amok: I have over 800 games on Steam, all with auto patching on, and I still have not seen this issue.... SO yeah, for me it works nicely. It has become a *must* feature for me also. Especially since I like alphas/betas with rapid update schedules. Good news, indeed.
Niggles: Dude. A lot of people like control over what is patched and when. Just because u had no issues dont mean others dont.
Personally, I think you both have a point. It all comes down to weighing 'ease of use' as opposed to control over your games library and risk assessment.
I can fully understand the wish to keep in control. I like to know what happens on my computer, when, and why. Additionally, having to restart a game I have invested countless hours in is a major PITA and usually means I won't be playing that game in the near future.
However, since I'm essentially lazy and I have a large library of games, I still prefer an auto updater, EVEN if that means I run the risk of having to restart due to broken saved games.
This is indeed based on my
personal experience (and of course this is different for everyone; we don't all play the same games and we don't all have the same computers) that, in all my gaming years, I've only experienced broken saves twice; if I weigh that against all the updates I would have had to do manually, I'll gladly take the risk (as I said, that's just me though; I'm lazy :).
If I had had more broken saves in the past, I guess my preference would shift to manual updates too...
So basically, I'm happy the client will provide the auto-updater feature; I'm also happy that it's optional in case my preferences shift in the future.