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Spritz (speed-reading app) could change the visual novel/RPG game significantly

From the Spritz website:

Reading is inherently time consuming because your eyes have to move from word to word and line to line. Traditional reading also consumes huge amounts of physical space on a page or screen, which limits reading effectiveness on small displays. Scrolling, pinching, and resizing a reading area doesn’t fix the problem and only frustrates people. Now, with compact text streaming from Spritz, content can be streamed one word at a time, without forcing your eyes to spend time moving around the page. Spritz makes streaming your content easy and more comfortable, especially on small displays. Our “Redicle” technology enhances readability even more by using horizontal lines and hash marks to direct your eyes to the red letter in each word, so you can focus on the content that interests you. Best of all, Spritz’s patent-pending technology can integrate into photos, maps, videos, and websites to promote more effective communication.

250 wpm:
xiSS8E7.gif


350 wpm:
oo2oOpm.gif


500 wpm:
56tvOUK.gif


You can just throw up whatever imagery you want, then have that at the bottom/top of the screen. It can pretty much just replace the old, tired text box system. Granted, this doesn't really make sense for dialog accompanied by voiceovers, but I just remember reading walls of unvoiced text in the Ace Attorney and Zero Escape series. I could've gone through those games much faster if they used this system.

Edit: An open-source implementation is available on Github, and a Chrome extension is also available.
 

Elija2

Member
I dunno, I tend not to digest as much information when reading really fast. In games like the Zero Escape series, reading really fast would probably kill the mood and atmosphere the game is going for.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Speedreading doesn't really interest me.

It takes the human brain time to interpret these words, think about them in their context, formulate your own connections and really understand what is being said.
Maybe i'm just a slow and ponderous reader, perhaps this really doesn't apply to something as frivolous as VN/RPG's, but I like to think about the stuff I read. Not necessarily grind through it as fast as humanly possible.

Then again, I think back to the state of writing in videogames and suddenly i'm all aboard again. Usually, the faster that tripe flies by, the better.
 

DNAbro

Member
This wouldn't really work for visual novels cause it would be incredibly awkward and distracting when it comes to the visuals. Couldn't imagine DanganRonpa or Ace Attorney with this.
 

Koozek

Member
Oooh, this is an awesome idea! I'm a fast reader, I think 350-400wpm would be nice for me and this also saves the annoying scrolling on some unoptimized sites if you're on your phone.

EDIT: OTOH, of course, in some games I have to read some sentences a few times to understand what's up, especially in plot-twist heavy, mindfuck VN games.
I already tend to scan quickly over most texts I read in games nowadays (except for (most) RPGs) or for not so important stuff like gaming news sites, etc., where only some bullet-points are relevant^^
 
I can't see this being used effectively in a text-heavy RPG or visual novel with voice acting but I could get use out of it for reading an article online or something.
This just goes too quickly for any average person to be able to extract any of the nuances and connotation of language from what they are speed reading.
 
Spritz isn't suited for joyreading. Use it when you want to consume information quickly. Like e-mails or news articles.
But for books and other stuff you read for fun its just not the right way.
 

gngf123

Member
I actually don't mind that. I was able to handle 500wpm fairly easily.

Cannot imagine ever using this in a game, though.
 
At first the 500 wpm was too fast but the longer I looked at it the more I found out that it worked for me. In the end it was like words were being injected right into my brain. That's really cool.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
It certainly works for reading faster but my brain processes it in a very stilted word by word fashion which ruins sentence structure and flow, this would be awful for fiction or anything with dialog.
 
Speedreading doesn't really interest me.

It takes the human brain time to interpret these words, think about them in their context, formulate your own connections and really understand what is being said.
Maybe i'm just a slow and ponderous reader, perhaps this really doesn't apply to something as frivolous as VN/RPG's, but I like to think about the stuff I read. Not necessarily grind through it as fast as humanly possible.

Then again, I think back to the state of writing in videogames and suddenly i'm all aboard again. Usually, the faster that tripe flies by, the better.

I've been reading A Study in Scarlet using the Readline extension. I've noticed that the extension seems a little less refined than the demos. It can't deal with certain kinds of punctuation well, for example, and the positioning is a little off.

But you can customize the read speed. You don't need the words to fly by at 500 wpm if you can't handle it. I've been trying to stay at 400 and I still notice that I'm missing a few words here and there. It also doesn't pause for periods long enough.

I feel like the biggest determining factor of the usefulness of this thing in general is your understanding of the words anyway. If there are a ton of words that you don't encounter very often, that you might need an extra instant to comprehend, you end up losing it if you don't pause.
 

SmokyDave

Member
That is fucking incredible. I can comfortably read the 600wpm example on their website. I hope this tech makes its way onto iOS devices as well. Not sure I'd use it for fiction, but for articles and non-fiction it would be fantastic.
 
Is there anything higher than 500wpm?

I can read the 500wpm one just fine but I typically read very slowly even though it doesn't really benefit me more than reading fast.

That is fucking incredible. I can comfortably read the 600wpm example on their website. I hope this tech makes its way onto iOS devices as well. Not sure I'd use it for fiction, but for articles and non-fiction it would be fantastic.

I just checked that out now. The 600wpm example seems even easier to read than the 500 one for some reason.
 

BadRNG

Member
Speed reading is only good for getting key points quickly, like reading a news article or doing research on something, it's not that great for entertainment purposes to me.

Only change I'd like in many console text heavy games is the ability to adjust text display speed like most PC VNs have. Some console games do have the option, but a good chunk don't. A basic instant display setting is usually enough to read as fast as you want.
 
It certainly works for reading faster but my brain processes it in a very stilted word by word fashion which ruins sentence structure and flow, this would be awful for fiction or anything with dialog.

I would actually love to try this out with some dialog because it feels like someone is actually talking to me.
 
That is fucking incredible. I can comfortably read the 600wpm example on their website. I hope this tech makes its way onto iOS devices as well. Not sure I'd use it for fiction, but for articles and non-fiction it would be fantastic.

You're unbanned! Nice to have you back. :)

I agree. It's phenomenal technology. Personally I can't wait to apply it for everything, including fiction. I'll become so much more productive reading this way.
 

GamerJM

Banned
This is awful. I had trouble reading the first one, as a slow reader, and the others are absolutely unreadable to me. I guess I "digest" information slowly, I also like reading over paragraphs multiple times while everything sinks in for me. This also just hurts my eyes to look at.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Great seeing everyone here responding so positively. Spritz has definitely been something special, and I'm thrilled to see it could revolutionize something beyond simply books. Looking forward to seeing more impressions.
 

Roto13

Member
You can get through movies faster if you play them at double or triple speed, too.

No idea why you would, though.
 

Koozek

Member
spritz means squirt btw

It's indeed unsuitable for the German market, haha.
Auf der offiziellen Seite steht "In fact, some people are already spritzing at 1,000wpm" :D
Man nennt mich den Schnellspritzer!

Huui, 600 is fine too, for me. Nice!
 
This is pretty neat stuff. I was pretty surprised how well I can follow the 500 and 600 WPM models.

I can see where this would probably not be the greatest idea for gaming purposes, however. This isn't great for character conveyance or dramatics.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Hmm, using it on the site and gradually going up, it got a bit difficult to keep up 400-500 wpm. Kept going anyway and still comprehended it decently, dropped back down, and then they were suddenly easy. So yeah, I can see it working pretty well if you use it regularly.

Can't see it being good for games but for other stuff like news, maybe.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
I can read faster than 500 wpm but the one word at a time thing (not being able to see the full sentence) nah I'll stick to normal thank you very much
 

KirbyKid

Member
This is amazing. I'm pretty good at 600. I want to go faster.

Yeah, visual novels might not be the best for this. But if you understand how the eye works and how games are designed, this can be really really really cool.

Yes, 3 "really"s were necessary.
 

Zarovitch

Member
They need to track your eyes to know f you are looking at the text or not, cause you can't take a break if you want to, and you'll loose where you stop reading.
 
You can get through movies faster if you play them at double or triple speed, too.

No idea why you would, though.

The idea behind this thing is that most of the time you spend reading is actually spent physically moving your eye from one word (or word cluster) to the next. By taking each individual word and putting them in the same spot, you can read entire paragraphs/chapters without moving your eyes at all. No matter what your current read speed is, it should be noticeably faster (with no decrease in comprehension) with Spritz than without.
 

New002

Member
Not sure of it will take off but it's a neat idea! I'm interested to see how it goes. When I was a kid my mom made me take speed reading classes (laaaaaame). I loved reading though so I didn't mind. It was such a simple technique and we were assigned home reading with journal entries and also had an assigned book that we were tested on to make sure we were actually retaining the information. By the end of it I think I was at like 600-700 something WPM, but I stopped speed reading right after the class ended.
 

kulapik

Member
I just read a very long post on GAF using the Chrome extension and, I don't know, it was weird. The quickness of the text doesn't let you blink, and, for me, putting it at 500wpm was fast, and I probably read that fast in normal text. It's weird. For sometimes it may be good, but sometimes you just wanna enjoy what you're reading.
 

tehPete

Banned
Gotta say, I'm impressed - looking forward to seeing how this is implemented (I'd love to see it as a minigame mechanic), and also think I'll be abusing that Google Chrome extension in work :) Ty for the post!
 

kazebyaka

Banned
Speed reading makes no sense for reading fiction. You are supposed to play out events in your head, establishing how everyone talk and how everything works etc. Speed reading makes it just a chore, i dunno.
 
This is amazing. I'm pretty good at 600. I want to go faster.

Yeah, visual novels might not be the best for this. But if you understand how the eye works and how games are designed, this can be really really really cool.

Yes, 3 "really"s were necessary.

The Readline extension isn't quite as refined as Spritz proper, but it goes up to 1000 wpm.

And I agree on the use in games in general. I signed up as a developer. Hopefully I can whip up a neat demo with this.
 

GamerJM

Banned
The idea behind this thing is that most of the time you spend reading is actually spent physically moving your eye from one word (or word cluster) to the next. By taking each individual word and putting them in the same spot, you can read entire paragraphs/chapters without moving your eyes at all. No matter what your current read speed is, it should be noticeably faster (with no decrease in comprehension) with Spritz than without.

What if my reading comprehension relies on going back and rereading things?
 
Good idea, Andreas Wank should make ads for Spritz. "I'm spritzing with 500 wpm. And you?" Or what exactly was this Spritz thingy about? Unfortunate name if you're german
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Wow, I can read 500 wpm in a foreign language. I always knew I was special, that's at least something!
 
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