Pheace: Do not automatically update games was the setting, and that setting never did anything else but exactly what it said. It didn't start the updates automatically when they arrived, it deferred them till you started the game.
That's how it was as far back as at *least* 2011 and the supposed 'change' (at least most) people refer to didn't happen till 2014.
Unless you are aware of an older change in the system?
No it did not. I would regularly avoid certain updates *and* run the game at will. Updates did not occur at startup as some here have claimed. I can say this for a fact. It was particularly noteworthy as, after that update to how that system worked, I could no longer opt out of updates and was forced to update whether I wanted to or not. Obviously the benefits to Valve proper superseded the benefits to the consumer being able to control what they purchase, but what else is new. These are the flipside aspects of digital distribution.
The confusion for many seems to be the difference between "check for updates on start" and actually forcing the player to download and install the update. The former option allowed one to just not update, despite it informing the player. EG - Me holding a sign that I'm going to hit you with a bat vs me actually just hitting you with a bat.
Source 1 (there are more if I need to Hiroshima this argument) :
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/81470/is-there-any-way-to-stop-steam-downloading-updates JMich: And again, was the functionality of the option changed, or just the name? People say the name change did happen, but a game with the "Do not update this game" option chosen would still not launch until you updated it.
I don't think I was using Steam at that time, and if I was, I've no idea how that worked.
See my post above.