toythatkills
Member
Yeah, I read to enjoy reading, this just makes me feel like a machine.
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Spritz (speed-reading app) could change the visual novel/RPG game significantly
- Thread starter Vigilant Gambit
- Start date
Yeah, I read to enjoy reading, this just makes me feel like a machine.
Takamura-San
Member
I would like to test this on a few things that I would like to read.
Vigilant Gambit
Member
Then I recommend you learn how to stop doing that, either by enrolling in a speed reading course, or by buying a book on speed reading (I read the Complete Idiot's Guide to Speed Reading and thought it was pretty solid). There really isn't any good reason not to simply understand something the first time you read it. Going back and rereading something you just read is a waste of time.
For people who don't think this is well suited for fiction, I'd recommend you try it before you knock it. The Chrome extension only pauses for commas and periods, lending no special credence to quotations, hyphens, and other common forms of punctuation in stories, so it has a lot of room for improvement, but I can see the potential.
DirtyLarry
Member
As an old timer who existed in this world prior to computers becoming a norm in households I cannot help but think what the hell has this world come to after seeing this, and I actually was able to keep up with the 500 wpm.
However I sincerely feel that the act of reading is truly one of the last "true" experiences out there. What I mean by true is it is as intimate as it gets. A person and their mind/imagination being inspired by words that are open to the person to interpret as they see fit. It is just the book and the reader. The reader enjoys the book however they want. No rules. No preconceived notions. Pure.
Sure, this may have a place for students who are forced to read nonsense they normally would not read otherwise to obtain a grade, but other than that I cannot help but think this was developed by someone who feels the need to speed everything up in life who cannot take a moment to "stop and smell the roses."
However I sincerely feel that the act of reading is truly one of the last "true" experiences out there. What I mean by true is it is as intimate as it gets. A person and their mind/imagination being inspired by words that are open to the person to interpret as they see fit. It is just the book and the reader. The reader enjoys the book however they want. No rules. No preconceived notions. Pure.
Sure, this may have a place for students who are forced to read nonsense they normally would not read otherwise to obtain a grade, but other than that I cannot help but think this was developed by someone who feels the need to speed everything up in life who cannot take a moment to "stop and smell the roses."
I don't see this being that great in a game, but I am VERY interested in being able to get this on my phone ASAP.
The 600 WPM is awesome, but I already read quite quickly anyway.
For fiction though, I'd hope there'd be a setting for how long the pauses are for commas and periods. Otherwise it'd really break the flow of dialogue.
The 600 WPM is awesome, but I already read quite quickly anyway.
For fiction though, I'd hope there'd be a setting for how long the pauses are for commas and periods. Otherwise it'd really break the flow of dialogue.
Agreed, but I always saw it as being more of a tool for academia. Speed reading through text books/novels for courses as opposed to when you are just reading for fun.
Yeah, 1000 WPM is a bit too fast. But I can still handle it... kinda.
Keep me posted.
i tried a similar speed reading app. I geniunely like the idea behind this, I'd love to read faster and know it would be possible and that I'm holding myself back. However, there are times in which you miss the most important part of a message with these speed reading techniques and when this happens you don't have time to go back and that's very bad. Also, I'd estimate that speed reading is even worse for long term memorization than normal reading (best would be to make breaks for thinking about it at times). So, all in all it is interesting but far from perfect.
Lostconfused
Member
Some people here need to realize that it's not simply about reading faster. It changes the way text is formatted and presented to the reader.
That's fine and good advice if I had any interest in speed reading, but what I don't understand about this is that their goal is to get the entire world "Spritzing". There is obviously always going to be a good chunk of the world that's stuck in their not-speed reading ways, and I just find that to be an unrealistic goal. Especially when there are people like me who have hurdles to get over other than just the fact that this is an unconventional way to read.
Vigilant Gambit
Member
Like I said earlier, the demo on the official site has buttons you can click if you need to pause, repeat the sentence, or start the paragraph over. It's not like once you blink you lose everything forever.
I gave the Readline extension a pretty solid shot. Got through half of A Study in Scarlet. I noticed a few things that I've already mentioned. It doesn't pause for any deviations in the text, so a lot of crucial punctuation is pretty much ignored. It doesn't have a special case for periods that follow abbreviations, so it pauses on "Dr." in "Dr. Watson" as if that is the end of a sentence. The optimal reading point is highlighted, but the letter isn't centered between the two lines. Also, the ORP letters are not aligned, so the words seem to shift left and right noticeably. Compare Readline
To Spritz
I look forward to the release of the real stuff, but I fear that it'll be pretty heavily locked down due to the Samsung Galaxy S5 exclusivity deal.
I actually do find this helpful, not because of the speed, but because it sidesteps some issues I have with reading due to dyslexia. I've tried a lot of things, including writing an ebook reader that prints out text letter-by-letter like in games, to varying degrees of success. Without any sort of aid, I usually end up having to re-read things quite a bit, and lose my place often.
As much as this is interesting, I don't see how it's supposed to be applied to any video game efficiently and I rather read the "normal way".
On a general point of view :
For people who aren't used to read fast they may read faster, but that's about it (that's the point of the thing anyway).
But for anything lengthy, you will still have to check the backlog/real text on a regular basis as you're not a machine and can't keep up with the same speed in the long term (be it slow or fast). Even if you have no trouble to understand at 600 wpm, you're bound to lose attention sometimes and with this system, every second of attention count.
Surprisingly, it's perfectly understandable in a foreign language.
Good app for reading news, comments & boards if it doesn't bother you to change your way of reading.
On a gaming point of view :
Aside the constant backlog-check issue, focusing the eye on a single part of the screen too much isn't the best choice of game design, even for a visual novel.
On a general point of view :
For people who aren't used to read fast they may read faster, but that's about it (that's the point of the thing anyway).
But for anything lengthy, you will still have to check the backlog/real text on a regular basis as you're not a machine and can't keep up with the same speed in the long term (be it slow or fast). Even if you have no trouble to understand at 600 wpm, you're bound to lose attention sometimes and with this system, every second of attention count.
Surprisingly, it's perfectly understandable in a foreign language.
Good app for reading news, comments & boards if it doesn't bother you to change your way of reading.
On a gaming point of view :
Aside the constant backlog-check issue, focusing the eye on a single part of the screen too much isn't the best choice of game design, even for a visual novel.
Here's a bookmarklet that works kinda better:
http://www.davidhampgonsalves.com/spritz-like-rsvp-reader-bookmarklet/
http://www.davidhampgonsalves.com/spritz-like-rsvp-reader-bookmarklet/
Vigilant Gambit
Member
Yeah, if I use the demo on the official site, I can go up to 600 wpm no problem. Readline is only decent up to 400 wpm, and it's probably because it uses an ORP of the center of the word, rather than 3-4 characters from the left.
I look forward to trying out the android ebook reader that does this, since it's supposed to take some of those subtle, yet significant aspects into account.
Edit: I also look forward to an app that can detect when I blink or look away.
I look forward to trying out the android ebook reader that does this, since it's supposed to take some of those subtle, yet significant aspects into account.
Edit: I also look forward to an app that can detect when I blink or look away.
GenericUser
Member
Sure, I can read it, but it feels like this:
good for texts I just need to read and understand fast, bad for everything that is more then this.
good for texts I just need to read and understand fast, bad for everything that is more then this.
I was "Spritzing" on the FAQ on their site and I didn't recognize a word and because of that, my mind got stuck and missed the next few words. So I don't think I'd want this for a novel. With a visual novel, the animation changes every so often, so I wouldn't want this for that either. However, I can see this being good for online news articles. I was interested in reading that Spritz FAQ even though it's just a boring ol' FAQ.
Wow, this seems perfect. Thanks.
Wow, this seems perfect. Thanks.
Cthulhu_Steev
Member
It's easier if you can disconnect your brain and tongue from reading the words out, but if you can do that (and also find a comfortable reading distance where you don't have to scan left and right) then you can speed read already.
Buddha Beam
Banned
Yeah, this is the big deal killer for me. Not only for games, but for reading in general. When I read like that, it's very robotic and monotone in my head. Little or no character seems to come through at all.
This is a neat concept that they've managed to fully realize, but about the only thing it might be good for is text books or at least non-fiction books.
ihearthawthats
Banned
I actually create different voices in my head for different characters in RPGs (or emulate the VA if there is both spoken dialogue and plain text). Hard to do that here. Feels too cold and robotic.
Vigilant Gambit
Member
If you miss something, you can just click the "previous sentence" button until you're back where you were.
For animations in visual novels, they can work much like they do already. The animation plays, then you see the text accompanying it. It doesn't necessarily have to be on autopilot; even having it display the current sentence, then wait for me to press A before playing the next animation and sentence would be really, really nice. Even better would be if it could run through all the text associated with each animation.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
This is awesome, but not for games.
I play tons of RPGs and they don't have that much text unless it's fucking Trials in the Sky, haha.
I play tons of RPGs and they don't have that much text unless it's fucking Trials in the Sky, haha.
Stabby McSter
Member
I love speed-reading! Except when I do speed-read, I retain probably 10% of the information. 
Still a noticeable annoyance, even if it's a rather minute one.
cpp_is_king
Member
I wish the drop-down went a little bit higher. I was able to read the 600wpm one without too much trouble, so I'd like to try something a little faster.
This is really interesting though, because I don't really read books or anything, and when I do I read extremely slowly and my comprehension isn't very good. But the 600wpm test was pretty easy for me.
This is really interesting though, because I don't really read books or anything, and when I do I read extremely slowly and my comprehension isn't very good. But the 600wpm test was pretty easy for me.
Vigilant Gambit
Member
I know, right? I look forward to getting SDK access. Hopefully, I'll be able to throw together a realistic demo of how I think this tech can be used in games.
Hell, even in subtitles, it would be an awesome feature to have. It'd solve the problem of subs/closed-captioning ruining the timing of what's being said. They can just match it 1-1 to the audio.
The chrome extension goes all the way up to 1000 WPM, if you wanted to try that.
mhayze
Member
Amazing. As a 'traditional' high speed reader, I am blown away with how fast you can pick up the ability to read at up to 1000wpm, with better comprehension and much less fatigue than other methodologies of increasing reading speed.
Pretty much all students and business people read a lot, and not just 'for fun'. Even social media, news reading and 'Gaffing' (clearly a category unto itself) has a time budget in these busy times, so this is very cool just outside of gaming and entertainment if it simultaneously allows you to read faster and with better comprehension.
As an aside, ultra slow text speeds in traditional hand held video games (speech bubbles) drives. me. crazy. I feel like I am participating in a process designed for little children (which is the lowest common denominator), and immediately makes me question whether I should be playing the game. Of course, the ability to speed up text would be cool regardless of 'spritz' but this looks interesting.
Pretty much all students and business people read a lot, and not just 'for fun'. Even social media, news reading and 'Gaffing' (clearly a category unto itself) has a time budget in these busy times, so this is very cool just outside of gaming and entertainment if it simultaneously allows you to read faster and with better comprehension.
As an aside, ultra slow text speeds in traditional hand held video games (speech bubbles) drives. me. crazy. I feel like I am participating in a process designed for little children (which is the lowest common denominator), and immediately makes me question whether I should be playing the game. Of course, the ability to speed up text would be cool regardless of 'spritz' but this looks interesting.
beyond_death
Member
This is pretty cool. I felt comfortable with 600 wpm, but I'd like to try reading an entire chapter of a book or something.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=797273 made me bump this.
I have to say its efficiency depends heavily on the language. It works in english where most words are two syllables or less, less much in French where many words have to be split by the software.
Also the blinking is detrimental. Because you are only shown one word at a time, you have no idea of the rest of the sentence. There is a lot of information gathered by the peripheral vision which helps with global comprehension. Being presented a single word makes rewinding a conscious action, whereas in fast reading you glance at a whole paragraph allowing to get back at a word you skipped or didn't process for some reason. Also with paragraphs you know where words are physically located so the information is very quickly retrieved, while with this method you need to use awkward slow rewind methods.
I have to say its efficiency depends heavily on the language. It works in english where most words are two syllables or less, less much in French where many words have to be split by the software.
Also the blinking is detrimental. Because you are only shown one word at a time, you have no idea of the rest of the sentence. There is a lot of information gathered by the peripheral vision which helps with global comprehension. Being presented a single word makes rewinding a conscious action, whereas in fast reading you glance at a whole paragraph allowing to get back at a word you skipped or didn't process for some reason. Also with paragraphs you know where words are physically located so the information is very quickly retrieved, while with this method you need to use awkward slow rewind methods.
Hours Left
Member
No thanks.
I like to enjoy reading.
I like to enjoy reading.