nachshon_rJan 13, 2023

Do I really want to close this game? Well yeah—that was what my pressing the close button was all about, kid. Right? So how about this instead?: "Did you mean to close the game?" That's something #writers would think of when keeping their #gamer audience's attention, while #developers more than likely miss, gloss over, or accept as the idiomatic norm. OK, so having said that publicly now I get to be a writer on a team of video game developers.

Huzzah! 🤘
#writing #videogames #gaming

Show threadrainerJan 13, 2023

@nachshon_r the two options "want to" and "mean to" appear the same to me. In both cases, if I pressed the quit button willingly, my answer will be yes, and if I did not, my answer will be no. There is no discernable difference between the question asked and the possible replies given.

Your argumentation of "well yeah that's why I pressed quit" could be applied to a message using "mean to quit" exactly the same.

Show threadnachshon_rJan 13, 2023
@rainer see, that is a developer speaking. Who cares if the end result is the same? The statement is nonesensical for the situation.
Show threadrainer
@nachshon_r im not saying that going with "mean to" is wrong. I'm saying that calling the "want to" approach a worse one is wrong. It makes no difference - meaning, intent and response are all the same on both variants. Use whatever you please, but don't pretend that one is better than the other.
Jan 13, 2023 at 6:00pmWeb
Show threadnachshon_rJan 13, 2023
@rainer it's not pretend. It's grammar and word choice.