What's your preferred text speed for Renpy games?

[Risky.Klick.Kurisu]

Do you like the typewriter effect to match your own reading speed with a smoother/natural (spoken) flow, or do you prefer each text/dialogue block to display all the text at once, making it easier to click through?

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Instant in any game and engine.

 

[haksaw]

Always instant everywhere. Don't know about others, but I don't read word-by-word. Usually I glance at the whole sentence to grasp its structure before going into details about each word. Sometimes I don't even read every word, going back if that skipped word did have important enough context to read it properly. So text appearing word-by-word is very disorienting.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] or do you prefer each text/dialogue block to display all the text at once, making it easier to click through?

It's not that it's easier to click through, just that it's easier to read. And this apply even more for none native readers who, depending on their English skills, can need the whole sentence to understand its meaning, or the possible meaning of a word they aren't familiar with.

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

Text at any speed is good if, and only if, it matches my reading speed exactly. In any other case it's a bother.
So I'd much prefer the text to be dumped at once and read it at my own pace.

 

[Meaning Less]

If the game has voice acting I don't mind waiting if it is well synced with the voice acting.

But on any other case I rather instant.

 

[khumak]

Definitely all at once. Everyone has different reading speeds. It's extremely annoying if I read faster than the text is being displayed. It's even more annoying if the game moves on and replaces text I haven't read yet before I can get to it. I will advance to the next dialog manually when I'm done reading. If I'm replaying it I will probably skip all of the dialog and just quickly move through the story to whichever part I'm interested in.

This brings me to one additional gripe I have with some games that wasn't mentioned in the poll, and that is any game that requires clicking on something to advance text. If I can't quickly advance past everything that does not involve an actual choice just by holding down one or two keys then it's a huge fail from a UI standpoint and I will probably not bother playing the game at all even if it's otherwise a good game.

 

[ChaosOpen]

Always instant everywhere. Don't know about others, but I don't read word-by-word. Usually I glance at the whole sentence to grasp its structure before going into details about each word. Sometimes I don't even read every word, going back if that skipped word did have important enough context to read it properly. So text appearing word-by-word is very disorienting.

Actually men in very professional looking white jackets have studied this and found that most people do not read word by word. They used eye trackers and found that people's eyes jump around the sentence, only reading a few words and inferring the meaning of the sentence.

 

[Sphere42]

Instant with an allowance for deliberate use of timing in specific scenes (or the voice sync already mentioned) e.g.

"I- (0.5s) I, erm, (1s) lo- <DING DONG> Igottagosorry!"

Or if a character is supposed to be singing and highlighting that their words have a rhythm to them is more important than understanding the words themselves.

 

[KriticalBow]

I came here to hold Ctrl until good adult-scenes, that's my speed of RenPy games

 

[Ashesofcrimson]

If there isn't any Voice Acting then there shouldn't be any options other than instant. Hell, even in games like The Legend of Zelda, I'll press the confirm button just to get instant dialog.

 

[Ashesofcrimson]

I came here to hold Ctrl until good adult-scenes, that's my speed of RenPy games

"This is the way."

 

[MCRugerMasta]

Scrolling text just ends up with me watching it type out until it finishes and then I'm like "Ok, time to start reading." It just wastes time - unless it's something like what Sphere42 said.

 

[Fzeren]

Definitely all at once. Everyone has different reading speeds. It's extremely annoying if I read faster than the text is being displayed.

I'd say it's not about how fast you can read, it's more about pacing. Could I watch a movie with x2 speed and still have a general understanding of what was happening? Probably, but the cocaine fueled pacing would make the experience less enjoyable.

That's why I like it slower, but I'll still hold down ctrl for the bits that feel irrelevant or boring...