2) Did it make the game Quake more or less fun?
Let me preface this with noting I don't make the design decisions, and this is solely my own take on the matter.
Your assertion is that it makes the game more fun. Others found that it made the game less fun (it MAY be just the developers in the case of Quake, I do not know)
To take the Google example of French military victories - I would argue that if I were searching for "French military victories", that I was NOT looking for "defeats".
Taking the comparison a little step further - the "badwrongfun" others were having by manipulating the Google algorithms to "correct" victories into defeats, was actually DETRIMENTAL to my use of Google.
With no reliable way to determine the balance between people suffering "badwrong" and the people having "fun", you're basically left with three options;
1) assume there are more "badwrong" sufferers, fix the issue. Given that people in general buy the game based on the design, and this is by definition not by design, this is the logical assumption if no proof otherwise.
2) assume there are more "fun" havers, leave the issue untouched.
3) turn it into an option. With followup consideration; how visible should it be, and should the fixed or unfixed be the default.
now, obviously, 2 takes the least immediate work, IF* the issue is isolated. 3 certainly takes the most work (you both need to create the fix as for 1, and create a framework for switching between the two)
* This is of course a big if - your "fun" in one location may actually be "badwrong"(be that visible for the end user, or "only" in the code) in another location where you DO want/need it fixed. (you're not as sensitive about fat american jokes as you are about french military victories, say)
- 4
- 2