Yep, this 100%. When I see a "pending update" notification or icon somewhere, the first thing I think is "I don't want to update, they're just going to break something new". I _hate_ updates now. Doesn't matter what software it is, with the small exception of video games. (Except Dead By Daylight. Behavior, the devs, are the most hilariously incompetent devs on the planet, but at least their incompetence is confined to their own game.)
The only software I've been excited about an update for in years has been games, that seems like the only category where devs actually add features people are excited about. For example, the latest KCD2 patch added a fun but brief new quest [0].
Not universal though. Besides your example, even for single player games patches can be basically malicious. I've had Fallout 4 locked on updates for like 3 years at this point, everything Bethesda has added has degraded the experience for zero upside. But I can't think of any software besides a game where I have been anything but dreading an update in years. Slack wants to update? Great, it'll probably break/degrade my work flow in some minor way, and they're one of the lesser offenders on my work machine.
Lots of games’ updates break popular mods, introduce launchers and/or break linux compatibility and/or online mode, remove music with expired licenses, censor something and increase system requirements.
Sadly we’re way past the point where games became like all the other software in that regard
This would be less of a problem if patches are something you still installed deliberately - instead we have to fight Steam to let us play the games we already have a working install of.
We can't change the fact that commercial OS vendors are all feudal overlords now, but the lawmakers are letting them get away with it and that is something we might still be able to change.
hahahahah. Games are steering further and further to this not being true. Where each player explicitly doesn't pay for it, and instead they contain an increasing series of dark patterns in order to steer players to fleece their money in a series of microtransactions.
I dread Linux kernel updates. Still running a 4.4 era kernel. Kernel versions have always been hit or miss, some are good, others introduced a new bug. Sometimes it's necessary to upgrade glibc as well which is a huge pain.
People don't choose a Super LTS distro/kernel because they want newer kernel versions, they want stability. What the hell are you doing trying to shoehorn a newer kernel into Ubuntu 16.04?
Maybe this is because video games can always add more features. Realistically, what useful feature could even be added to Word? I want to write text. It lets me write text. Program done. I dont see why Word would ever need an update other than maintenance or a security patch.
I don't play those, but I know at least with games like those, where players like to play on specific versions, there's usually ways to stay on a specific version without too much hassle.
Microsoft purchase was during 1.8. large-scale terrain structure completely changed in 1.7. 1.5 completely changed the redstone meta. 1.4 completely changed the villager meta as you could now zombify and cure villagers and more changed meta because beacons existed. 1.3 added villager trading, making mining obsolete for some people. 1.3 also overhauled the internal structure of singleplayer so that you can have network latency in singleplayer. 1.2 increased the world height, making your max height builds no longer impressive. Beta 1.8 added hunger so you can't just exist indefinitely, and endermen who aggressively stole blocks in that version. Beta 1.6 fixed several fun glitches.
The post-Microsoft meta is that glitches are valid game mechanics. TNT duping has been in the game longer than Notch controlled the game. But some other glitches get fixed.
How do you measure fun? People will always rush to that excuse if it's not properly defined. And not everyone finds the same things fun. Especially if you are looking to try and 10x your audience.
Most won’t fix bugs in non-competitive games are things that don’t prevent players from engaging the intended gameplay loop and are unlikely to be encountered randomly. Who cares if you can endlessly pickpocket that one npc in oblivion. No one but the people who want to exploit will ever be affected and why stop them if that’s what they want.
In competitive games unintended mechanics are much more frequently patched but there are plenty of examples that are straight up iconic. Wave dashing in melee, magnum damage in Halo CE, sword cancelling in halo 2, b-hopping and surfing in CS.
And when you get to games like mmos where saving time is of major value glitches are like gifts. I am still mad they patched out logout skips in classic wow.
TNT duping is a good example. It’s basically impossible to accidentally run in to this glitch, but the community has built tons of mechanisms around using it and generally like it.
Patching it out would be more “correct” but serve to only limit user creativity and inventions.
TNT duping is a classic example of how players will optimize the fun out of the game if you give them a chance. Your claim that people won't accidentally run into is not true as it only takes one YouTube tutorial to discover it. Many popular farm designs rely on it so it is not hard to stumble upon it. Remember this is a game where people had to use third party sites to figure out how to discover how to craft anything. I don't think it's fair to discount discovering things on 3rd party sites.
Tbh I think Minecraft players enjoy creating item farms. It’s just part of the game progression at this point.
Meanwhile some non bugged workflows like breaking and replacing the lectern a million times to get the right trade exist because the enchanting table is so horribly broken no one would use it.
When I bought Minecraft, most things weren't renewable. Now, late-game players don't even have to go mining. Or craft that much.
The enchanting table used to be a rare reward. You had to get to level 50 and roll the dice once. You get a random upgrade to one item and that's it, you're stuck with it. It was gambling. Now the cost is trivial after several reductions, and people minmax their enchantments, and Repair means you never have to re-roll, and you can get all your enchantments anyway from villagers if you do a bunch of ridiculous nonsense. That's an accidental game that overtook the actual game, and it seems like not a very good one.
also worth noting - in beta, you could create item farms if you installed mods allowing you to create item farms - besides the cactus farm which was possible since cactuses were added to the game (and there's a very silly reason why they are possible) and the obvious intended farms like wheat.
> it only takes one YouTube tutorial to discover it
And game developers who care about this are the ones that preemptively take the fun out of games. If someone ruins their experience by looking at tutorials that's entirely self afflicted.
