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Stumbled upon this phrase in a high profile game dialogue, which means it is supposed to be written professionally and not just a blunder:

If this murder was intended to hurt me, it has succeeded. If it was meant to send a message, it failed.

Why did the author use present perfect for 'succeed' but past tense for 'fail'? In my foreigner's mind it should be either this or that.

sigil
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    Just as a quick note, don't assume that games, even big budget games from large companies, have excellent writing. Game companies often spend far less time and money on writing than you might expect. This varies from game to game, and some games have fantastic writing, but you shouldn't assume that they all will, even high profile ones. – Tashus Jan 16 '19 at 14:57

2 Answers2

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As Jason Bassford says, choice of tense between past and present perfect is often just individual preference or whim, especially since the meaning of the two tenses is so similar.

I doubt it was thought out with as much care as a great novelist would take, but by the choice he made, the author reveals how he understands the nuances of the two tenses.

The first verb, in the present perfect implies the action is in some way still ongoing:

"If this murder was intended to hurt me, it has succeeded." I.e. It has succeeded and is still succeeding, meaning "I am still hurt".

The second verb, using the simple past tense, indicates an action that is completely finished:

"If it was meant to send a message, it failed." It failed to send the message, and that's the end of it.

Maybe I am splitting hairs here, but I think it is an illustration of the subtle difference between simple past and present perfect.

Lorel C.
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There is nothing ungrammatical about those two sentences.

Stylistically, there is a lack of parallelism. But a lack of parallelism isn't always a mistake.

For instance, I like how it has succeeded sounds more than I like how it succeeded sounds. It flows better. On the other hand, it failed is more succinct and abrupt. In terms of talking about failure, that, too, sounds better to me in this context.

In short, it could be a matter of preference, and not necessarily a mistake, that different verb forms were used.

Jason Bassford
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