You still do. Maybe the amount of ranks changed, or the order? Some could have been shoved in.
Anyway you missed several major updates in the past three years. 1.6 added Horses as a new mode of transportation, 1.7 completely overhauled terrain generation, and added about a dozen new biomes, and 1.8 was just filled with a lot of content. Not to mention the upcoming 1.9 update, that comes with a revamped End Dimension, and new combat mechanics.
You can read up on all of these in more detail on the Minecraft Wiki.
Has the game become worse overall? You know,ever since Microsoft bought Mojang?
Droppers are like dispensers without the extra features, and allow for Link Removed.
Building
Granite, Andesite, Diorite, the polished additions of the same, the prismarine collection (and lanterns), and colored clay and glass have all improved building massively.
Enchanting: Depth strider, luck of the sea, lure, and soon mending and frostwalker. Also, enchantments now use 10x fewer levels but require lapis lazuli.
Comparators have revolutionized redstone (you may or may not have seen these guys before you left, but a lot of newer community inventions make use of them)
I think my favorite change was something done in 1.8 where they increased the length of text you could put in a command block (if you've been gone that long, a block that triggers a command when hit by redstone) allowing people to make absurd self-building contraptions with the /setblock command.
It's been 3 years since I've played minecraft,recently I feel like playing again,what's changed guys?
Oh boy, a whoooooooooooooooooooo...
*a few days later...*
...ooooole lot of stuff. To save you some time, why don't you just play the demo and see for yourself? XD
i have an account already,downloading right now.
Has the game become worse overall? You know,ever since Microsoft bought Mojang?
To put it bluntly, no.
“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.”
― James Herriot, James Herriot's Cat Stories
A lot has changed in the past three years. I'd recommend checking out the Wiki to get the whole of it.
In addition to the above, I'm going to summarize some of the biggest changes in the main areas of Minecraft:
Mining
Granite, Diorite, and Andesite have made mining more colorful (and increased spelling errors by 250%). Also, ore sliders are a thing now.
Crafting
Droppers are like dispensers without the extra features, and allow for Link Removed.
Building
Granite, Andesite, Diorite, the polished additions of the same, the prismarine collection (and lanterns), and colored clay and glass have all improved building massively.
Exploring
Ocean temples and Depth Strider opened up the undersea to us, and in 1.9 we get to explore the cities of the End(and fly, sort of). Also, tons of biomes.
Hunting and Gathering
Double tall flowers and many new variations, better fishing.
Magic
Enchanting: Depth strider, luck of the sea, lure, and soon mending and frostwalker. Also, enchantments now use 10x fewer levels but require lapis lazuli.
Alchemy: Water breathing and leaping. Soon, lingering potions and potion rebalancing.
Redstone
Comparators have revolutionized redstone (you may or may not have seen these guys before you left, but a lot of newer community inventions make use of them)
Community
Notch is gone, Microsoft bought Minecraft, and yet surprisingly the apocalypse is not here. Also, the Minecraft Forum got an overhaul that broke everything. Also, there are more Link Removed.
Hopefully, this will help you get back up to speed. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and enjoy Minecraft!
I think my favorite change was something done in 1.8 where they increased the length of text you could put in a command block (if you've been gone that long, a block that triggers a command when hit by redstone) allowing people to make absurd self-building contraptions with the /setblock command.