To see the real reason, you just needed to browse through the available languages. You could rearrange the verbs and center them (which looks worse), go with a smaller font/higher resolution (loose the oldskool vibe, currently 6x6 vs. 8x8), use a mouse over scroll/zoom effect … that’s were action icons come in handy.
It’s not ideal but tolerable, i got used to it. The ‘german’ you hear in the streets these days in Germany is worse. An interface reflecting the reality would offer typing errors and utalise different languages you’ve never heard before. The translation has grown on me.
I guess Ron wanted to come up with something like Infocom did in Suspended. As you said, the problem is, that in TWP you are looking from the outside into the world, while in Suspended you are the different characters. So the origin of the problem is the UI.
Hm… you could use “ich nehme”, but in that case you have to change the sentence too: If you click on “nehme” the sentence line should show “[Ich] nehme die Kettensäge” (I take the chainsaw). Then it would be a) clear, that this verb form is intentional and b) that you are the character.
Actually, in TWP I have perceived the contrary: after a certain point I considered myself the shared conscience of the characters, not an outside viewer.
In my case that perception was caused by a simple observation: the two agents behaved as if they shared the same information (the emergency number to call to free the agent blocked in the sewers).
For the sake of knowledge:
What is the difference between “ich nehme” and “nimm” in German?
If I have understood correctly, the second one is more imperative than the first one?
Even in italian, verbs are in imperative form.
Prendi, apri, chiudi… (pick up, open, close)
If it were in indicative form, it was
Prendo, apro, chiudo Io prendo la motosega = I pick up the chainsaw
Prendi la motosega = pick up the chainsaw
Only in a revision of Monkey Island, verbs were in infinite form, but it was odd.
Maybe sooner or later I will. The game doesn’t inspire me, though, because it has almost all the characteristics that I don’t like in adventure games (multiple playable characters, multiple puzzle solutions, multiple endings, the player can die or can create a situation that makes it impossible to proceed).
I doubt that I have recognized all of the MM citations in TWP, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve recognized several of them. After 30 years soaked into the Lucas culture, it’s an inevitable effect even if I have never played the game.
@Someone: you said that it could also be subjunctive I. Would that make more sense than the indicative?
No. The subjunctive I is used in German for indirect speech. Even if we assume that we have the jussive mood (in German the jussive mode is formed with the subjunctive I), it makes no sense - at least for me.
(But you are still not able to pick up the chainsaw, you have still to command Ray as a proxy.)