Obvious Additions That Took Years to Come

Minecraft is a game that is ever-evolving. From the days where there were 2 blocks to now, an eighth of a century has passed. That's a lot of time. That's a lot of Minecraft history. And as we are still seeing new features being added now, we are in a position where we can say "Minecraft existed for 12.5 years without X feature". Pretty mind-boggling. But some features even coming now, have me scratching my head thinking "how did it take this feature this long to be added?"

There are some features that have come in the recent few years that to me, seem so obvious that they should've been added in Beta, but they only recently were added. Or, they're not even added yet but confirmed! Today, I thought I would go through these to my one reader.

Now, some features that seem really obvious, took years to come, but required a HUGE amount of effort, such as bigger caves and taller mountains, don't really qualify. It's understandable why these features took years to come.

MOBS

For nearly 9 years, Minecraft's oceans lacked........ fish. No, really. There was no cod, no salmon, no tropical fish... nothing. Minecraft was first created in 2009. Fish as actual mobs were added in 2018. For almost a DECADE, we swam around in an ocean with ZERO fish. For nearly 10 years, in the Minecraft dating world, "there are plenty of fish in the sea" meant you had no options left (like me). HOW did it take almost 9 years to see fish as actual mobs in Minecraft?? Well, actually, fish WERE meant to be added as mobs back in 2010 for the Alpha 1.2 update, the same update that added the Nether. But Notch ran out of time, and could only add fish as items (and there was only one type of fish until 1.7!) And so the oceans were left totally fishless until the oceans received their update in 2018. It seems unbelievable to us now that for three-quarters of Minecraft's history, there were absolutely no fish in its oceans.

It also seems kinda odd to me that Minecraft has taken 13 years to add Frogs. I don't know about you (singular) but Frogs to me seem like a very obvious addition. Especially as there really isn't any wildlife exclusive to Swamps (except Slimes). At Minecraft Live 2021, Mojang confirmed Frogs will finally be coming in the next update, 1.19. I mean, how is it that Frogs are Minecraft's SECOND mob representing an amphibian, and that a fairly obscure Mexican salamander made it into Minecraft before Frogs?!

I'll also give an honourable mention to Bees. Because although bees and honey (and candles) seem like an obvious addition, are they really? Minecraft hasn't really been known for having a lot of tiny insects.

BLOCKS & MINERALS

What was one of the first building blocks in the real world, that many communities and a huge chunk of the world's population still use today? Mudbricks! With this in mind, it is shocking that Mudbricks (confirmed for the next update) were never added to Minecraft until now. And by extension, MUD itself!! I mean, come on. MUD! It took 13 years for Minecraft to get MUD!? Unless you're living in a desert climate where there is no soil, if it rains, you get mud. Mud is absolutely everywhere in our lives. We play in it as kids. Pigs roll in it. It's very surprising that it took this long to see it in Minecraft.

What is a metal that just about every modder added to Minecraft and modpack creators had to be very careful not to end up with 25 versions of? A red metal that Minecraft didn't see until the end of 2020? Copper! Although it... really doesn't do much, this seems like one of those features that should've been added way back in the ALPHA days of Minecraft. It really feels like it should've been one of the OG ores, Iron, Gold, and Diamond. Maybe if that had happened, Copper would have far more uses by now.

Another mineral added at the same time as copper, and another one you'd think we would've seen at the very start: Amethyst. Amethyst is perhaps the second most well-known "gem" mineral behind Diamonds. And although we HAVE seen gemstones in Minecraft, such as Quartz, Lapis Lazuli and Emerald, it is shocking that it took us over 11 years to see Amethyst come to Minecraft. But I am glad they did what they did with finding Amethyst, instead of having it be just another ore. If Amethyst HAD been added in Alpha or Beta, it almost certainly would've just been the usual: find a stone block with purple flecks in it.

ITEMS

One of Optifine's most famous features is the ability to zoom in. It is very surprising it took until that same damned late-2020 snapshot to see this in the game itself in the form of the Spyglass. Given how ubiquitous Optifine's zoom-in feature is, you'd have thought Mojang would've added this functionality to the game a lot sooner. Wow, 20w45a really was the "captain obvious" snapshot.

I will give an honourable mention to Mutton. This was actually added way back in 2014, but I am still mentioning it because for over 4 years, Pigs and Cows dropped meat, but Sheep did not. Sheep always just seemed like the odd animals out for not giving the player ANY form of meat. This was before Minecraft went all vegan, so it was completely unfathomable that Sheep went so long without dropping a food source.

GAMEPLAY

What if I told you that for the first EIGHT years of Minecraft's history, you had to look up every single crafting recipe online, and that there was NOTHING in-game that taught you how to craft? When I think of a features' delayed addition to the game, absolutely NOTHING strikes me more than the lack of ANY sort of in-game crafting recipes. It wasn't until 2017 that you could actually see in-game how to do half of Minecraft's title: craft. We didn't question it for the longest time because it's always the way it was, but in hindsight it is absolutely ridiculous that we had to google and memorise every single crafting recipe, and we had to do this as recent as 2017! Say what you will about 1.12, but at least it FINALLY gave us the knowledge book. It's just that we should've seen it in 2010. Better late than never, I guess!

Finally, for 12 and a half years, we had to rely on the F3 debug menu to know if one corner of our house was above an arbitrary light-level, for failing to do so could result in the total destruction of your storage room. This is another case of a bad design choice staying within the game for years and years because ThAt'S tHe WaY iT's AlWaYs BeEn. Hostile mobs not spawning until a light level of 0 feels like it's a change that should have been made many, many, MANY years ago.

Final Word

There may be one or two more (such as the Totem) that feel like they came a few years too late, but these are the ones that REALLY stand out. These are the items that really truly feel like they were added MANY years too late. But hey, at least they did come, or are coming. Still waiting on Birds and Oil, though.