X Knight
Straight Edge
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If anyone can answer soon that'd be great.
I don't play games and haven't since Sega Genesis was giving way to the original Playstation. So I don't understand these modern game systems and how it all works. That said, I just bought my daughters an Xbox One and I want to break it with a sledgehammer already. After taking a good two hours just trying to figure out how to get the stupid thing working, she puts in the first game she wants to play which is Elder Scrolls Online and it's been installing or updating or whatever ever since. So here we are at almost 11pm on Christmas night and she STILL can't play a dang thing. It's around 84% now and moving at a freaking snail's pace.
I realized after we put it in that it's a very long install for that game, but she's in tears because she had other games she wanted to play and has been stuck all day on this idiotic install. Can she just take out the stupid disk and play other things and come back to it? Will that mess up the install? Does it even need the disk any more?
Sorry, I just don't understand these stupid game systems and it's about ruined Christmas day for them (first world problems, I know, but seeing my girls' Christmas morning excitement end in tears and me being too stupid to figure this crap out to help them is grating). I'm hoping they could at least play SOMETHING before going to bed in a couple hours.
I feel your pain ( and your daughter's ).

but sadly, that is the nature of the current generation of consoles and their mandatory installations/updates. Gone are the days where you can simply stick in a game disc or cartridge and start playing right away.
And of the 2 current consoles, X1 and PS4, the X1 is a bit "worse" in terms of the update/install process.
When you buy physical games, there are 2 parts to the install process. First, the game installs itself to the console's hard drive. Once it reaches a certain point, the game is usually "ready to play" while the rest of the game continues to install in the process. On the PS4, ready to play is usually achieved in less than a minute ( at the beginning it used to take about 2-4 minutes ). On the X1, it usually takes about 5-10 minutes before it hits that point.
However, besides the install, the game also has to download the first update/patch and that is usually what takes the longest to download, especially if the update patch is large. On the PS4, the process is smoother, because it treats the initial install and the patch update as separate processes that don't interfere with each other.
On the X1, I think it will try to download the update first before trying to install the game, and that can prolong the process. There are a few "tricks" that can speed up the process somewhat:
1. When you first insert the disc to install, it will ask if you want to download the update for the game. Say NO. Doing that forces the X1 to just install the game first, which depending on the game can still take 30-40 minutes or longer. Then, once you start the game, it will notify you that there's an update and ask you to install it. Installing the update itself can still take several hours depending on the size of the update.
2. Also, I believe the X1 installs/updates a bit faster if you put the console into rest/sleep mode using Instant On. So, in the Settings, if you choose Instant On ( instead of Energy Saving mode ) and check the box that says "Keep my games, app, and consoles updated," and then turn the console off, it will go into basically sleep/rest mode. Some say that can install updates faster, since it is devoting its resources to that.
"Online" games like Elder Scrolls Online typically take longer to install no matter what. And to answer your other questions.
1. Since you bought the physical game, yes, you would still need to use the disc everytime you want to play the game.
2. Technically, once you've got the install/update process going, you could stick another game in the console. It would then start the install/update process for that game.
The problem with the X1 is that I believe it can't "multitask" when it comes to installing the updates ( don't know if that's changed in recent console updates ). So, when you insert the the 2nd game disc, it may pause the first install/update and then switch to the 2nd game.
Of course, if the 2nd game is a smaller install or has a smaller update file, then technically you could get that game installed faster than the first so you can start playing that 2nd game while the first continues to update/install.
So, alas, if all of this sounds like a hassle, it's because it is. But that's just the nature of the current consoles and the X1 in particular.