Microsoft immediately started focusing hard on the “Bedrock” edition and downplaying the Java edition. Bedrock didn’t and as far as I know never has actually reached feature parity with the Java edition, but most of all also does not support mods. Mods were and are very, very popular and extremely important to the Minecraft community. There’s a strong feeling among OG’s that the Java edition is the “real” Minecraft and whatever Microsoft is doing with Bedrock is just faffing around. Bedrock supports data packs which have become somewhat powerful, but do not match the ability for Java mods to completely interact with every aspect of the game.
(The Java ed. is also cross-platform, whereas Bedrock isn’t. This can’t be a coincidence, coming from the company who makes a certain closed-source desktop operating system you can probably name offhand.)
Microsoft also fairly recently started demanding that you get a Microsoft account just to play, even for the Java edition, which obviously rubs every Linux player the wrong way plus all of us who don’t need or want a Microsoft account because we don’t need to be tracked, profiled, or advertised at. The cutoff for getting a Microsoft account is 2023-09-19, by the way, and I’m already committed to not doing it. For perspective, I was an alpha backer of Minecraft. I’ve already moved on to Minetest and other games.
Dungeons and Story Mode were their own separate things. I don’t particularly care about them, but I don’t hate them either. They can do whatever they want with the IP, and these don’t affect the core game any. They weren’t even made by Mojang, so it’s not even like they diverted development resources away from the core game or anything.
I mostly use Java for myself because I really only touch Minecraft for the mods now, however my kids (5+ years) play across a variety of devices and Bedrock is the only version that will work across the board for everything they all might be on, it just takes all of the complication out of it and I usually don’t have to do any tech support. Although I wish there was actual modding support for Minecraft (outside of all the junk you can buy from the store), I appreciate that they’ve simplified the experience in Bedrock.
Microsoft immediately started focusing hard on the “Bedrock” edition and downplaying the Java edition. Bedrock didn’t and as far as I know never has actually reached feature parity with the Java edition, but most of all also does not support mods. Mods were and are very, very popular and extremely important to the Minecraft community. There’s a strong feeling among OG’s that the Java edition is the “real” Minecraft and whatever Microsoft is doing with Bedrock is just faffing around. Bedrock supports data packs which have become somewhat powerful, but do not match the ability for Java mods to completely interact with every aspect of the game.
(The Java ed. is also cross-platform, whereas Bedrock isn’t. This can’t be a coincidence, coming from the company who makes a certain closed-source desktop operating system you can probably name offhand.)
Microsoft also fairly recently started demanding that you get a Microsoft account just to play, even for the Java edition, which obviously rubs every Linux player the wrong way plus all of us who don’t need or want a Microsoft account because we don’t need to be tracked, profiled, or advertised at. The cutoff for getting a Microsoft account is 2023-09-19, by the way, and I’m already committed to not doing it. For perspective, I was an alpha backer of Minecraft. I’ve already moved on to Minetest and other games.
Dungeons and Story Mode were their own separate things. I don’t particularly care about them, but I don’t hate them either. They can do whatever they want with the IP, and these don’t affect the core game any. They weren’t even made by Mojang, so it’s not even like they diverted development resources away from the core game or anything.
I mostly use Java for myself because I really only touch Minecraft for the mods now, however my kids (5+ years) play across a variety of devices and Bedrock is the only version that will work across the board for everything they all might be on, it just takes all of the complication out of it and I usually don’t have to do any tech support. Although I wish there was actual modding support for Minecraft (outside of all the junk you can buy from the store), I appreciate that they’ve simplified the experience in Bedrock.