How do you prefer text in games?

[jb143]

I asked this in another post of mine but didn't get as big of a responce as I was hoping so I felt a poll was in order.

When playing games where you talk to characters, how do you prefer to see the text?

[Daria]

I read fast, so games that mandate a slow text speed are painful to sit though. It's the real reason I've never been able to play Final Fantasy Tactics. I didn't chose instant text however, because I get in the groove of pressing the button to read the text and sometime it skips whole sections of speech. Also annoying, old rpgs that asked you to select a text speed were best. If I can set it to fast I'm good to go.

[namzep]

I like to have the option of either letting the text appear or have it all appear at once. Usually, I'll sit through the text more slowly on first playthroughs but when playing games again I usually just speed through the text, since I already know what's going on.

[Sudo]

I prefer it to all appear instantly.

[jb143]

I know I personally can't stand a lot of the old games that go really slow.

For those that don't mind it typing out. Do you still prefer it to go somewhat fast or does it not matter?

And does it typing out actually help in making sure you read it?

I'm working on a game where character interaction is important to completing the game and the results of this thread will help me decide how I'm going to implement that. So I thank everyone for their input.

[snes_collector]

I prefer it to all appear instantly.

Agreed

[Berserker]

I voted for instantly, but also with the caveat that it NOT go to the next block of text without the users' consent (i.e. pressing a button).

Things like "revealing" text by typing it out slowly, going to the next screen of text automatically after a set amount of time, and/or not allowing the user to skip it before a set amount of time are, in my opinion, extremely bad design decisions for a video game, because they take out of the users' hands something that as a game developer, you have no way of truly knowing or controlling -- how fast they read, what they've already read, etc.

[FantasiaWHT]

"Typing out across the screen" is the reason I couldn't finish Xenogears. Everyone hypes about how long and epic that game was, but it would be less than half the length if you were able to advance the text.

My choice = scrolls, but you can hit a button to make it appear instantly. Nice balance between the two. Given the choice, I'd add in the multi-pitched babbling present in the Shining series :)

[Damaramu]

I too read very quickly and would prefer to have the block of text appear all at once. Nothing worse than sitting through text that appears slowly, word by word. Especially when accompanied by Camelot style bleeps and bloops for dialog.

[jcalder8]

My vote goes to types it out but pressing a button makes it appear. I never sit and wait for it to type out but I like that I can control the speed and I know that I won't miss anything by pushing the button, trying to get it to go faster.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Instant karma's gonna get you... through the game faster. ;)

[SpaceHarrier]

I used to be more patient. I loved Megaman X's text (with audio blips). It would hammer out a steady "dadadadada dadadadadadadada dadadadada" as the words scrolled but I think if you held down a button, it became a quickened "dadadabzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzz".

Now I can't stand it. I've played 45+ hours of Pokemon, and even with the text speed set to fast it seems as slow as molasses. It's driving me crazy. I want insta-text or no text.

[otaku]

I prefer arcade style games which means little or no text for me. When dialogue is necessary I prefer it be done with actual voices in english

[16bitter]

I definitely prefer the text to appear all at once. If it "types" out, I like the option of making it go faster. The faster the better.

[Ze_ro]

I fail to see the point in typing out the text ever. Is it some japanese thing I wouldn't understand? It makes even less sense to me when games give you an option to control the speed at which it types it, but it's just various levels of slowness.

--Zero

[jb143]

Well, the 2 options I was leaning toward have almost the same number of votes. I'll probally go with text apearing all at once since that's how I have it now anyways...so it'll be the easiest to implement(see quote below).

Playing the text as sound files isn't really an option for me since this is a gameboy game...plus there's always the problem of horrible voice acting.

[James8BitStar]

I prefer it to be in a language I know.

[Superman]

I like to have the text show instantly. I like to have the option to read the text if I want or move on in the game if I don't want to read.

[Ed Oscuro]

I like my text readable, so there's no fits-all solution here, seriously.

If you have a busy, bright background it's probably good to bang it out there boldly (being large and contrasting with the background is more important than whether it appears slowly or instantly).

If you have a high-contrast background, you can fade in your text, and this might actually be better on the eyes.

Sorry, but the poll fails.


I prefer it to be in a language I know.
That too.

[retrogarden]

Instantly for me, I hate waiting for things, plus I'm a stickler for Secret of Monkey Island where it all appears instantly (but, if I recall, you can't make it disappear by pressing a button?)

Typing but it all appears on a button hit is satisfactory too, but sometimes you get them slow scrolling and unskippable for the hell of it (Zelda 3), the danger is there.

Final Fantasy's VII (quick appearing but can stop and start) was also good at building atmosphere.

[Ed Oscuro]

Instantly for me, I hate waiting for things, plus I'm a stickler for Secret of Monkey Island where it all appears instantly (but, if I recall, you can't make it disappear by pressing a button?)
Oh, right.

One thing that's amusing to me - in many Japanese games text scrolls by in what seems to be a VERY short period of time, even going by English language standards. Each character has its own meaning, but you gotta look closely enough to see what those characters are...even for somebody who can identify characters at a glance it looks like it'd be daunting in some titles.

[jb143]

I like my text readable, so there's no fits-all solution here, seriously.

If you have a busy, bright background it's probably good to bang it out there boldly (being large and contrasting with the background is more important than whether it appears slowly or instantly).

If you have a high-contrast background, you can fade in your text, and this might actually be better on the eyes.

Sorry, but the poll fails.



Well...the poll was meant to be a general case for people's personal preference. There has to be a reason that so many games typed out the text slowly and I wasn't sure if it was something that people actually liked.

But as far as my game...here's a screenshot of the text. Right now, the text all appears at once and pressing a button causes the next block of text to appear. Not everyone is going to have the same tastes as me so I want to get a feel for how others think about things before commiting to one technique.


http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii12/jeremy_burk/dialog_test.jpg

[Videogamerdaryll]

It types out but pressing a button makes it all appear:onfire: