My friend's Minecraft server finally updated to version 1.7 today.
I feel somewhat disappointed with this patch. Several weeks ago, we were told by Notch that 1.7 would add underground ravines and an adventure update, which would make exploration more rewarding. Then, later, it turns out that both of these features would be pushed back to 1.8. 1.7 was released, but for what? Pistons and shears? Pistons may be useful, but I honestly don't see that point of shears. What's wrong with the old method of acquiring wool?
Notch is relying increasingly on gameplay modifications for the addition of new contents. (By that, I don't mean Notch is merely taking the mod itself and integrating it to the update, but rather that contents from mods are copied.) And even then, the integrated content is inferior to the mod itself. The Wild Grass mod, for example, included not only the standard grass and dead shrub, but also a myriad of variants such as lily pads and vines. When tall grass was introduced in patch 1.6, there were only two variants - tall grass, and dead shrubs.
I don't dislike Minecraft, but I do hope that the quality of updates improve in the future.
