in my opinion this is how mojang could of stop minecraft from dying. make better updates the update lately has being bad to me before all the new pvp stuff came out the game got pretty bad sadly i remember when i use to play minecraft most of the time, and now all they try to do i make money from the game, and that sucks!. opinion 2 listen to the community mojang did fail to listen to the community a fair bit after the beta that got me mad, and that's when they start doing crapy updates. opinion 3 pvp just god bad that's all i have to say. opinion 4 cancerous community omg i can just rant about this one but i will try to keep this short the player are so bad like when you kill someone they say HACKER! or kys stuff like that.And other thing i hate about this community is the hacked clients they are the worst they can't pvp for real it's sad it just ruins the new or legit players experience that maybe 1 reason the community is cancerous. opinion 5 mods and maps got bland in the recant year mod haven't really being as fun what happen to the old maps like skydoseminecraft parkour maps ect the reason now these days maps sucks the try out other idea then recreate them not being original. i miss the old days when minecraft was a big art platform where everyone just can create anything i know you guys can still do this today but for me it boring so that all i would like to say :{
You mean the new EULA that gives people even more rights than the previous one? I doubt that would increase the longevity of the game.
Anyway, Minecraft isn't dying. It's not going in the direction I would personally like it to go, but I'm just one person among millions of players. Microsoft has done literally nothing to hinder Minecraft's development, the pvp scene has always been minor, and maybe, just maybe, since the game's been out for more than five years that people just might be getting bored of it. That does not mean it's dying.
Minecraft continues to sell at a mind-boggling pace: Developer Mojang has now sold 122 million copies of the sandbox exploration game across all platforms, the Microsoft-owned Swedish studio announced today.
Microsoft’s previous milestone was 100 million copies, which Minecraft reached in early June 2016. That means that a whopping 22 million people bought a copy of the game in the last nine months. Asked by Polygon, a Microsoft representative clarified that although the company has been allowing owners of the original Java-based PC/Mac version of Minecraft to get a free copy of Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, Microsoft does not include those redemptions in its sales calculation.
“The 122M units is paid units to players only,” the spokesperson told Polygon.
Mojang also announced today that Minecraft currently has 55 million monthly active players, an increase of 37.5 percent from the 40 million that Microsoft reported back in June. It’s possible that the recent release of version 1.0 of Minecraft’s Windows 10 Edition and Pocket Edition — the former is essentially a port of the latter — helped raise the number of monthly active users. Mojang released the Ender Update for those versions in mid-December, officially bringing them out of beta.
What IS dying though is the community; for example, just take a look at the following stats for these forums, which have been around for as long as Minecraft has (8 years):
Just how in the world did Survival Mode and General Discussion get more than 1 million posts when they only got around 10,000 and 17,000 over the past year?! Using the totals (over 7 years) as of a year ago they should have gotten 170,000 and 160,000 respectively - up to 17 times as many. You can also see that not many people must be interested in new updates these days (the most active threads now and then were also complaining about them), which I can relate to (I have not bothered updating past 1.6.4). And this is actually even worse since it has been declining for more than a year; I can't even imagine how active this place must have been back in 2012 or so (I only joined in late 2013). I've also seen long-term members with high activity gradually stop posting with little reason over the past year.
I've actually considered making a thread titled "Is Minecraft Forum dying" with this and other evidence, which IMO is a symptom of a real issue in the community - but not necessarily proof that the game itself is dying when official sales and player counts show otherwise.
You mean the new EULA that gives people even more rights than the previous one? I doubt that would increase the longevity of the game.
Anyway, Minecraft isn't dying. It's not going in the direction I would personally like it to go, but I'm just one person among millions of players. Microsoft has done literally nothing to hinder Minecraft's development, the pvp scene has always been minor, and maybe, just maybe, since the game's been out for more than five years that people just might be getting bored of it. That does not mean it's dying.
It takes away the rights of server-owners to make money and be able to stay afloat. I'm not even a server-owner and I was angry about the eula. Without selling ranks, nobody will donate, and without donations, servers can't stay afloat. Servers are really expensive. All it does is kill the medium sized servers so only the amazingly large servers (Mineplex, hypixel, hive) and tiny servers that people can pay with with spare change (24 slots) can afford the costs.
Where the heck did people get the idea of "Mincwaf is dyin"?, anyone plz tell me!, anyway the game is not dying, not anytime soon, the game is just not as popular as before but definitely not dying, I mean just look at legos, legos has been around for pretty long time and still alive and I can see that happening with Minecraft(Sorry for my english if they suck).
It takes away the rights of server-owners to make money and be able to stay afloat. I'm not even a server-owner and I was angry about the eula. Without selling ranks, nobody will donate, and without donations, servers can't stay afloat. Servers are really expensive. All it does is kill the medium sized servers so only the amazingly large servers (Mineplex, hypixel, hive) and tiny servers that people can pay with with spare change (24 slots) can afford the costs.
To make money out of something, that they don't own? You see, we, the players, only own the accounts we have bought from Mojang, not the game itself, it's same for all games, we're just allowed to play them, as we don't really own the game, we just own copy of that game, but we don't won whole thing. And therefor, Mojang has all rights to say what we can and what we can't do with their game. One of them are to sell op tools, weapons and armor alongside many other stupid things servers have been known to sell for those, who want to "buy" something.
Mojang can deny these servers from having pay 2 win services, as the people/organisations, that run the servers don't own the game.
And you still can donate to the servers to get somekind of special rank, if that rank doesn't affect the gameplay in any way or form. In other words, if that rank is only visual (in example: "Donator" and won't give you any other things) isn't (as far, as I know) denied.
However, if you get op armor, op tools or op weapons OR anything else, than affects how you play the game, then the server is breaking the EULA (End User License Agreement for those, who don't know what EULA stands for). And it should be taken down. And in some cases, the server runners only took the money, and never gave the stuff the player had paid for!
EULA is not the big baddie here. Yes, it restricts some rotten server runners from scamming you, but it's made to protect you, and your money.
Maybe some1 could just don't sell Mojang to Microsoft
Then most of the stuff on Xbox one and Window 10 itself will not exist, on the topic, I think it the community that is dying, I saw the rise in the players count on most server but not in community.
Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
To make money out of something, that they don't own? You see, we, the players, only own the accounts we have bought from Mojang, not the game itself, it's same for all games, we're just allowed to play them, as we don't really own the game, we just own copy of that game, but we don't won whole thing. And therefor, Mojang has all rights to say what we can and what we can't do with their game. One of them are to sell op tools, weapons and armor alongside many other stupid things servers have been known to sell for those, who want to "buy" something.
Mojang can deny these servers from having pay 2 win services, as the people/organisations, that run the servers don't own the game.
And you still can donate to the servers to get somekind of special rank, if that rank doesn't affect the gameplay in any way or form. In other words, if that rank is only visual (in example: "Donator" and won't give you any other things) isn't (as far, as I know) denied.
However, if you get op armor, op tools or op weapons OR anything else, than affects how you play the game, then the server is breaking the EULA (End User License Agreement for those, who don't know what EULA stands for). And it should be taken down. And in some cases, the server runners only took the money, and never gave the stuff the player had paid for!
EULA is not the big baddie here. Yes, it restricts some rotten server runners from scamming you, but it's made to protect you, and your money.
If a server is pay2win, just don't play on it. Simple solution. The problem is that people would rather just spend their money elsewhere in real life rather than make their mineplex name green. I get that the servers don't own the game, but why can't they sell you a kit that gives you 5 diamonds every 12 hours? Tell me how you can't just go mine them yourself. If you don't want to play on a server with OP ranks, just play on another server. Its their choice. I can speak for my entire friends group and family that plays games (So around 20 people total) that not a single one of us would pay a dime for a cosmetic rank. Its their server, give them freedom to set up ranks. If its brokenly P2W, just don't play on it. If somebody wants to go make a broken server, they can go for it. That doesn't mean you have to play on it. Can I also offer up that no server at the middle of the totem pole is going to abide by the eula? They have nothing to lose. If they get caught, its game over, if they stop selling ranks, they run out of money and its game over.
"that not a single one of us would pay a dime for a cosmetic rank" which is why many new servers who try to be EULA-compliant, fail.
Given the major demographic class are those under the age of 18.....the primary intention of the EULA seems to be the desire of Mojang to give all players fair chance at winning, without regard to their parent's ability or willingness to spend money.
There are plenty of truly pay2win servers out there....whereas some are more along the lines of pay4convenience (e.g. a SkyBlock server where /fly can be earned in a 2-3 hours through /challenges or purchased for $5).
As a parent & a player....from a dual perspective, the biggest problem I see is the overall toxicity that exists on many servers. Also in MC everyone is 2m tall, skinny, and can have any completion + gender they wish...in other words, many situations which cause kids to get bullied at school do not exist online where the primary social divide is a player's rank. Yes, there are server's with strict rules about language/harassment in chat, but many do not enforce them and there are enough 12-15yr who want to freely drop f-bombs and get pervy bc they are delusional into believing it makes them seem older....that player counts are low on the servers with respectable rules and most would rather play a busy server than one with only a few players.....blah...blah...blah.....I think you see where I'm going and can skip the remainder of the psychoanalysis. Other than saying what many servers call "hackers" are nothing but "skid cheaters". Whether it's software, hardware, or life-hacks...hacker is an earned title not obtainable with a download button. (by hardware hacker, I'm referring to the type of person who can take the lamp from a scanner or AIO printer and Make it into a lamp for their desk or 3D printer.) If server's would call them what they are, "lazy-bum cheaters" ...then it's be less glamorous and probably happen less often.
"kys"...it's was not in MC, but a girl in Massachusetts was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for saying this via text msg (though there is much more to the story than a single msg).
MC is not dead....just more spread out. And for the non-PVP'ers the newest update will be a sight for sore eyes and will likely revitalize more interest in the game for those who's minds tend to be less aggressive and more creative.
This is only my perspective, based on my experiences in MC (as a parent who plays MC with my daughter & as a 38yr old former U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran who has also studied some psychology/philosophy)....I am sure there are 100 situations which contradict everything I said + 100 that confirm it. It's all relative (and I exclude from my comments any server which advertises to be 18+)....but Mojang is not killing, nor causing a decline in MC, the majority of the blame falls on the dirtbag server owners who are only in it for the money and blame the kids who come to MC servers to release their aggression (e.g. counter-bullying) + their parents for not raising them better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
For immediate assistance, I can usually be found in-game at: play.haleymc.net
People, if this thread is just going to turn into a EULA complaint thread (without addressing anything else that the OP is saying), then it is likely going to be locked. If you are going to post in the thread, at least make the discussion about more than just the EULA.
in my opinion this is how mojang could of stop minecraft from dying.
I'd revise that line to avoid confusion. It should read, "In my opinion this is how Mojang could stop the java edition from dying".
Please see the News article on the "Better Together" update coming. (I know, the new naming convention is tough on me too.)
Anyway, "Minecraft" is doing better than fine. It doesn't need "saving" from "dying".
To me, the question isn't how it can be saved, but should it?
You can easily check to see if something is dying by looking it up in Google Trends. I was going to argue that Minecraft isn't dying, but that isn't exactly true at this time.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=/m/09v6kpg
You can easily check to see if something is dying by looking it up in Google Trends. I was going to argue that Minecraft isn't dying, but that isn't exactly true at this time.
Even though I am in the group that thinks the game is dying, search popularity should stay out of this. People who love the game and play it everyday don't usually just search "Minecraft" alone all that often (I haven't in at least a year). The game boomed from 2011-2014 (Arguably to 2013 or even 2012, but thats beside the point) and more people googled the game right when they were buying it, or shortly after they bought it. If you bought the game in 2012, you might google it every once in a while throughout that year. Would you still be googling just the term "Minecraft" in the year 2017? Probably not. It also should be noted that that type of growth (2011-14) wasn't possible to sustain and almost definitely has slowed down, and people move on. Anybody who bought the game when they were 13 in 2012 (Which used to be the age of the average MC player) is now 18 and probably moving onto college and leaving behind minecraft. That means that more people have to come in to take their spots, which is what is needed to keep minecraft's community afloat. The problem at the moment is that more and more children just play other games instead of MC, and we NEED them to keep the community going.
The short answer is because your VS work can exist outside of the platform it was created in. This is very simply something that cannot be true for anything in Minecraft, even from the perspective of external third party tools like MCEdit.
The basic reason that MCF is even perceived to be dying isn't because its base has moved on to greener pastures. It's because vanilla Minecraft just happens to be a really, really, REALLY thin platform and it's competing with a confederation of multiple sub-platforms (commands, mods, server plugins) that each offer up whole new vistas of stuff to experience.
Here's the thing, Minecraft is going on about 7 years old which is almost a generation in terms of its lifespan. For a game of its genre, there's nothing really holding it up other than the people who play it. Eventually, they will get bored no matter how great of an update they get, everything goes in cycles.
In the past two years alone, we got things like OverWatch, Paladins, and Fallout 4, Nier, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Nioh. Minecraft is a lego box with no real story to the game or any real goals to achieve. In a sense, those playing and creating content are what keep the game from going truly under, not the people making the updates.
What they would have to do to bring in a majority, though, would be to finally give in and release a modding API as well as shoving in the popular mods that many have been crying for for years such as Treecapitator, IndustrialCraft/BuildCraft, and something like Biomes o' Plenty/ExtraBiomesXL. This wouldn't be so bad, but not everyone wants to do technology stuff, hence why there were not added. It's up to the person that wants to customize their experience.
If that isn't the biggest reason, then another I could think of is terrain generation. If you've ever played the older versions, such as the Alphas or anything before Beta 1.7.9, then you would remember the random floating islands, oceans that were only a few blocks deep instead of tens of blocks, and the next continent being within sight of shore.
Clay used to be found above water on beaches, now you have to dig into the water to get them. I could list off a number of ways to improve the game, but sadly it will only be a temporary fix. If you want to keep the game from dying, then you would need to get people to play and create. How do you do that? Simple answer is that you must be the first to the party and last to leave. This means when you get an interest in something, it will spread outward in a domino fashion.
in my opinion this is how mojang could of stop minecraft from dying. make better updates the update lately has being bad to me before all the new pvp stuff came out the game got pretty bad sadly i remember when i use to play minecraft most of the time, and now all they try to do i make money from the game, and that sucks!. opinion 2 listen to the community mojang did fail to listen to the community a fair bit after the beta that got me mad, and that's when they start doing crapy updates. opinion 3 pvp just god bad that's all i have to say. opinion 4 cancerous community omg i can just rant about this one but i will try to keep this short the player are so bad like when you kill someone they say HACKER! or kys stuff like that.And other thing i hate about this community is the hacked clients they are the worst they can't pvp for real it's sad it just ruins the new or legit players experience that maybe 1 reason the community is cancerous. opinion 5 mods and maps got bland in the recant year mod haven't really being as fun what happen to the old maps like skydoseminecraft parkour maps ect the reason now these days maps sucks the try out other idea then recreate them not being original. i miss the old days when minecraft was a big art platform where everyone just can create anything i know you guys can still do this today but for me it boring so that all i would like to say :{
By taking away the EULA.
You mean the new EULA that gives people even more rights than the previous one? I doubt that would increase the longevity of the game.
Anyway, Minecraft isn't dying. It's not going in the direction I would personally like it to go, but I'm just one person among millions of players. Microsoft has done literally nothing to hinder Minecraft's development, the pvp scene has always been minor, and maybe, just maybe, since the game's been out for more than five years that people just might be getting bored of it. That does not mean it's dying.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
What IS dying though is the community; for example, just take a look at the following stats for these forums, which have been around for as long as Minecraft has (8 years):
Current:
Just how in the world did Survival Mode and General Discussion get more than 1 million posts when they only got around 10,000 and 17,000 over the past year?! Using the totals (over 7 years) as of a year ago they should have gotten 170,000 and 160,000 respectively - up to 17 times as many. You can also see that not many people must be interested in new updates these days (the most active threads now and then were also complaining about them), which I can relate to (I have not bothered updating past 1.6.4). And this is actually even worse since it has been declining for more than a year; I can't even imagine how active this place must have been back in 2012 or so (I only joined in late 2013). I've also seen long-term members with high activity gradually stop posting with little reason over the past year.
I've actually considered making a thread titled "Is Minecraft Forum dying" with this and other evidence, which IMO is a symptom of a real issue in the community - but not necessarily proof that the game itself is dying when official sales and player counts show otherwise.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It takes away the rights of server-owners to make money and be able to stay afloat. I'm not even a server-owner and I was angry about the eula. Without selling ranks, nobody will donate, and without donations, servers can't stay afloat. Servers are really expensive. All it does is kill the medium sized servers so only the amazingly large servers (Mineplex, hypixel, hive) and tiny servers that people can pay with with spare change (24 slots) can afford the costs.
My website
5 Years on Minecraftforum. Over 9 on minecraft itself. Mod developer for 4 years.
Where the heck did people get the idea of "Mincwaf is dyin"?, anyone plz tell me!, anyway the game is not dying, not anytime soon, the game is just not as popular as before but definitely not dying, I mean just look at legos, legos has been around for pretty long time and still alive and I can see that happening with Minecraft(Sorry for my english if they suck).
To make money out of something, that they don't own? You see, we, the players, only own the accounts we have bought from Mojang, not the game itself, it's same for all games, we're just allowed to play them, as we don't really own the game, we just own copy of that game, but we don't won whole thing. And therefor, Mojang has all rights to say what we can and what we can't do with their game. One of them are to sell op tools, weapons and armor alongside many other stupid things servers have been known to sell for those, who want to "buy" something.
Mojang can deny these servers from having pay 2 win services, as the people/organisations, that run the servers don't own the game.
And you still can donate to the servers to get somekind of special rank, if that rank doesn't affect the gameplay in any way or form. In other words, if that rank is only visual (in example: "Donator" and won't give you any other things) isn't (as far, as I know) denied.
However, if you get op armor, op tools or op weapons OR anything else, than affects how you play the game, then the server is breaking the EULA (End User License Agreement for those, who don't know what EULA stands for). And it should be taken down. And in some cases, the server runners only took the money, and never gave the stuff the player had paid for!
EULA is not the big baddie here. Yes, it restricts some rotten server runners from scamming you, but it's made to protect you, and your money.
Maybe some1 could just don't sell Mojang to Microsoft
Then most of the stuff on Xbox one and Window 10 itself will not exist, on the topic, I think it the community that is dying, I saw the rise in the players count on most server but not in community.
*could have
And I think you're just projecting.
Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
Unofficial Suggestions Guide (2.0) - by Theriasis
Unofficial Critics Guide - by yoshi9048
If a server is pay2win, just don't play on it. Simple solution. The problem is that people would rather just spend their money elsewhere in real life rather than make their mineplex name green. I get that the servers don't own the game, but why can't they sell you a kit that gives you 5 diamonds every 12 hours? Tell me how you can't just go mine them yourself. If you don't want to play on a server with OP ranks, just play on another server. Its their choice. I can speak for my entire friends group and family that plays games (So around 20 people total) that not a single one of us would pay a dime for a cosmetic rank. Its their server, give them freedom to set up ranks. If its brokenly P2W, just don't play on it. If somebody wants to go make a broken server, they can go for it. That doesn't mean you have to play on it. Can I also offer up that no server at the middle of the totem pole is going to abide by the eula? They have nothing to lose. If they get caught, its game over, if they stop selling ranks, they run out of money and its game over.
My website
5 Years on Minecraftforum. Over 9 on minecraft itself. Mod developer for 4 years.
"that not a single one of us would pay a dime for a cosmetic rank" which is why many new servers who try to be EULA-compliant, fail.
Given the major demographic class are those under the age of 18.....the primary intention of the EULA seems to be the desire of Mojang to give all players fair chance at winning, without regard to their parent's ability or willingness to spend money.
There are plenty of truly pay2win servers out there....whereas some are more along the lines of pay4convenience (e.g. a SkyBlock server where /fly can be earned in a 2-3 hours through /challenges or purchased for $5).
As a parent & a player....from a dual perspective, the biggest problem I see is the overall toxicity that exists on many servers. Also in MC everyone is 2m tall, skinny, and can have any completion + gender they wish...in other words, many situations which cause kids to get bullied at school do not exist online where the primary social divide is a player's rank. Yes, there are server's with strict rules about language/harassment in chat, but many do not enforce them and there are enough 12-15yr who want to freely drop f-bombs and get pervy bc they are delusional into believing it makes them seem older....that player counts are low on the servers with respectable rules and most would rather play a busy server than one with only a few players.....blah...blah...blah.....I think you see where I'm going and can skip the remainder of the psychoanalysis. Other than saying what many servers call "hackers" are nothing but "skid cheaters". Whether it's software, hardware, or life-hacks...hacker is an earned title not obtainable with a download button. (by hardware hacker, I'm referring to the type of person who can take the lamp from a scanner or AIO printer and Make it into a lamp for their desk or 3D printer.) If server's would call them what they are, "lazy-bum cheaters" ...then it's be less glamorous and probably happen less often.
"kys"...it's was not in MC, but a girl in Massachusetts was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for saying this via text msg (though there is much more to the story than a single msg).
MC is not dead....just more spread out. And for the non-PVP'ers the newest update will be a sight for sore eyes and will likely revitalize more interest in the game for those who's minds tend to be less aggressive and more creative.
This is only my perspective, based on my experiences in MC (as a parent who plays MC with my daughter & as a 38yr old former U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran who has also studied some psychology/philosophy)....I am sure there are 100 situations which contradict everything I said + 100 that confirm it. It's all relative (and I exclude from my comments any server which advertises to be 18+)....but Mojang is not killing, nor causing a decline in MC, the majority of the blame falls on the dirtbag server owners who are only in it for the money and blame the kids who come to MC servers to release their aggression (e.g. counter-bullying) + their parents for not raising them better.
For immediate assistance, I can usually be found in-game at: play.haleymc.net
People, if this thread is just going to turn into a EULA complaint thread (without addressing anything else that the OP is saying), then it is likely going to be locked. If you are going to post in the thread, at least make the discussion about more than just the EULA.
- sunperp
I'd revise that line to avoid confusion. It should read, "In my opinion this is how Mojang could stop the java edition from dying".
Please see the News article on the "Better Together" update coming. (I know, the new naming convention is tough on me too.)
Anyway, "Minecraft" is doing better than fine. It doesn't need "saving" from "dying".
To me, the question isn't how it can be saved, but should it?
You can easily check to see if something is dying by looking it up in Google Trends. I was going to argue that Minecraft isn't dying, but that isn't exactly true at this time.
Even though I am in the group that thinks the game is dying, search popularity should stay out of this. People who love the game and play it everyday don't usually just search "Minecraft" alone all that often (I haven't in at least a year). The game boomed from 2011-2014 (Arguably to 2013 or even 2012, but thats beside the point) and more people googled the game right when they were buying it, or shortly after they bought it. If you bought the game in 2012, you might google it every once in a while throughout that year. Would you still be googling just the term "Minecraft" in the year 2017? Probably not. It also should be noted that that type of growth (2011-14) wasn't possible to sustain and almost definitely has slowed down, and people move on. Anybody who bought the game when they were 13 in 2012 (Which used to be the age of the average MC player) is now 18 and probably moving onto college and leaving behind minecraft. That means that more people have to come in to take their spots, which is what is needed to keep minecraft's community afloat. The problem at the moment is that more and more children just play other games instead of MC, and we NEED them to keep the community going.
My website
5 Years on Minecraftforum. Over 9 on minecraft itself. Mod developer for 4 years.
The short answer is because your VS work can exist outside of the platform it was created in. This is very simply something that cannot be true for anything in Minecraft, even from the perspective of external third party tools like MCEdit.
The basic reason that MCF is even perceived to be dying isn't because its base has moved on to greener pastures. It's because vanilla Minecraft just happens to be a really, really, REALLY thin platform and it's competing with a confederation of multiple sub-platforms (commands, mods, server plugins) that each offer up whole new vistas of stuff to experience.
Here's the thing, Minecraft is going on about 7 years old which is almost a generation in terms of its lifespan. For a game of its genre, there's nothing really holding it up other than the people who play it. Eventually, they will get bored no matter how great of an update they get, everything goes in cycles.
In the past two years alone, we got things like OverWatch, Paladins, and Fallout 4, Nier, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Nioh. Minecraft is a lego box with no real story to the game or any real goals to achieve. In a sense, those playing and creating content are what keep the game from going truly under, not the people making the updates.
What they would have to do to bring in a majority, though, would be to finally give in and release a modding API as well as shoving in the popular mods that many have been crying for for years such as Treecapitator, IndustrialCraft/BuildCraft, and something like Biomes o' Plenty/ExtraBiomesXL. This wouldn't be so bad, but not everyone wants to do technology stuff, hence why there were not added. It's up to the person that wants to customize their experience.
If that isn't the biggest reason, then another I could think of is terrain generation. If you've ever played the older versions, such as the Alphas or anything before Beta 1.7.9, then you would remember the random floating islands, oceans that were only a few blocks deep instead of tens of blocks, and the next continent being within sight of shore.
Clay used to be found above water on beaches, now you have to dig into the water to get them. I could list off a number of ways to improve the game, but sadly it will only be a temporary fix. If you want to keep the game from dying, then you would need to get people to play and create. How do you do that? Simple answer is that you must be the first to the party and last to leave. This means when you get an interest in something, it will spread outward in a domino fashion.