What's so wrong with Alt+F4 to exit a game?

[Vlad Dracula Did Nothing Wrong]

I've noticed over the years that I'm incapable of using alt+f4 to exit any Valve produced games. Other games and programs it's fine, but for Valve games, it just doesn't happen, so I am under the impression Valve did this on purpose. Can I just get some clairity on why they would find that necessary? It's a really small gripe, but it's easier to do than disconnect from the server and click the quit game button.

[1234]

Have you tried pressing your Windows key? That works for me in any game.

[Vlad Dracula Did Nothing Wrong]

Originally posted by Seth:

Have you tried pressing your Windows key? That works for me in any game.

This isn't a technical issue, my question is about the design decision.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Huh. I'd gotten so used to tilde-Q-tab-enter to get out of Valve's games that I didn't notice, but yeah, seems you're right (I only checked Portal 2 and Dota 2, but hey).

I obviously can't speak for them, but since their games are usually very open to custom configurations etc, my guess would be that they just wanted to maximise that space, minimising any messy, arbitrary "you can't bind these two keys to anything that might need to be pressed together" annoyances for people. I don't use Alt much myself, but for all I know there's a common way of playing FPSs that involves holding Alt a lot that could get people into trouble if they start binding the F keys.

[wuddih]

if you dont let people rage quit they stay in your games longer.

[Daggoth]

For multiplayer games, it'll be so people on the other team don't get to mention "This cool key combo that gives you free stuff".

[Bibo1]

Alt F4 is a hard shutdown. It's possible that save games etc. could be corrupted if you don't use the ingame mechanic to exit a game.

[僕の名前 (仮)]

In old TF2 days, when new people were asking "how do I do x?", others replied "Press ALT-F4"
or "Press F10".

I also remember there was clan called Press F10 and many people pressed.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by Bibo1:

Alt F4 is a hard shutdown. It's possible that save games etc. could be corrupted if you don't use the ingame mechanic to exit a game.

I think you have the wrong idea. Alt-F4 isn't like force-quitting the game through Task Manager or whatever. It has no special power; each application can handle it however it wants, including running all the same cleanup functions it would run if you shut down the game though the menus. Or doing nothing at all (hence the thread).

[Temporary]

If I am to build a house, I don't want people going in or out other than through the door.

[hood milk]

`
q

[The HopelessGamer™]

Originally posted by wuddih:

if you dont let people rage quit they stay in your games longer.

Perfect answer.

[The HopelessGamer™]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Originally posted by Bibo1:

Alt F4 is a hard shutdown. It's possible that save games etc. could be corrupted if you don't use the ingame mechanic to exit a game.

I think you have the wrong idea. Alt-F4 isn't like force-quitting the game through Task Manager or whatever. It has no special power; each application can handle it however it wants, including running all the same cleanup functions it would run if you shut down the game though the menus. Or doing nothing at all (hence the thread).

Alt-f4 can be used to shut down your pc if your on the desktop without any application selected b4 you press it.

[ KARR™]

Originally posted by The HopelessGamer™:

Alt-f4 can be used to shut down your pc if your on the desktop without any application selected b4 you press it.

...and as they say, it has no special powers. You can change what it does when you press Alt+F4 from shutdown to sleep or lock or any of the other power actions.

It's just another shortcut. It's been widely accepted that it is still used to quit applications, but it's not a force quit, you can still map it to do things BEFORE the application closes, or even not allow it to close the program at all. The same way you can change the 'X' to close or minimise your application.