billkara

Design A New Universe

NGC 7129 photo from Wikipedia

athletics (noun): competitive activities such as sports and games requiring stamina, fitness, and skill.  — wiktionary.org

Over the past three years, TypeRacer has been a fun, even addictive, virtual world for personal development and sportive competition, visited by thousands of people every day. Although I like to think that my selection of funny and interesting texts for typing had something to do with TypeRacer’s success, the athletics of typing is really the main ingredient that keeps people coming back to the site. It’s fun to to compete against people from all over the world in typing, a vital, everyday skill, and it’s rewarding to see the improvement in your focus, stamina, and dexterity.

There is also a lot of potential in TypeRacer as a medium for learning new information and I believe that a community effort to create new sections (“universes”) within typeracer.com is the way to unlock that potential.

The technology for creating specialized new collections of texts on any topic is already in place. Last year we launched a number of new TypeRacer Universes (one for accuracy and fifty for different languages). If you are not yet among the twenty six thousand people who have already tried racing in another universe, let me explain:

A Typeracer Universe is a distinct version of the typeracer.com website which is accessed through its own unique URL such as (http://play.typeracer.com/universe/code). It has all of the same functionality, but with a distinct set of texts and stats (the high scores will represent only the races completed in that universe).

A small group of us, including David Pritts (famous for appearing in the TypeRacer walkthrough video as well as being able to comfortably type 140 wpm), and a number of school teachers, have been experimenting with this new medium since last summer. David designed two new universes: one for learning SAT vocabulary and another consisting of only the easy texts from the standard rotation (which might be a hit with our “race selectors”). Meanwhile, the teachers have been successfully using their private universes to teach their students.

With this technology ready to be put to wider use, I need your help to unlock its full potential. Let’s build some new universes this year!  We could have universes that teach history, science, languages, and just about anything else. At the same time, we could create universes with different themes just for fun. Please submit your ideas!

Examples:

  • texts with only lowercase letters and no punctuation (for devices like the iPad)
  • real texts in a different language (it’s not hard to do better than our machine translations!)
  • quotes from your favorite book
  • jokes / humor
  • typing code in your favorite programming language
  • subjects like history, law, biology, physics, classic literature, etc.

Please tell us about any category of texts that you would enjoy typing or learning. Some universes could become powerful learning tools for various subjects while others could exist just for fun.

How to participate:


Please submit your ideas as comments on this blog post and vote for ideas submitted by others (using the thumbs up/down buttons). If your idea is chosen, you will get a free TypeRacer Admin account, which will let you create and maintain a new TypeRacer Universe. Or, if you see an idea that you like, you could volunteer to help create that universe.

Creating your own universe with an admin account is simple: just enter your new texts or choose from a list of existing texts (take a look at the screenshots).

If you’re submitting an idea or an offer to help, please don’t forget to mention your typeracer.com username so we can contact you later.

I look forward to hearing from all of you!

The only limits are the limits of your imagination. Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud. — Bono

156 comments

  2. E is the most commonly used vowel in the English.There was a book written without any of the word having the letter E,and thought it would be fun to try to do the same thing.Also a space themed universe would be cool two.

    Reply

    • Interesting. I wonder how the absence of “e” might affect typing speed. I believe you’re thinking of the book called Gadsby, which you can read in its entirety online here. Would you like to volunteer to create a universe called “gadsby” (i.e. choose quotes from that book)?

  3. I’d love to have snippets that point out interesting language features in java or python or even ruby that I might not know about.

    Another interesting option might be to collaborate with shell-fu.org to be able to type some of their most popular shell snippets.

    I’m not sure I have the time or skill to develop either universe myself however.

    Reply

    • Great ideas! I think the shell-fu idea might be a good one to start with. I should update the post to explain that creating a universe basically only requires entering the texts into a form. The time consuming part is finding the texts, so a shell command universe should be super easy to implement.

  7. I have a few ideas. Maybe a universe with only lower case letters, no numbers, no symbols or anything like that, just lower case letters. The hardtexts universe with the hardest and longest texts from typeracer. Just something interesting to do, see how well you do comparing with your average typeracer scores when you have nothing to do. Ill post more ideas if i think of any 🙂

    Reply

  9. Since it’s now been published, I just made the Easy Texts universe easier!

    I deleted a few texts that are actually not too easy, increased the frequency of the Bloke Quote appearing, and added about 10 new super easy/short quotes.

    Since it seems to be the most popular quote, maybe we should make “The Bloke Quote” into a universe? Just one text? 🙂 I bet we would get plenty of scores at 250wpm or more.

    Reply

  10. How about purely random texts, characters only? It would be interesting to see, how fast you can type, when all your known words and frequent bi- and trigrams are taken away.

    Reply

  12. When racing with Typeracer I personally get the most satisfaction out of typing passages from works that are memorable/challenge our thinking (e.g. Way of the Peaceful Warrior/Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance) or memorable quotes from historical figures (MLK/Churchill/Gandhi). This gives us a chance not only to improve our typing but learning something of value in the process – well at least in my opinion. I’d personally rather remember these types of phrases rather than learn about the thermodynamics of pizza or ninjas (I apologize if I offended anyone there).

    To summarize, create a universe based on memorable quotes by historical figures and/or passages from philosophical books

    Reply

  13. As a musician i would love to have some of my lyrics in a universe. And I bet there are regular users of this site that are poets, songwriters, maybe people who have their own unpublished novels.

    So I think the universe I would like would be made up of the creations from people who reguarly use typeracer.

    Reply

  14. maybe make a universe with geography texts, since the geography terms are usually hard to remember one can study geography and type at the same time

    Reply

  15. Well, I would like to make a universe having COMPUTER TERMINOLOGIES and universe having TONGUE TWISTERS
    For Example:
    There should be a computer terminology and its complete definition
    This would help people from computer science field to learn many things.
    And tongue twisters would make people a bit fluent in English language.

    And the last thing is that my typeracer account name is
    shoaib_shahnawaz

    Reply

  16. I think it would be useful to have a universe for texts which last for 5 minutes or more. We could use existing texts but I think it would be better to introduce new ones which are easier to type and have a better flow. This would help build stamina and rhythm.

    Reply

  17. I don’t see any link in the main page that shows me other universes… So… Anyway, the greatest improvement would be to get rid of cheaters…

    Reply

  19. I’d love to make one with quotes from the Bible. It was actually going to be my programming project to make a game similar to TypeRacer with passages from the Bible, but my programming class got cancelled : ( I believe it’s the Word of God, so obviously that is why it would be cool for me. But even if you don’t believe that, it is still the best-selling book ever with amazing influence and impact all over the world. It would be good for people to familiarize themselves with some of it. I’d love to do it if you’d let me.

    Reply

    • Different versions would be fun, but I wouldn’t want to spread it too thin. I think the races are more fun when they are full and if we create 5 different universes for 5 different versions they wouldn’t be as populated. Although I would love different versions I think one universe would be best. I use ESV, but I think NIV is most popular around the world so that should probably be the one we use.

      The one reason I might want to create two universes is OT and NT. What’s your thought on that? I’d rather stick with the idea of centralizing the Bible to just a singular universe, but I also know that it’s a huge book.

    • Hey, yeah, was actually hoping that typeracer had passages from the Bible. Really hope a Universe is created for Bible quotes. And, Thanks TehStrike for starting the nkjv universe. There’s just one passage up so far, right? I can help adding some more passages. And, if you guys are starting another universe for just NIV or ESV (or both),… am totally free! 😛 So, would be more than glad to help.

    • thanks for suggesting this! It’s a great idea! Two suggestions:
      * is it possible to control the order of texts that people type? I think it would be cool to type complete chapters (split into many races).
      * The bible has been translated (very professionally) into many, many languages. bibleserver.com has lots of texts, many of them are free to use. I’d be glad to get a German bible universe, for example. These could be the same texts, just another language!

  20. I would like to make a universe to study scrabble as I type. That is, the texts would be lists of scrabble bingos.

    Reply

    • How did I miss this last night? Scrabble is one of my big obsessions too and I dream of playing in Scrabble tournaments someday, and I’ve already studied a lot of words. I can get you some lists of high-probability and/or high-playability bingos if you want…

    • That would be awesome. Maybe there should be different universes for TWL and SOWPODS? If I could type lists of high probability 7 or 8 letter words, it would be a double whammy for me, since I’d get to practice typing while reviewing for Scrabble. BTW, is there any way for me to make my own lists to type from on the typeracer interface? Or can this only be done by creating a new universe? Thanks.

  21. I’d also like to see a Drill Universe. In almost every sport you practice with game like scenarios and scrimmages, but you also practice with drills. Same thing with TypeRacer. Racing gets you faster. But working on the basics really improves your typing a lot. This really would be the ultimate typing site if this was a Universe as well. http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/business/keyboarding/ This site has some good drills if you are wondering what I’m talking about. I’m sure not everyone would call them drills.

    If you think this is a good idea as well, I’d be up for making it happen.

    Reply

  23. I second the idea above about a “philosophy” universe. (Although I don’t agree with the idea of grouping them together with historical quotes.)

    Reply

  24. I don’t know what I think of separate universes in general. I think it would be cooler if all the quotes in the special universes were also integrated into the main universe as well so the same 636 quotes wouldn’t come up over and over again (with some exceptions – it might not make sense for numbers or passages with missing vowels or code to be in the main universe, but new philosophical/biblical quotes maybe should be). I also never really understood why users at each speed level only see a portion of the 636 texts either though, so maybe it’s just me…

    Reply

    • Hey Sean, it will be pretty easy for me to put quotes from other universes into the main rotation. Six hundred is not enough, I agree, and that’s part of the reason I want people to create their own universes – to share the burden of entering new texts. About the skill levels – texts are roughly segmented by length, depending on skill level (the idea is to not make a beginner have to type one quote for 5 minutes).

  25. Additionally, I still think calling typing a form of athletics is a little weird. Strangely reminiscent of when I was named my high school’s “Mathlete of the Year” in 2002 and 2003 despite being quite arguably the least athletic student in my class…

    Reply

  26. I think it would be cool if there was a Net Speed universe which would normal texts, but each time you made a mistake, it would subtract, lets say, 1 word off the total amount of words. e.g. if there were 100 words in a text and you finish it in 1 minute and you made 10 mistakes, you would subtract 10 from the 100 giving you 90, so the Net Speed universe would say that you typed 90 words in 1 minute, giving you a net speed of 90 WPM, instead of the original (gross) speed of 100 WPM.

    As much as I like the Accuracy universe, I think this one would also be cool, because you won’t be kicked out every time you make a mistake, but it will encourage people to improve their accuracy.

    And my typeracer username is jjadup

    Reply

  28. I think making an Universe of Great Words/Quotes by Great People Along With Some General Knowledge enhancing quotes would be
    very beneficial for both improving typing as well as General Knowledge.
    Such Quotes enhance the Intellectual and Typing Performance of Users, Hence can be considered to be beneficial. 🙂
    Hope And Wish We get Best from Typeracer.

    Reply

  29. Whoa! The Bible quote universe is simple AWESOME! 🙂
    Initially I faced a bug where my speed fell from 132 to 80 WPM, but eventually I performed good races, I scored best of 155 WPM ^_^
    Thanks TehShrike for the ‘NKJV’ universe.

    P.S. : Even mathematical quotes universe will too be great fun to perform races on.
    I have an example quote here:
    “Every minute dies a man, Every minute one is born;” I need hardly point out to you that this calculation would tend to keep the sum total of the world’s population in a state of perpetual equipoise, whereas it is a well-known fact that the said sum total is constantly on the increase. I would therefore take the liberty of suggesting that in the next edition of your excellent poem the erroneous calculation to which I refer should be corrected as follows: “Every moment dies a man, And one and a sixteenth is born.” I may add that the exact figures are 1.067, but something must, of course, be conceded to the laws of metre.”

    – This includes all lengthy quotes along with sums and calculations within. 😀
    Dudepc

    Reply

    • This isn’t really a mathematical quote. More of a mathematical-for-the-non-mathematicians quote. I’d really love to see some truly mathematical quotes, such as (a random quote from http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/book.pdf):
      Thus, in the language of this chapter, Gaussian reduction works by eliminating linear dependences [sic] among rows, leaving the span unchanged, until no nontrivial linear relationships remain (among the nonzero rows). That is, Gauss’ method produces a basis for the row space.

  30. I love all the ideas that were posted in the example topics (Like programming languages, the subjects from law, physics etc.) I’m taking a programming course in high school this upcoming semester and would love to practice here. But I’m interested in all those, unfortunately I don’t have enough information to make those universes or the time currently. Thank you though for letting me use type racer, one of the things I have to do in my programming class is type very fast (I think the requirement is 110 words a minute) so thank you for letting me practice and have fun.

    Reply

    • Why would you need to be required to type quickly to learn how to program? Programming is more about a logical structure of thinking than smashing the keys. Jason Katz-Brown, probably the best programmer I (sort of) know, types above average but isn’t great. Ditto for Alex here. By contrast, I’m a great typist but a mediocre/middling programmer (and even THAT may be generous). Programming is the more important skill (by far), and it seems kind of bogus that somebody would set some kind of typing speed threshold. But I’ve had weird teachers too…

    • I consider typing to be an important skill for a programmer.

      That said, I found much humor in the fact that I did so well on the texts in the code universe 😛 apparently all that coding on my ultimate das keyboard leveled me up at hitting the curly-braces and parentheses on the fly.

    • Also, 110wpm is a pretty ridiculous requirement for a coder. Nobody else where I work types that quickly, and there are some fantastically smart coders there.

  31. How about a universe that has minigames that don’t make you type texts but randomized words, but with a twist. In particular I was thinking of displaying names of colors in different colors and the typists given commands as to which to type out – the color displayed or the word. (Like the word red displayed in the color blue) A bit of a test in reaction time and thinking speed I suppose.

    Reply

  32. 0115 ( GMT -6 hours ) Sunday, January 30, 2011

    Alex:

    Please, How Can I Send My Own Universes?

    (( I’m preparing a bunch of new exciting ones. ))

    ***

    By The Way, I Suggest Some Other Universes Like A Punk Rock Universe with song lyrics of that musical genre —maybe a lot of sub-universes here: for example, one dedicated to The Ramones.

    ((( Your Website Can Earn BIG Money Promoting Fine Musicians, Poets And Writers. )))

    And How About A Strange TypeRacer Universe In Which He or She Who Wins Is The Typist With The Greatest Number Of Typos —No Matter That Someone Else Has Arrived First To The Finish Line.

    *** ***

    Would You Like The Idea Of Another New Universe Which Is The REVERSED Version Of The Normal One?

    Here’s An Example With The Famous “Bloke Quote”:

    .wonk uoy ekolb a si sihT .ekolb siht wonk uoy wonk I ,woN .ekolb a swonk ohw ekolb a swonk ohw ekolb a wonk I

    *** *** ***

    Thank You Very Much From Mexico City.

    Reply

  33. .ytiC ocixeM morF hcuM yreV uoY knahT

    *** *** ***

    I know a bloke who knows a bloke who knows a bloke. Now, I know you know this bloke. This is a bloke you know.

    :”etouQ ekolB” suomaF ehT htiW elpmaxE nA s’ereH

    ?enO lamroN ehT fO noisreV DESREVER ehT sI hcihW esrevinU weN rehtonA fO aedI ehT ekiL uoY dluoW

    *** ***

    .eniL hsiniF ehT oT tsriF devirrA saH eslE enoemoS tahT rettaM oN— sopyT fO rebmuN tsetaerG ehT htiW tsipyT ehT sI sniW ohW ehS ro eH hcihW nI esrevinU recaRepyT egnartS A tuobA woH dnA

    ((( .sretirW dnA steoP ,snaicisuM eniF gnitomorP yenoM GIB nraE naC etisbeW ruoY )))

    .senomaR ehT ot detacided eno ,elpmaxe rof :ereh sesrevinu-bus fo tol a ebyam— erneg lacisum taht fo sciryl gnos htiw esrevinU kcoR knuP A ekiL sesrevinU rehtO emoS tsegguS I ,yaW ehT yB

    ***

    (( .seno gniticxe wen fo hcnub a gniraperp m’I ))

    ?sesrevinU nwO yM dneS I naC woH ,esaelP

    :xelA

    1102 ,03 yraunaJ ,yadnuS ( sruoh 6- TMG ) 5110

    Reply

  34. My name is Athos and I started on typeracer on the orkut.
    Was a time that Alex the owner added me on orkut and sended me a arthicle aboout a disese related reppetitive effort.
    I want to be a volunteer.
    I can help you about anything about the universe of Portuguese (br) Language.

    We have here a lot of player who plays portuguese. But we have two basics problems.

    – Portuguese of Portugal is a little bit different of portuguese (BR).

    – The Automatic translation is a problem too.

    I can help in this universe, real texts on portuguese and I love the book The Servant and I can add some great texts from this book that we can learn a lot of things about essence of leadership.

    I want and I hope that I can help this lovely game.

    Reply

  35. Hello my idea is to have a universe in which the racetrack is completely animated and instead of the small car’s going across the screen now making the view of your car something graphical like in NFS. And in this would be accompanied actual racetracks, that we see in F1 and Motogp etc, like there will be about 50 long 20-minute paragraphs constituting the race track, each consisting of a few speed bumps- which are numbers and special symbols(after all we are here to improve our entire keyboarding skills not just the alphabetic ones!) *continued*

    Reply

  36. *continued* and in addition some F1 type chicanes which are nothing but easy easy part of the sentence which goes on for a few minutes and where speeds can be maximum. Along with this in the 20 minute typing period there will be 2 pit stop provision, where the typer can press the enter key at any point in the race(only 2 times) to pause it for 2 minutes.
    This universe will be the ultimate in taking typing ever so close to real racing.
    My typeracer username is godknowswhy.

    Reply

  37. I would love to create a universe that only snippets on how to type better. Also another one that I would love to start is one that only does quotes about how to speed read (i.e. speed reading for dummies). I have always thought speed reading and typing go hand in hand.
    A final idea is to get quotes only from a popular quote website (i.e. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes).

    Reply

  38. Special characters slow down a typist. How about a universe with only special characters and no alphabets?

    And how about a universe with only ASCII art (like the one that follows)?

    |\
    / /\/o\_
    (.-.__.( __o
    /\_( .—-‘
    .’ \____/
    / / / \
    ___:____\__\__\__________________

    Reply

  40. I would suggest an customizable color scheme, simply to “protect” our eyes from the dazzle default color scheme. Because an dark background with an decent ligth gray foreground color would be more pleasant. Similar to the dark color scheme from http://geekhack.org/

    Additional i would suggest an “cursor” that follows the text, that i have already written, if you wish i would write an prototype that can do that..

    Reply

  41. I love this! I have been at Typeracer for a couple of years already, enjoying the experience throughout. However, the one thing that has hindered my improvement in typing is that after several races I begin to mess more with speed while losing on accuracy.As a result I have not yet been able to establish a regular speed of 70+ yet. The introduction of this feature is gonna make me more patient and hopefully will improve overall in the day-to-day typing.Thanks!
    Th

    Reply

  42. I have a friend who already told me once, months ago, he would like to help including new portuguese texts, to correct the ones wich already exists and that kind of thing. I’m gonna help him too, of course, he has a job with programming, a good thing in this case. Can we can do that?

    Thanks

    Reply

  43. 1320 ( GMT -6 hours ) Monday, January 31, 2011

    The “galaxy_typewriter_rhombus4.jpg” image is a slightly SUBLIMINAL one.

    Reply

  44. Could you include something for users to report typos and mis-spellings?

    After playing through some of the universes I have noticed a number of spelling and sentence errors.

    Reply

  45. We need a universe without any punctuation except a period at the end of a race. This may not be correct, but it may help some with speed. Thanks.

    Reply

  46. I’d like to do one on dogs. I’m thinking of general quotes from Wikipedia on the different breeds of dogs, but I could do other sub-subjects like obedience training tips from famous trainers or general care tips or whatever if the community wanted something other than dog breeds.

    Thanks.

    Reply

  47. I would also like to suggest that we make a “Long text universe” where there are extra long texts that keep fast typists busy for at least a few minutes. Because I find that the races don’t last too long.

    Reply

  48. Expanding vocabulary knowledge is paramount to life’s success.
    Typing out new words and example sentences unequivocally ameliorates such knowledge.
    SAT is a good start but GRE contains advanced graduate-level vocabulary.

    I would like to create a GRE universe.
    My username on typeracer is: typerlouis

    Reply

  49. Thank you, thank you!!!
    I’m just so happy that I’ve found this website. It’s so easy to learn with the TypeRacer.
    If anyone of you wants to learn geography in a fast way, I recommend: ilike2learn.com – another amazing tool to learn.
    I wish all the best to people, who invented this website 🙂

    Reply

  51. As of the code universe I suggest to add snippets containing a lot of really difficult fragments to touchtype:
    1. =[0] =[0] =[0]
    2. “\n”+”\n”+”\n”
    3. ‘\n’+’\n’+’\n’
    4. “\[\\\/\]” (regex-like)
    You use your little finger mostly here 🙂

    Reply

  52. 0638 ( GMT -6 hours ) Thursday, February 3, 2011

    What is the process to build my own universes?

    What is the process to build my own universes?

    What is the process to build my own universes?

    Reply

  53. I think we should have a universe where when you make a mistake, you can go on without correcting. You will be able to correct, but you don’t have to.

    Reply

  57. 0012 ( GMT -6 hours ) Saturday, February 5, 2011

    […] Let’s build some new universes this year! We could have universes that teach history, science, languages, and just about anything else. At the same time, we could create universes with different themes just for fun. Please submit your ideas! […]

    I don’t want MY ideas to pass the hateful thumbs up / thumbs down process. I already have some new and useful universes in my mind but I prefer to send them through email to this website owner.

    ***

    I suggest that every TypeRacer Universe —or sub-universe— must count our participation, our statistics, From ZERO —because it’s very possible to be faster in certain TypeRacer versions and MAYBE this would be a PROOF that some Megaracers are rapid typists mainly in short text situations. For example, here’s an old idea of mine: How about to create a monthly TypeRacer multi-level Marathon in which slow and fast competitors participate with a LONG succession of texts; all is measured in this Marathon: accuracy percentage, total number of typos, and speed. Perhaps there are sluggish typists with a high endurance level and fast ones with a low endurance level —who knows?

    And this is also another old idea of mine: Why not include a TypeRacer functionality in the normal version —the Typeracer original Universe— which permits every one of us to REPEAT any competition text the times we want to in order to DOMINATE it.

    Of course I LIKE the idea ( by valikor ) to turn the “bloke quote” into a single universe —MAYBE All The Competition Texts From The Normal TypeRacer Might Be Converted Into Individual Universes, each of them with its own statistics.

    *** ***

    Greetings from Mexico City.

    (( I know that sometimes my English is Very VERY UGLY. ))

    Reply

  60. Yes, there is a secret code for the Numbers Universe. I am trying to disable that but seem unable to do so.

    For the time being, anyone can use the code qm80

    Reply

  62. I propose a universe made of very complex and quaint literature quotes. See and learn strange vocabulary, complex grammatical structure, far out metaphors and symbolic language.

    My wish would be for it to be challenging to and yet beneficial for the brain. (and a little bit trippy.) Get some juice into our speech!

    My typeracer name is boomfist.

    Reply

  63. @Typeracer
    I would Like to maintain an Universe for My University (Central University, Bilaspur (india)). so, that I can Organize Some Competitions like The Ultimate Typing Championship in our University and Encourage them to Increase their Typing Skills, In this Universe I’ll be Maintaining the Quotes Provided By the Students and Teachers of this University.
    I’m a frequent user of Typeracer (nearly 22,000) races so far for me.
    I assure you I’d be managing my Universe With great enthusiasm.
    Hope and wish to get a Favorable reply from your side.
    UserId : sumit91

    Reply

  65. I have an interesting idea, how about a left hand universe and a right hand universe where you only use one hand for the entire test (backspace is the exception). But I think it would be pretty cool to trains your hands individually if you think you’re having a problem with one.

    My username is JJAduP

    Reply

  66. Numbers Universe

    Hello, I realize I’m a little bit late.

    I would love to manage a universe with a heavy emphasis on numbers. Every text would have numbers, and a lot of them, but would also be mixed with letters as to discourage your hands from leaving the homerow completely.

    Numbers Universe.

    Reply

  67. Another universe I would be happy to manage would be a homerow universe.

    Howerow Universe.

    There may be need for multiple universes because of different keyboards, but I would be more than willing to run both a Qwerty and a Dvorak homerow universe.

    Homerow Universe.

    Reply

  68. Hello again, I hate triple posting but I would not like to put all my thoughts into one post, as in the case I did get voted, whick idea wins?

    French Typeracer

    I’ve noticed that no one has volunteered to improve the French universe. French is my second language and I’d be willing to improve the current translations and submit new texts that are natively French.

    French Typeracer

    My typeracer username is the same as the one labeled here: TedM

    Reply

  69. What about “universe” without any character? Is that possible?
    COME ON PEOPLE!!! What’re you talking about. One wants to type texts without letter “e”, the second one wants to type text without special characters… Damn!

    Reply

  71. username: lyleyork

    i would like to create a universe to help Certified Administrative Professionals (CAP certification) prepare for their certification using excepts from the study materials & flashcards.

    Thanks,
    Lyle

    Reply

    • I’d like to correct the (awful google-translated) german texts and add new ones in this language.

      I live in Germany and speak German as mother tongue, so I’m sure with grammar and spelling.

      username racingfreak

  72. Hello
    I’m a spanish guy that sometimes plays at this website. It’s nice to know that it’s possible to compete in my mother tongue. However, the translations from english to spanish are poor and wrong (what makes me sometimes to get muddled), and there are very few texts and it’s becoming extremely repetitive. As far as I Know this is one of the reasons why so many people from ‘Spanish’ countries are not anymore interested on this website. They are not familiar with English and they prefer Spanish but when they switch they get a bit disappointed..

    Reply

  73. I would like to create a universe containing text from common HTML code, including syntax, tags, attributes, etc.

    I have about 4 years of experience with HTML, so I can write/read it fluently.

    Username: wilfulatrophy

    Reply

  75. I live in Germany (German is my mother tongue, so I am sure with grammar and spelling the language) and would like to start an universe with German texts starting with correcting the now available (awful) google-translated ones and then trying to get/write easy texts for learning the language as well as texts from “normal” books. (Asking the publishers for their agreement) It would be great getting an account for this!

    Reply

    • Congrats ChimChim (SS) for achieving 50,000 wins–far more than any other player on Typeracer!

  77. I think it would be awesome to have a universe of quotes that are easy to type on the iPad.(all lowercase no punctuation etc) I have an iPad and let me say I am on that thing all the time! If that can be created, you could make an app, and make it accessible to the people on iPhones/iPods too. I am a big texter and I would love to do a testing race! It’s crazy how far an iPad universe would take you! SO many opportunities for expansion.

    Reply

  78. I would like to make a universe that has texts which are in “leet speak” (50|\/|37h1|\|9 51|\/|1|_4R 70 7|-|15)

    Reply

  79. There needs to be more variants of the code universe. Some people are comfortable in C, some C++, some Java, some C#, some Perl, some Python, some Ruby. The list goes on and on. There should be code universes separated on a language by language basis.

    Furthermore, the individual code universes should respect formatting of elements. Thus, newlines and tabs/spaces should be rendered in the text-to-type, and it should be a requirement to follow the formatted structure.

    Reply

  80. Great idea! I’ve been always annoyed by somewhat strange machine-translated Japanese sentences.

    There is a site, named “Aozora-bunko,” (meaning “Blue-sky Library”) collecting copyright-free sentences written by Japanese novelists.(http://www.aozora.gr.jp/). We can quote easily many “real” Japanese sentences from there, because the sentences are available as text files!

    # Some of them are written in old style Japanese, however many sentences are written in today’s Japanese.

    Since there’re many writers (or novelists) listed, it would be wise making each universe for one writer (or novelist)…

    Reply

    • The Instant Death Mode is a good tool to practise accuracy, but I suppose it would be much nicer that users have to retype the passage once they’ve made a mistake rather than instantly being kicked out. It takes quite an amount of time to restart a race.

  82. Does anyone know if my account will be automatically be deleted if I don’t check my email to complete the registration to my new account for 1 month ?

    Will my account be deleted automatically ?

    Reply

  83. 1319 ( GMT -6 hrs ) Wednesday, May 18, 2011

    A different version of the normal universe with all the competition texts spoken —this project would need native american english speakers and in some cases native british english speakers too in order to give voice to the entire compilation of book-, movie-, and song-excerpts. In this new TypeRacer edition we would compete by transcribing the audio into text.

    Reply

    • I want a universe that’s full of furry animals.

      So that we may type about them, and rejoice

  84. I’d like to propose a universe for learning music. It would incorporate theory books, and perhaps various lessons for different instruments.

    Reply

  85. How about a universe where the words come out through audio and you have to type it? Username is SnapMaster45.

    Reply

  86. How about a Type Racer for Dvorak typists? Not that anyone would actually, technically know people were typing on Dvorak but it might be a fun thing for Dvorak typists like myself.

    Reply

  89. I remember reading somewhere that if you have a visual and auditory response when making typing mistakes that your accuracy increases at a greater rate.

    Is it possible to put in an error sound? that users can choose to turn on if they want.

    Reply

  90. I could put together a decent-sized linguistics Universe. I’d also like to see (though it wouldn’t be something I could do myself) a Czech-language Universe.

    My username is maxh42.

    Reply

  91. Hi, I’ve been on typeracer for quite a long time and I must admit, Its damn addicting!!! And, compound it with the fact that my typing speed is now increased to 71wpm from 35wpm, you can just say one word about typeracer – wow !

    Just one question though, Why isn’t typeracer available on facebook? Its says “temporary not available” on its facebook app and its showing the same error since so many days it seems this temporary is soon becoming “permanent”….

    Reply

  92. I think a Law School/Bar Exam Universe would be very useful. Since everyone types on these timed essay writing tests, typically the faster typists have an advantage. I have found that typing the black letter law over and over is the best way for me to memorize it. Further, it needs to leave your brain though your fingers onto the keyboard anyways.

    Reply

  93. Would like to see/make a wisdom or enlightenment universe.

    Most of the quotes on Typeracer are already a very wise selection of enlightening quotes. Kudos to the one who selected them. I would like to add to the volume of “wisdom” quotes. And maybe have a universe that uses quotes from various religious/sacred texts like the Tao Te Ching, Holy Bible, Baghavad Gita and Qur’an.

    Here is an example of the kind of quote I would be looking for in such a wise-universe:

    Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.”
    — Erich Fromm (To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche)

    I would probably draw on Fromm, de Mello, Watts, Meister Eckhart, Lao Tzu, Kant, Kierkegaard and so on and so forth…

    Reply

  94. This website is mainly to train people and help them be a better typer, my self I have been training type for many years but, I have only recently joined this website and I am loving it. All parents should encourage their kids or do it themselfs to feel the fun with playing with other people!

    Reply

  95. You should allow users to chat with people they race with…
    So that they can race in RACE WITH FRIENDS option if they want to …
    Plzzz Pllzzz Plzzz Plzzz Plzz Plzz do that …..for me…:)

    Reply

  96. Being a Computer Science Major, and being required to take Biology (not just a general science) is a major drag. I think an Introductory Biology universe would really help me out, as well as many of my fellow students. The course is entirely memorization, which is what typeracer is excellent for.

    Typeracer username: Darthfett

    Reply

    • Hi, this post has been here for some time, did any of the suggested universes get created?

      I’d be happy to create one – like you suggested – with legal texts taken from prominent law cases. I know lots of law students already use typeracer, and I am sure many more would do so if the quotes could be more specific. It would not be difficult to find a few hundred quotes to start things off.

      My username is albanach

  100. I would like to make a universe with texts with only random letters and random spaces between letters. Then we practice in it to remember the key positions of the keyboard.. 🙂

    My username on typeracer is amanr300.. 😀

    Reply

  101. I would like for there to be a music only universe (I looked for that earlier with Ctrl+F, but didn’t find a result for it so I’m asking for it now) and it would only have lyrics- this would be pretty entertaining and a good way to memorize songs; also, I’m about to submit Erasure’s “Always” the song made famous by the Flash game, “Robot Unicorn Attack” since I like it so much and would love to race to it

    the song itself is fairly simple and pretty repetitive, I think it would be at home here on typeracer in either the general universe and/or the long texts universe aside from my proposed “lyrics only” universe too.

    Please, and thank you.

    Reply

  102. oops, forgot to leave my typeracer handle in my last comment- it’s “daiko”

    -also, would it be possible to have more twitter integration with the site natively? it would be nice to have, but I know that it’s not an absolute necessity, just asking out of curiosity here (and well, because I happen to enjoy twitter very much too if that wasn’t terribly clear)

    Reply

    • Hi Matt. Thanks for your comment. I am putting down your name/email on a list of people who might like to volunteer to help in the future. When we get to a point where we are working on some of those universes (such as the Bible universe) I will shoot you an email. In the meantime, please think about how you’d like to improve it.

      David Pritts (valikor)
      Typeracer Administrator

  105. I think it would be cool to create a Typeracer universe dedicated to historical quotes, such as quotes from Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, sports legends, and so on. I believe that many other people would enjoy this, and I would be willing to maintain this universe and keep it updated, add some quotes every once in a while and such.

    Reply

  106. Dear Typer Racer Staff,

    I would really appreciate the opportunity to create a universe that has snippets of code commonly found in programming contests (typically in Java or C++). I run the programming team at my school, and we are planning to get together on a weekly basis in order to practice typing faster (which can often be a crucial factor when trying to finish contests problems quickly). Typeracer provides an excellent platform for this, and I would love to be able to provide the members of my team with a specific universe relevant to the code excerpts we often see in contests.

    Thank you very much for your consideration,

    Isay Katsman

    Reply

    • I would like that as well, Give us code with meaning instead of meaningless code, the code universe as it is right now kinda feels like a waste of time because it does not teach us anything.

  107. Hello everyone.

    I would like to create a universe that is similar to the Code universe but it will only be specific to the laravel framework.
    http://laravel.com/

    In my opinion the universe will be benefic for everyone interested in this popular framework and PHP language.
    The Code universe is good but i think is better to train in the coding style of our work/projects specific language.

    Let me know what you think.

    Have a blessed day!

    Reply

  108. i would like to have texts where commas and capitals are non existant to see how fastwe can type if we are chatting for example, because many poeple dont care about gramamr when chatting in games or on TS and discord

    Reply

  109. I noticed that there was the word “space” in the comments here, so I thought, why not create a typing universe full of quotes about space? This universe would be rather fun; typing quotes about space! It could also help people who are skeptical about space, or students of astronomy.
    TypeRacer account: adrianberger

    Reply

  111. I would love to be able to create a Command Prompt Universe, and maybe more coding ideas in the future, a universe which actually teaches people real commands and enable them to learn how to use the Command Prompt and Linux Terminal just by playing in the Universe. I have a 4.5 rated App in Google Play which teaches people how to use the Command prompt in Windows, let me know if you also think this is a good idea.

    Reply

  112. I would like to make a universe that has texts related to sports events and articles!
    my username on typeracer is krisegalaxy

    Reply

  113. Hi TypeRacer Community and Teams,
    I was hoping if there is a Universe with Quranic verses or chapters from it segmented in parts.
    I’m a huge fan of the Typeracer website and would be grateful to you all.
    I hope that it can bring large public attention to your website.
    Thanks and Regards

    Reply

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