Counterproductive Reasons for Rejecting a Minecraft Suggestion

I have been on Minecraft Discord and Minecraft Suggestions Subreddit a lot lately. I've seen a lot of suggestions, and I've seen a lot of comments saying why said suggestion sucks. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there are three reasons for rejecting a suggestion that grind my gears immensely. In my mind, these mentalities are counterproductive and actually hinder the game's growth. Here are what I consider counterproductive reasons to reject a Minecraft suggestion:

1) It's not realistic to real life

Minecraft is a blend of reality and fantasy. It always has been. I can see why Mojang want to make real-life animal behaviors realistic in order to raise awareness to them, especially if the animal represented is endangered. But Minecraft is ultimately a game of floating trees, a literal hell dimension, skeleton archers, exploding green monsters, potions, magic, and a freaking dragon. Minecraft is NOT meant to be perfectly realistic.

I understand if people say no to an idea such as "They should add Rhinos to Minecraft. They can fly." Because Rhinos are a real animal and obviously cannot fly in real life, and seeing that in the game would just be ridiculous. But saying no to certain terrain features on grounds of not being geologically accurate to the level that only a Masters Earth Science student would notice? Or saying no to a new type of fish because in real life that fish is only found in the abyss and would never be fished at the surface? In my mind, that is not necessary. Minecraft is a GAME. Its creators definitely do draw inspiration from real life, but what kind of a game would it be if it were perfectly realistic to real life? That game is just called life. And we play Minecraft to escape it.

So yes, whereas some realism is good and absurd things like flying rhinos don't belong in the game, rejecting an idea because it's not PERFECTLY realistic doesn't make sense to me.

2) It's too modded

I've already done a whole rant on this matter, but my opinions still stand. Writing off an idea simply as feeling "modded" is not productive at all. The game can never grow if any idea remotely out there is written off in this way. And yes, like the previous example, there are times an idea obviously does NOT fit within Minecraft. Obviously, nuclear power stations, AK-47s, helicopters, and alcoholic beverages do not fit in Minecraft at all. But rejecting ideas such as animated doors or certain mobs because they feel like a mod is, I feel, going to hold the game back in the long run.

And now for the big one. The inspiration for this rant. THIS IS THE ONE THAT PISSES ME OFF THE MOST.... This actually makes me so hacked off, I am going to write it in red.

3) IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY

HOOOOOO BOY. NOTHING grinds my gears more than when there is actually a flaw in Minecraft's game design, someone suggests a fix for it, and they get met with THOSE five words. It's happened to me personally on a number of occasions. NOTHING holds the game back more than this mentality. "It's always been this way, therefore let's never change it". And I feel this mentality was even held by some of the devs for a long time as well.

If something in the game is objectively and inherently flawed, actually opting to keep it because it's existed since Notch's day is honestly the thing that could hold the game back the most. Creepers resulting in horribly cheap deaths and punishing you by blowing up your house and chests for the crime of not lighting up one corner of your house? Oh that's fine, IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY. An absolutely HUGE gap between iron and diamond allowing you to get to the top of the Minecraft tier system super super fast? That's fine, IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY. An enchantment known as Protection IV that makes you super invincible and basically Minecraft stops being a survival game at that point because nothing other than the End Void can kill you? That's perfectly okay, IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!!

I get it, people don't like change. But seriously, sometimes change NEEDS TO HAPPEN. That's how this game can ever move forward. KEEPING A GAME DESIGN FLAW INTENTIONALLY BECAUSE IT'S THE WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN AND IT'S "FROM THE NOSTALGIC ERA" AND IT'S WHAT WE KNOW AND LOVE IS HOW MINECRAFT STAYS STUCK FROM BECOMING THE BEST VERSION OF ITSELF!!!!!!!!! And let's just say, I am SO GLAD Mojang are FINALLY breaking free of this awful crutch, by adding a mineral better than diamond, by making metal ores fortune-able, and now changing hostile mob spawning rules in the experimental snapshots. Good on you Mojang, for finally breaking this godawful mould of IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!!!!!!

BONUS: You just suck at Minecraft

I put this here as an honourable mention because this is something trolls may say when you suggest a quality-of-life update or a nerf to an enemy. If someone comments this at your suggestion, ignore it or report it. You are NOT a bad Minecraft player because you got sick of dying cheap deaths to a divebombing Creeper in a ravine, or because you find the 1.9 combat system unclear and counterintuitive.

Final Word

Now of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. People may simply not like your suggestion, and that's okay. But in my personal opinion, these three (four, really) reasons for rejecting an idea are not productive at all. They don't forward the game, only hold it back. Especially that third one.