I hate it, not because it requires an account, but because Microsoft is nightmarishly bad at account management and has been since I was a little kid in the 90s. They somehow make it possible to have multiple different unsynced accounts across different services, so you constantly forget which is which, and resetting or gaining access is always an incredible hassle. I find myself having to reset my password literally anytime I want to log in to something owned by Microsoft.
If they could get their act together, I wouldn't mind. Most software these days requires a log in for full use, including most major web apps (even HN, you can't comment without an account of course) and services like gaming consoles, Steam, Spotify, etc etc. It's normal. The only problem is Microsoft sucks at it.
These morons at MS decided to force a very confusing and friction-ful Minecraft account migration from Mojang to MS just as all the kids are migrating from Minecraft to Roblox. I'm sure this is only accelerating Minecraft's demise.
This one absolutely kills me. Why do my kids need Microsoft accounts for this? Their official instructions ask for DOB and require checking some box about allowing my kids to sign into "third-party applications". Not to mention all the legal crap I'll have to agree to, settings to scrutinize and opt-out of to ensure privacy, etc. I am this close to just telling them that they're going to have to abandon their favorite game for something else.
I can't think of anything more off-putting when purchasing a game than having to create another account.
I have yet to migrate any of our family's 6+ Mojang accounts to Microsoft and I'm not sure that I will. Migrating to a Microsoft account also coincidentally creates an XBox Live account which is a hassle I don't need. If Minecraft needs to die in order to make way for the next creative, social, non-FPS game then I can accept that.
And I'm not convinced that Microsoft's forced migration from Mojang to MS accounts is legal.
I stopped playing Rocket League for several reasons; discontinuation of a native Linux version, and then forcing you to register an Epic account (which I refused to do).
It probably is legal because of a "we can change the terms and conditions at any time" clause, but just in case I'm not going to migrate my account until they really shut down Mojang accounts.
It seems weird to me that they give people capes as a "reward" for migrating, as if that's the only way they can legally get people to move over.
Have you given Minetest (AFAIK the biggest Minecraft FLOSS clone) a try? Maybe your kids like it and you can stop hassling around with Microsoft's shenanigans.
This account migration was bizarrely difficult. I lost access to Minecraft when I followed their procedure. I got hold of support, and they had me move back to an older version of the launcher, which recognized my new account, while the new launcher didn't. I assume I'll lose access again someday because they'll force an upgrade.
On the plus side, I was able to contact support. MS is a lot better than some other tech companies that way.
Also, if you have multiple Minecraft accounts, the official launcher is much slower to switch between them than it used to be with the old Mojang accounts. It was so annoying that I finally bit the bullet and switched to the MultiMC launcher, even though it's really frustrating getting the various plugins like Optifine working with it every time the game updates.
What's the problem with MultiMC? That all plugins are lost when you move from 1.18 to 1.18.1? I sometimes workaround that by symlinking the plugin/world/screenshot/settings folders together, but occasionally plugins are incompatible between patch versions.
Forget across services, I somehow have at least three Microsoft accounts all tied to the same email address, with no way to know which account any particular service wants on any given day. Teams is particularly bad, signing me into one of the three seemingly at random so that I have to keep logging out and back in until it miraculously gets me into the correct account, guessing which password it wants each time. Any support avenue I’ve tried has no idea what I’m talking about and offers no fix. Thankfully I don’t much rely on my Microsoft accounts.
I love how whenever I log into Outlook with SSO, I'm immediately taken to a page that says I've logged out, and then have to go back 2-3 steps in my browser to a previous view of the calendar (or mail). It's like whoever rolled that out has never had to use it. It's _infuriating_, and is a daily occurrence (in two browser tabs, since I have calendar + mail open in different ones). I wish I knew of a solution.
Yammer is the worst for that. And the worst, just in general.
Login -> 2FA -> Loading state for 20 seconds -> Content pops in -> Whoops, back to login.
This cycle repeats 3-4 times before it settles down. Then all the other Microsoft apps decide I’m no longer logged in and have to do the 2FA dance for every. Single. One.
Some days I end up running out of 2FA tokens and am unable to log into essential systems. It’s maddening.
I'm not sure what to call it, but the shadow tenant they set up for Teams is a nightmare. A random person can sign up for Teams with their work email and all of a sudden they become an important part of the process if you want to set up MS365 for the same domain. I would describe it as them owning the shadow tenant.
If they could get their act together, I wouldn't mind. Most software these days requires a log in for full use, including most major web apps (even HN, you can't comment without an account of course) and services like gaming consoles, Steam, Spotify, etc etc. It's normal. The only problem is Microsoft sucks at it.