New Minecraft updates are encouraging players to explore more

Minecraft's recent updates, such as The Wild Update and Trails & Tales, have a heavy focus on the exploration of new biomes and structures. Moreover, the latest Java snapshots and Bedrock previews have realigned villagers to incentivize roaming the in-game world and setting roots in multiple locations. However, this isn't considered a positive by some players.

While plenty of fans appreciate being able to explore the vast worlds that Minecraft generates, others are a bit more sedentary and would prefer to stay in a localized area and build around it. This has caused something of a community schism, as some players feel as though they're being forced to explore via game mechanics.

This leads to one question: is Minecraft's recent focus on exploration a positive or negative for the game?

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Examining the dynamics of incentivized exploration in Minecraft

Is Minecraft Turning Anti-Sedentary? byu/TNTeck1 inMinecraft

The topic of Minecraft's focus on exploration has resurfaced due to the controversial changes to villager trading that are currently being tested in Java snapshots and Bedrock previews. In this Experimental Feature, villager trades have been altered to be partially based on a villager's home biome. This includes swamp and jungle villagers that must be bred by players.

Although not every Minecraft fan utilizes villager trades to acquire quality gear, the new Experimental Feature has diminished the utility of villager trading halls and has essentially compelled players to seek out certain biomes. Depending on the world's seed, finding some biomes can require a vast travel distance.

Swamp and jungle villagers must be bred by players since they don't naturally generate (Image via Mojang)

Since Minecraft worlds are so incredibly vast, it can be difficult for some players to find the biomes and structures they need. In older versions of the game, particularly in the Legacy Console Edition, players could limit the generation scope of their worlds, but this isn't exactly present within the current vanilla version for Java and Bedrock.

The Wild Update and Trails & Tales update both introduced new biomes as well, and many of their features aren't typically found near a player's spawn point (though there are exceptions). For fans who prefer to stay put, it's understandable that they may feel compelled to travel hundreds or thousands of blocks to get the resources they require.

Fans on Reddit discuss the downsides of an expanded world (Image via Reddit)

Moreover, while new locations to explore are nice, some fans have stated that in-game worlds still feel relatively empty despite the inclusion of new mobs and structures. If players are traveling without the use of mods or commands, they occasionally don't feel well-rewarded for doing so.

The game world has grown leaps and bounds compared to its early days. It's a positive to include more diversity when it comes to biomes, structures, and mobs. Be that as it may, the sheer size of in-game worlds leaves some players scrambling for cheats and mods to compensate for the travel requirements.

Some fans miss the world generation settings of Minecraft's Legacy Console Editions (Image via Reddit)

This leads to a return to the question: is an increased emphasis on exploration in Minecraft a good thing? One could argue that it can be, but Mojang needs to be able to support this focus on exploring the world with tools that assist players in doing so. Whether this means providing a teleportation method or re-tooling world generation, there's still work to be done.

Ideally, it may not be a bad idea to re-introduce the legacy era world generation settings either. This would provide the capability for players who would prefer to stay contained to a smaller area the choices to limit their play area. In this event, exploration would still be preserved, but players who don't necessarily want to wouldn't need to travel vast distances to get what they need.