Some advice that might go against popular belief: If you are getting your children a console for Christmas, do not open it up to download updates beforehand.

1 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:02 ID: rkx3bq

I have seen a lot of posts spreading this idea to open up the box, set up the console and download all the updates to save time on Christmas Day.

I just want to make people think twice before acting on this advice - Opening up a fresh console and doing the set up yourself is a magical experience that doesn't happen often, so please don't take that away from your kids or whoever you're gifting new consoles to this Christmas.

I'm sure I am not alone when I say that some of my fondest Christmas morning memories were opening up that box with that fresh console smell and setting it up all on my own and running through the first time setup.

Sure, it may take a bit longer, but the excitement will be running high and it will be appreciated all the more in the end.

2 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:04 ID: hpcarcf

I think people were saying that in response to the extremely excessively long Wii U initial setup it was like 5+ hours.

ID: hpci7hv

If it took 5+ hours to set up a wii u. Someone did something wrong...

ID: hpd9qn9

Someone other than the Wii U’s marketing department?

ID: hpciabm

Did you buy a launch Wii U in 2012?

ID: hpdrsi4

Nah it was a disaster to merge accounts and move them around and stuff. From Wii>wiiu then merging the 3ds in. It really was bad.

ID: hpedx7c

While I was waiting for the Wii U updates, me and my family watched Doctor Who and played dominos together. Once the Wii U was ready, my family was not impressed and could not tell the difference between it and the Wii. But I never regretted spending my travel grant on it!

ID: hpfoe5c

Uhhh... Travel grant?

ID: hpe7svr

5+ hours

Cries in rural internet

ID: hpdvrto

Jesus what. I remember being a kid on Christmas day and the longest delay between opening up that Ps2 and getting it working was thanking nan enough.

3 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:14 ID: hpcc3jh

IMO this’ll entirely depend on the age of the kid. If they’re younger, they probably don’t care at all about the setup and just want to play asap.

ID: hpd25uf

Yeah this is it. As a father, I can already hear my small kid complaining the entire time waiting to play. Meanwhile my other kid also wants my attention with their gifts.

Basically, if they are too small to set it up themselves, best to go ahead and do it before Christmas morning.

ID: hpdjpzo

Also dependent on the speed of your internet. If you have google fiber then skip it. If your internet is so slow you have to pause netflix and let it buffer then absolutely go out of your way to do it a few nights before.

ID: hpekazn

We got an Xbox a couple of years ago for the kids at Christmas. Came with Forza Horizon 4. That's about 70GB had to download it overnight.

Hey here's your new Xbox but forget about playing it today - at all.

ID: hpe1cac

Depends on the age of the kid. Fixed that for you.

When I was younger, <10, I found a lot of joy in the smaller rituals. I loved setting up a console. In my experience, people get less patient with age, less able to appreciate the small things like this.

That's part of why I still like discs, too: the "ritual" of inserting a disc to play a game is a lot like getting an appetizing smell of your food before eating it. Digital games just don't have that.

ID: hpcktsh

A small child will just want to get to gaming but for a teenager this is good advice, especially if it’s ostensibly their console. It helps them establish ownership and boundaries over it.

Also, they really should have both the patience and the tech savvy to do the setup.

ID: hpd05q3

Yeah, at 5-7 yr, I just wanted my gameboy to work. At 12, I didn’t want my parents or younger siblings touching the gamecube until I set it up because my parents are not tech-savvy and I knew my little siblings were young and impatient.

ID: hpdp6vr

And all the consoles hitting their servers to get the updates at once

ID: hpe1zy8

I mean know your kid. Setting up the console was fun for me since I was 8

4 : Anonymous2021/12/21 05:50 ID: hpe660n

God I fucking love that new electronic smells, I know you shouldn't huff computer dust but every time I open something new I just can't help myself and ssssnnnniiiiiiFFFFFFE-aaahhhh.

ID: hpg5eg3

Mmm Fresh plastic and solder. Crisp styrofoam. Smooth plast wrap. Marinated in that sweet stale asian factory air. Served with the best of all: a side screen protector peel.

ID: hpg3pdl

I like the smell when the dentist drills my teeth for fillings. Whose with me!?

Edit: you uncultured swine

ID: hpg8cdf

Absofuckinglutely not

ID: hpg82wk

oh my god i got my molars out and they had to stick needles in my gun, but that wasn’t nearly as bad as when they started drilling. i couldn’t feel a thing, but the smell of burning tooth was awful. i 100% disagree with you.

5 : Anonymous2021/12/20 22:49 ID: hpcpfgp

Depends on the age of the kid. A 6yr old isn't going to appreciate the "pre-game ritual" but a 16yr old might.

ID: hpe1yey

There are exceptions, of course. I liked it as a 10 year old, but my 17yr brother didn't want to waste time.

6 : Anonymous2021/12/20 22:43 ID: hpcopnw

I remember the SNES era. Buy (or be gifted) it, take it out of the box, hook it up to the TV, play games. It really was magical.

ID: hpdc2m5

Truly magical

ID: hpe61it

crazy concepts they had I tell ya

ID: hpej0fw

You sure must feel sad about having missed out on waiting hours for a system update to finish and stare at a progress bar for the rest of the evening while Fortnite downloads. /s

ID: hpezc53

And 2 controllers in the box? What was that madness!

ID: hpe0k8g

That took like 20mins tops.

Nowadays a system update with my local internet speeds can take 4 hrs

7 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:08 ID: hpcbbxp

I’d agree a few years ago but now it seems like every year for the last several years there’s server problems every Christmas. I’d rather customize my home and get some games downloaded vs trying to get the console updated on Christmas Day. Bonus if there’s games already installed.

ID: hpd6bfy

It’s because Christmas morning is the biggest gaming day of the year- and the servers are under more strain than usual.

Source: Microsoft conference several years ago where they talked about monitoring and scaling vms.

ID: hpdevkd

I’m old and remember the Lizard Squad days lmao. Them kids stole Christmas one year and it never was the same again.

8 : Anonymous2021/12/20 22:12 ID: hpckbaf

Opening up a fresh console and doing the set up yourself is a magical experience that doesn't happen often

So, this practice is a direct response to specific technical problems. In short, Christmas can be a huge spike in traffic. New games, new consoles, etc etc. for lots of people means huge spikes in traffic. With these spikes in traffic, you have increased download times, dropped connections, connection limits/denied connections, etc etc etc. We've seen this multiple times for multiple companies on multiple platforms. Etc.

You can absolutely give your kid that "magic experience", but there's a non-trivial chance it's a ticket to a magical shit show.

If you really want to hype the console setup experience without the risk, offset from Christmas proper. Do the solstice or new year's or something else. If you want to do it exactly on Christmas, good luck to you and your kiddo.

My two cents anyways.

ID: hpd3fqg

Yay for UTC+12 timezone! We get in before the masses.

ID: hpe0q74

I vividly remember getting a PS4 for Christmas only to turn it on and find that the whole server or whatever had crashed from Christmas morning online traffic. Couldn’t load up a single game for days.

9 : Anonymous2021/12/21 03:08 ID: hpdniuh

Depends on the age of the children. If they are younger definitely open in advance. It will still be magical to power it up for the first time and they can get into a game without waiting "forever".

10 : Anonymous2021/12/21 06:36 ID: hpeac20

Man when I was a kid and still believed in Santa I asked for Zelda: Majoras Mask. Come Christmas morning I race downstairs and see a wrapped gift that’s in the shape of that beautiful N64 box. Open it don’t even bother looking at the other presents just whack it into the n64 and away I go. That’s when I notice “Santa” has started the game already and accrued me loads of rupees.

So while I do agree that I love opening things and doing it first. I have never forgotten the time santa aka my mum sat and played Zelda in the wee hours of the morning to give me a surprise.

ID: hpfy8fn

My dad did that with Halo CE, so as we played Slayer on Blood Gulch the rest of the morning Santa kicked our asses lol

11 : Anonymous2021/12/20 23:11 ID: hpcsiyv

Set up can take days if your internet is slow enough. Now couple that with christmas day and everyone hammering the servers all at once.

Opening up a new console might be a great experience, but sitting around watching a progress bar on christmas day isnt.

Set up you kids console, then put it back in all the packaging that it came in. Simple.

ID: hpei1xm

I got the destiny taken king ps4 and was hella hyped and work was slow so I got to go home early.... My internet at the time was so slow I couldn't play the game until MY NEXT SHIFT STARTED. So yeah fuck all that

12 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:13 ID: hpcc1jq

This is nonsense. As a child of the 90s setting up a console was great, yes. Now however, it’s just WAITING there’s no process of doing anything, it’s just waiting for a progress bar to finish. I live in an area with abysmal internet speeds and those updates would make Christmas Day a no go for my daughter, so no, acting against advise of downloading updates before christmas is just stupid, and a little mean, too.

13 : Anonymous2021/12/21 04:41 ID: hpdyzrk

In 1994, this was an alright concept.

I just had to wait two hours before playing the PlayStation 4 I have because I haven’t played in almost two years. I don’t even want to know what it’s like for someone getting a new console that’s been on the market for a year or more.

I guess you could do all the downloading and then repackage the console, but honestly it was only cool to open a console in the past because we associated it and the smell with the pleasure chemicals that came with playing games.

These younger kids will just associate some other experience with it.

It was a nice experience, but it wasn’t the only experience someone can have and have it be memorable. It’s just the one we grew up conditioned to enjoy by association.

14 : Anonymous2021/12/20 21:20 ID: hpcd0ou

I 100% disagree. Back in the day you could open a console insert game and play. Now you open the console, connect to internet, open app on phone for code, software update, controller update, and insert game. Kids now finally thinking they are going to play only for the game to install and update while you are battling with the rest of the world across the Sony and Microsoft servers. And rinse and repeat for every new game waiting on them. This isn’t the snes, n64, and PS1 days where you plug and play. What I do is set everything up then place console back in the box. When my kids open Christmas morning it will be no difference. They will have no idea I eliminated the waiting and software updates. They will insert the games and play. Trust me no kid wants to sit through all the updates and installs on Christmas morning. Todays experience isn’t the same as years past

ID: hpd5zep

Unbox new console

Plug it all in

Start up

Have to log in with some sort of account

Make an account and write down the username/password for later

All seems well, insert game disc

Oops, before you can play the console needs to download a system update, its only 300mb so that should complete lickety split

It takes 30 minutes to download the equivalent of a late 90s game

Oh that's over

Oh now the system needs to apply the downloaded files, and individually

Finally done updating, now its gotta restart

Restart is done and now its applying the update

Oh it found another update, fantastic.

1 hour later after starting it up it looks ready

Start game

Game needs a huge patch downloaded otherwise you can't play yet

ID: hpd77q3

Sounds about right!

ID: hpeicdo

Game has to install, defeating the point of buying the fucking disc version, THEN game has to update.

ID: hpcriey

I was disappointed when I bought my xbone that I still had to wait like 11 hours to install my game even with the disc.

15 : Anonymous2021/12/20 22:49 ID: hpcpfv8

This is silly. If you’re getting a console for a child/kid and have poor internet, do everybody a favor and just predownload the updates/ some games and set them up. If you’re reading this thread I have to imagine you’re tech savvy enough to do that, you subscribe to a gaming subreddit.

No 12 year old is like “ugh, you set up my DASHBOARD! HERESY!”. Just put the shit back in the box. People like getting the gift, people like using the gift. No kid is gonna be like “I loved the gift, but not being able to take the tape off really invalidated my experience. I’ll lament not watching the bar fill up until it’s too late and I must sleep”.

This advice has its heart in the right place so I won’t knock it too hard. But kids or family get consoles to play games, if you have the means to pre-set it up so they can get to that faster….do that…

引用元:https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/rkx3bq/some_advice_that_might_go_against_popular_belief/

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