headspace-hotel:

The case for sharks in Minecraft

Mojang has reportedly said that “realistic” sharks will not be included in Minecraft because hostile mobs have to be imaginary creatures. Sure! That makes sense! But listen…there’s an obvious solution.

DON’T MAKE SHARKS HOSTILE MOBS

They don’t have to be bloodthirsty enemies and assuming so is to unnecessarily demonize an animal that is an essential part of the ecosystem.

Instead, make them neutral mobs. They will attack only if you’re holding meat or rotten flesh in your hand, or if you get REALLY close to one, and they generally avoid the player so it’s on you if you try to harass the shark.

Here are some other things sharks could do that are based on reality:

• Sharks have been found with all sorts of junk in their stomachs. So, you should be able to throw a shark a potion (either a weakness potion or a new one) and make them cough up a variety of junk, including bones, tridents, potentially enchanted books, tools, or….a live chicken.
• If you row directly above a shark in a boat, it might bite your boat and cause it to drop as an item.
• If a shark bites a hard block like stone, iron, obsidian etc. it will drop shark teeth
• Finally:Sharks attack Drowned. The Drowned are made of rotting flesh! A shark would smell that and be drawn to it. So you’d want to have them around to keep the Drowned population down

Instead of assuming sharks would have to be hostile, create gameplay that shows them as creatures that have the right to exist and rewards the player for respecting them