Why Minecraft Mods are Evolving Backwards

Why Minecraft Mods are Evolving Backwards

This is a list of some of the most iconic important mods of all time. Things like the Aether, 
Industrial Craft, even Optifine. But you know what they all have in common? They’re old as hell! To me, Minecraft modding has felt stagnant for almost a decade with one exception. And I don’t think I’m alone. So to fully explain this, let me run through some history. The earliest mods were small, usually focused on one single feature. For example, Mo’ Creatures just added a couple more mobs. This is largely because up until this point, the only real mod loader was something called Risugami’s Modloader. But this had some heavy restrictions. And so a collective of modders, including the guys behind Buildcraft, actually came together to create Minecraft Forge. Forge made mods so much easier for both players and the modders themselves. And as the modding scene evolved, modders got much more ambitious. It stopped being about single features like elemental bows and started being about adding electricity and machines. The era of technology mods had begun. This era was characterized by mods like Buildcraft and Industrial Craft. These mods also really popularized modpacks like Tekkit and Feed The Beast. By combining mods together in the right way, suddenly you could make Minecraft feel like an entirely different game. [iBallisticSquid] Look, look, [iBallisticSquid] It’s going, look! [Stampy] What’s that? [Stampy] Aha!
Tekkit was probably the most popular mod pack for a while. The tech mods just fit so perfectly together. But these mods were also pretty complex and hard to learn. So after a couple years, people were ready for a change. By the way, these eras completely overlapped. I’m just lying for the video. Some of the earliest 
adventure mods were dimensions like the Aether and Twilight Forest. These were generally much easier to pick up than all the insanely complex tech modpacks, and as a result they became wildly popular. [PopularMMOs] Jen has lost for the day! [Jen] What is it? [PopularMMOs] It’s the naga!
[Kid] *Screams* It’s these two mods in particular that really laid the groundwork for everything that followed like OreSpawn. And since the overworld was feeling lackluster in comparison mods like Biomes O’ Plenty came around too. After all that exploration though, sometimes it’s nice to go back to your base and tinker around and craft things. But the tech mods didn’t entirely 
thematically fit anymore. So mods like Tinker’s Construct 
and Thaumcraft were made. Overall modding was booming, with new massive content mods coming out like every week, and the players loved it. Right up until it wasn’t. Since around 2018 or so, I feel like most of the mods 
coming out are pretty bland. And this is partially by design because of this new cultural emphasis on things being vanilla-friendly or vanilla-plus. Of course there’s exceptions to this, like a lot of these older content mods are still maintained. But scroll the most popular mods on Modrinth and they’re boring as [__]. How does this have 96 mods?! Let me play devil’s advocate 
here for a second,though. Some people really like these subtle deviations from vanilla. The point isn’t to completely 
change the experience. It’s just to subtly improve it. But in that case where did all the huge mods go? We need to be honest. It’s nothing against the modders themselves. I mean, these mods are well-made. But we’ve literally regressed back to the beginning when mods just added like five new swords. So, what happened? I believe it boils down to five things. And because I’m a YouTuber at heart I’m going to save the main reason for last. Reason one: Mod reviews are less popular now. But to be fair that could just be because the mods themselves are less interesting. It’s hard to say. Reason two: Forge is nowhere near as dominant. It is far from the only modloader. The space is a lot more fragmented. And because not everyone is focused on the same thing, it makes it feel less exciting. Plus as it evolves more and more of the innovation has already happened. There’s still unlimited new mods to make but they’ve become increasingly derivative and hard to think of. Boom. That’s two reasons in one. Reason four: Obviously cultural shifts 
do genuinely play a role. I mean some people just like vanilla-plus mods. And finally, reason five: This is the factor that 
overwhelmingly stands out to me. The Bedrock Marketplace that’s existed since 2017. And why make content for free on Java when you could do it as a 
full-time job on Bedrock? I have a whole video on that 
issue if you’re interested. That’ll be on the end screen. But essentially Microsoft is doing this so 
they can take their 62.5% cut. That pushes modders from Java over to their closed-off Bedrock ecosystem where unlike Java they’re at least allowed to charge for their work. One prominent example recently is YUNGNICKYOUNG who you may know for all of these mods totaling at over a billion downloads. He recently launched a Bedrock Marketplace content studio. Microsoft has also been known to personally reach out to different map makers to get them to switch to the Bedrock Marketplace. Like for example, Noxcrew. Not only has this mostly killed adventure maps on Java it seems to have mostly killed these huge content mods, too. Of course I’m not saying the impact on Java mods is intentional. Quite the opposite actually. It’s just a consequence of allowing people to charge money on Bedrock. And there really isn’t an 
easy fix to this, either. Most Java players would have a very hard time accepting that modders can suddenly charge money if Mojang changed the rules. I think it’s worth looking at Roblox though because they’re in a much better spot. Roblox is another platform that relies heavily on user-generated content for their players. And while Roblox doesn’t pay 
their creators very fairly at least they pay at all. You are literally unilaterally banned from making money on Java modding. In practice they really only enforce it when you’re charging money directly. But even so at best modders who make any sort of money are in a legal gray area. So, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that so many of them just want to mod on Bedrock and make money from it. There is one mod though that’s a complete exception to this. Back at the start of the video I left one mod off the list. A mod that came out in 2019 and absolutely took the scene by storm. It flipped every format on its head and revolutionized everything. I am of course talking about— I don’t know how to use this mod although it does look sick as hell. So instead I’m going to give someone who does a chance to do this section right. This is shalz. He’s a full-time Create YouTuber. [shalz] Four years ago, [shalz] I booted up Minecraft [shalz] with Create for the first time [shalz] and I’m still playing it. [shalz] Now, that’s no coincidence. [shalz] Create adds an entire 
mechanical system to Minecraft. [shalz] We have rotation, stress, RPM. [shalz] It sounds complicated [shalz] but it’s actually really easy to get into. [shalz] You build a windmill, [shalz] hook it up to some saws, [shalz] and boom, you’ve got a tree farm. [shalz] All the different components [shalz] work together in a really satisfying way. [shalz] What’s wild is how far that can take you. [shalz] I’ve basically built [shalz] my whole YouTube channel around it. [shalz] That’s not normal for a Minecraft mod. [shalz] It’s even become its own genre of mods. [shalz] Create has an insane amount of add-ons. [shalz] That is, mods being made for the mod. [shalz] And even without the add-ons, [shalz] base Create receives 
really polished updates. [shalz] The team behind it 
never adds things at random. E[shalz] verything they make [shalz] fits perfectly into what’s already there. [shalz] It connects to your existing farms, [shalz] transportation systems, [shalz] and storage, [shalz] which makes updates to 
the mod highly anticipated events. [shalz] It reminds me of the old tech mods, too. [shalz] Buildcraft, Industrial Craft, [shalz] all the classics that defined 
what modded Minecraft was for years. [shalz] And you know [shalz] some people say Create [shalz] is just recycling those old ideas, [shalz] that it’s nothing new. [shalz] But I think that misses the point. [shalz] Create doesn’t just 
bring those ideas back. [shalz] It makes them really fun to build [shalz] in an incredibly intuitive way. [shalz] And the implementation of everything— [shalz] it’s just perfection. [shalz] To me, it’s all proof that 
big creative mods can still exist. [shalz] Modding doesn’t have to be [shalz] just slightly improving vanilla [shalz] to be good or get popular. [shalz] But the fact that me and many others [shalz] keep pointing to Create [shalz] as the only mod doing this thing [shalz] kind of says it all. While Create is a wonderful exception to this vanilla-plus recycled pattern we keep seeing over and over again, it’s definitely not a solution to it. And honestly, I don’t know what is. But what I do know is this: When I play mods, oftentimes I literally go back to 1.12.2 or even 1.7.10. I should not have to go back to a version of Minecraft that came out in [__] 2014 to get a better experience than playing something modern. The popular mod packs on CurseForge seem to agree with me here. A lot of them are still stuck on 1.12.2. There’s even plenty of new mod packs being made on this 7-year-old version. This slump has got to be pushing people away from Minecraft mods in general. We need more wacky [__]. The kind of mods that make you go, “No, surely I can’t make that.” And then you do it anyway. Those are always the best ideas. You hear that, modders? I’m not the first person to say this, But I am hoping to do it the best. Something, whether it’s the Bedrock Marketplace 
or just cultural shifts, has thrown everything out of whack. As promised, here’s that 
Bedrock Marketplace video. I’d also really appreciate it if you subscribed. And have a great rest of your day.

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SPECIAL THANKS: @Shalz
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Minecraft mods have declined, and now they’re mostly vanilla+ quality of life nothing burgers. But Create Mod is a massive exception.

0:00 – Origin
0:56 – Eras of Mods
2:14 – Flop Era… 🙁
5:23 – Create Mod
7:24 – Conclusion