[willis936]

Minecraft is not like other games. Ten years ago minecraft was a blooming platform for mods. It has been lying dormant ready for another bloom when MS finally decide to enable the tools to allow it. Dark patterns while this future is still possible is a reason for concern.

[koluna]

We're talking about MSFT here - what did they build in the past 5 years that did not have a dark pattern built in?

Windows nags you about Microsoft account and won't let you install without it unless you know the magic CMD incantations.

Xbox games that are physical are nothing more than a "license key" that is used to download games from the MSFT servers, so if they ever go down, your DVDs are useless.

MSN being showed in Windows under the guise of "weather" and "widgets" while they promote trash tabloid content.

Logging in with an Outlook account in Edge hooks it to sync with Edge and you have to then explicitly go and opt out.

Shoveling third-party adware into Edge in the form of "credit payments".

Blocking custom browser settings.

There's a clear history here of reverse-Midas-ing quite a few things, and I genuinely feel bad for folks that want to build a great product within that environment. But the pattern is clear - your data and usage of their products will be tracked and monetized. The only winning move is not to play.

[smoldesu]

> It has been lying dormant ready for another bloom when MS finally decide to enable the tools to allow it.

I enjoy Minecraft as much as the next schlub, but I think you're being hyperbolic. Modding is great, but I think we've seen the extent of what it's capable of. Enabling mod support on Bedrock isn't going to herald in a new golden age of gaming, it would probably just give Microsoft more of a reason to kill off their legacy platforms, which is not what anyone wants.

Java and Bedrock compliment each other. Java is simply a better pick for modding, and Bedrock is available so kids watching Minecraft videos have somewhere to spend their $7 allowances. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Microsoft made the right move here. Running the Java version on mobile was miserable, so making a pared-back, cheaper and monetized version for mobile gamers is fine as long as that development effort ultimately feeds back into the Java version (which most of the time, it does).