Monday, 9 November 2015

present tense - PrP Continuous vs. PrP | Nuance?

I have a question regarding the usage of the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous.



So first, here's the context: I was playing an online game with a couple friends and in this game you have to go into dungeons which have treasure chests at their end and these chests normally contain valuable items (some do not) and normally you do those dungeons just to make money.
Anyway, we made our way through a dungeon right to the end of it and then one of my buddies opened the chest and we looted the items. Then I asked him if there was anything valuable you could get out of the chest in that specific dungeon as I hadn't been sure about it. We were still in the dungeon.
He told me there actually was something of high value obtainable and I replied with either (I've forgotten what EXACTLY I said but I'll try to recall as best as possible):



  • Oh I didn't know, I've always been playing this dungeon only for fun. (but now I might consider playing it for the valuable items)

or



  • Oh I didn't know, so far I've been playing this dungeon only for fun. (but now I might consider playing it for the valuable items)

Now my question is that if I had used the "simple" Present Perfect, would the meaning drastically change?
Could I have said it like this:



  • Oh I didn't know, I've always played this dungeon only for fun. (but now I might consider playing it for the valuable items)

or



  • Oh I didn't know, so far I've played this dungeon only for fun. (but now I might consider playing it for the valuable items)

To me it feels like both are right, there's only a slight nuance namely that in the version with the PrP Contionuous I convey that I played the dungeon more frequently or habitually than in the simple PrP version but maybe I'm completely wrong, I don't know.



So, what do feel or think when hearing something like that and which version would you choose?



I'm looking forward to reading your answers. :)

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