and is unbalanced. I don't care if you PvP or not the Minecraft combat system is boring, flawed and unbalanced. Now you all keep on complaining and you may not agree but as many tactics and skill you can apply to swinging a sword it is the most boring weapon in the game. But we still use the sword because it's a powerful and really the best mêlée weapon. To all of you that think combat is easy it's not it takes lots of practice to be good and I'm surprised that all of you are complaining about a single change in the game. You just deal as much damage when spamming a sword anymore. Just look at the bow it's stronger if you don't spam it too and they still spam it. So why are complaining about not being able to swing a sword 10 times a second and just once so it's stronger and does a small AoE and knockback. Make new a strategy cause like the real world combat changes.

Actually I think it runs deeper than combat alone.

It's not just combat; I think the main essence of people's complains is that the whole game more or less gets changed. People like new stuff, but they don't always like seeing their gameplay entirely changed. For example: I can live with the boat changes (I like them), I can also live with the command block changes (even though its a love/hate for me) but when it comes to the combat changes then I get the feeling that those changes were made "because".

Note: I don't PvP, I only look at the whole thing from a PvE point of view.

So my main gripe right now: you start off in a survival game, you only got your wooden sword... Good luck if you encounter some skeletons (2 -3) while you haven't struck iron yet to make a shield. 1.9 doesn't merely enhance combat; it changes the entire way in which the game is played. Same applies to all those new sounds: a witch was more or less a "minor creeper". Now it's just another mob which you hear coming. In my opinion they took the charm and the challenge away from the witch with this update; all thanks to the sound addition.

At the rate this is going I wouldn't be surprised if they added sound to the creeper as well someday; which would totally go straight against everything you knew about Minecraft.

Which is my main problem... I can't help wonder if Mojang actually plays their own game. I really doubt it at times when looking at some changes.

Take another point of dislike for me: the map. I love map making in my singleplayer games, but now its more or less ruined. The default zoomed out level leaves out a lot of detail of your surrounding terrain. Theoretically you can zoom in again, but there are places on the map which you'll never reach like that. Want to keep track of those lava pits? No you don't (says Mojang).

Also bye bye pixelart and bye bye to a good map overview.

People don't mind change IMO, as long as it makes sense. I heard many stories about foul play being a motivation to change the combat system (I cannot verify them). Which makes me wonder... Instead of changing the whole thing entirely, why not enhance it in such ways that those cheats no longer work?

There are many things I like about 1.9, but I also can't help think that Mojang basically figured "lets throw parts of the gameplay into the wastebin and redesign it from the ground up again". Neat and all; but gameplay is what defines a game. And if you change it too much then people will no longer recognize themselves in that game.

And I think that's the main issue here. Not combat perse; but the gameplay in its entirety.

And details matter... a lot. Offtopic but: I can still remember Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 racing game). I loved it. Sat in my PS3 for 3 months without leaving it. And then all of a sudden they changed the way the races began: instead of grid starts we got rolling starts, all over the place. And without any option to toggle this.

After that I stopped playing GT5 because it was no more fun for me.

And I think that also applies to MC 1.9. Too many drastic changes in gameplay.

How exactly is the combat system "boring, flawed, and unbalanced?" Please answer: how often do you PvP?

I don't think you understand that there's more to the current combat system than running into someone and spamming left click. That would be boring. PvP is not about swords, it's about bows, fire, fishing rods, water, blocks, golden apples, potions, and probably a few things I left out.

If PvP was boring, nobody would play it, yet many servers average over 30,000 people online.

That "single change" is central to gameplay. One "single change" will make or break Minecraft--PvP and general play. One change has so much significance in Minecraft; that's why so many people are speaking out against the update.

I asked how often you PvP'd earlier because I want to know if you're basing your opinion on actual competitive-like PvP or amateur combat like trading hits with a sword and armor. I'm guessing the latter.

Also, bow spamming can be beneficial in some situations.

I PvP quite often and I use bows, potions and my favorite Redstone traps. I can tell that someone who is an actually a good PvPer is not one who not just knows all the combos and tactics but can adapt to change no matter how big or small. Like I said before in the real world combat changed and sometimes the people had change with it you didn't you where left behind.

(Deep breaths). Thanks for clearing things up (at least for me). I can't think of anymore to say.

EDIT: Minecraft 1.9 is a big "change", to many of us. It's common for people to resist change, especially those who are autistic.

! { Critical?! }:

I have autism, but I barely have any memories of myself neglecting change. I've changed homes several times over the course of my life. I didn't have friends, in real-life nor online, when I started school up through early high school. Those the two factors I stated are probably the contributions.
And then after experiencing Pokémon Omega Ruby last Christmas and then Pixar's Inside Out last Summer, I'm gratefully reminded for the documentation of my early childhood, responding with tears.

"You are what you eat."
"You are what you do."
"You are your childhood."
"The beautiful are life changers, not the practical ones."

Duel-wielding is useful for mining so you can mine and place torches without taking the time to change what you're holding. I've done it it's so helpful!

Ya it is. Hopefully it will make mining faster.

When I think of an update, I think of improvements, or small additions the game needed. This update isn't really improving anything in my opinion, only making it into a totally different game. I prefer the simplicity of minecraft, I don't think all these additions are really doing anything but make it more complicated and confusing...

Well, you do not have to worry too much about that. Sorta. If you use your pick to attack mobs then the above mentioned changes happen (ready speed). But if you use it for mining blocks then everything is back to normal. The changes only apply to combat (for now anyway).

Although this is really a completely moot point it's also what fuels my dislike a bit (and trust me: I know this is just me). When you attack a mob too quickly you can't use your pick to its full extend but if you "attack" a block you can. Those things seem weird to me, even though they don't affect gameplay that much.

Well, one good thing about the whole thing is that you're not forced to play. As mentioned above; after trying survival out for quite a bit I think I'll stick to 1.8 for now. I never legitimately (= no cheats at all) killed the Ender dragon so I got plenty to do.

And servers got options too. After I read Penguins post above I looked his comments up. Ayups: there are servers around which still only run 1.7 and not 1.8.

Which is IMO an important detail: I don't like 1.9? I'll stick to 1.8 (single play obviously). I think that is a major thing with MC. 1.9 is around the corner and you can still easily play 1.7.10 if you want to. That is.. cool

I just hope Microsoft doesn't do more controversial updates. But if you don't like it, like ShelLuser said you don't need to play it. Since you can change your version.

Microsoft doesn't dip into Mojang, I don't think so at least. Microsoft most likely just wants to take control the Windows phone edition and stuff.

If you want to test out 1.9 I would definitely try out the snapshots and give it a whirl. What would we do without another dragon? :/

I'm just worried that they will need to reset the end for 1.9 and the overworld with the fact that there can be 128 strongholds now.

Bows don't have a recharge time.

Sorry for double post, but the frontier won't be gettingimg reset at any update. The wastelands will though. As for the end, hopefully there will be an end waste and keep the current as the same