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[Wikzo]

To some people, getting a game at a midnight launch is magical. To me, it's waking up early and playing a new shiny game before anybody else in the house wakes up.

One of my fond childhood memories is to receive a new game for Christmas or my birthday. The next following days I would wake up early to play the game intensively. These early hours were great.

Today, having grown older (plus having access to virtually an infinite amount of games), this doesn't happen that often anymore. I can only recall two times, namely Zelda: Skyward Sword and Metal Gear Solid V. The former I played during early hours in a weekend, the latter I played during my summer holiday.

With the release of Breath of the Wild, I am experiencing the same thing again. Over the last couple of weeks I have consistently woken up 30-60 minutes earlier than usual and thought to myself: "I can catch a little bit of Zelda before I get out of bed and head to work". The instant resume/sleep function of the Switch makes this even easier. Even though the game is huge, I still feel like I can accomplish something in that short time span. It's not like I have changed my alarm clock or anything; my body just happens to wake up earlier (I guess my body is indeed ready).

How about you? Do you ever do this? If so, what games make you do it?

 

[noomi]

Yes.... every single day.

Family wakes up around 7, i try to be up by 5am.

Not always for games, sometimes just to watch tv orba movie ininterrupted.

 

[mcfizzle4]

I moved to Germany right before The Taken King released for Destiny. I would wake up at 5 am to raid with my group back in the states. I could usually get three hours in before I had to go to german class.

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

I woke up at 4am to play in the first Splatoon 2 Testfire session today...

 

[TomNinetyTwo]

I often wake up early at the weekend to get a few hours of gaming, I have this morning and by the time everyone else is up I've already had a few fun hours of gaming, feels great

 

[Polioliolio]

All the time as a kid. Now I know that waiting isn't the end of the world, and very few games give me that sense of excitement anyway.

Demon's Souls might be the last game to do that to me.

 

[liezryou]

Wake up early to get those extra hours of play over my brothers

 

[matrix-cat]

I wake up in the middle of the night to play the game of watching the E3 shows every year. I don't think I've ever done it with a proper game, though.

 

[Creepy]

I stay up really really late playing games and then go to bed when the sun is up, does that count?

 

[Strike]

I used to, but I'm too busy to do that now.

 

[Possumowner]

Oh boy yes.Not on purpose but if i struggle to get back to sleep i just grab a Vita or now my Switch

 

[AppleSeason]

Never. I was always "gaming, late to bed kid".

Nowadays I take my sleep time seriously. I can't afford going to work missing sleep hours.

 

[BouncyFrag]

I did back in the day with Oblivion.

 

[RamaTheVoice]

I used to game until late at night, but now I kinda like gaming in the morning.

I don't work Fridays, so every Friday I wake up around 8am and start the weekend's Forzathon in Forza Horizon 3.

 

[Samikaze]

I used to. I'd wake up early to get in an hour or so of Dark Age of Camelot in before school when I was a teen.

Now a days I like my sleep. I tend to play games late into the night after getting off work.

 

[keviny]

Every day since BotW has released.

 

[Okada]

Not always but yeah it's great to get a few hours in before the house awakes.

 

[ShaunBRS]

Last time I remember waking up early to play a game was with Wind Waker in 2005. I had stopped gaming for a few years but the Wii announcement got me hyped and I went and bought a Gamecube.

Woke up at about 4am the day after I bought it and had to go downstairs and play.

 

[alexanderftw]

Nah, morning gaming is almost non-existent for me since I have to either go to work or shopping/chores when I'm free. There are a few exceptions when I'm on a vacation or have more days off and nothing to do, or if I have some indie game that I can play in short bursts.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

I stay up really really late playing games and then go to bed when the sun is up, does that count?

Haha same here although not quite that late.

Gaming in the morning does't appeal to me at all. When I play games I don't like to feel rushed so I generally don't play unless I have a couple of free hours. Getting earlier than necessary has never been my thing. Like going to the gym in the morning before work...fuck that.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

Did this frequently in summer of 2010. I'd get up a bit earlier than usual to just play 2fort on TF2 from like 9 to 11. So much fun!

 

[AlexBasch]

I work from 10AM to 11PM or more.

So yeah, waking up early is vital if I want to distract myself for a bit.

 

[ryushe]

Yep. Regularly. My job requires me to be up very early, so even on my days off, I'm often up earlier than my wife.

Last time I did this was with Breath of the Wild. I literally rolled over, picked up my Switch and resumed playing like that dude in Super Bowl ad. It was glorious.

 

[NeoRausch]

When I was deep into PSO Online I got up at 4am before school to play with people from America.

Somehow the euro Servers kinda never filled up that much. Also my first big online experience.

 

[zoukka]

Hah yeah I used to in my teens and early 20's. It's actually a great memory and feeling thanks OP for reminding me...

Nowadays I struggle to get enough sleep so I just have to sleep as much as I can.

 

[actthafool]

Back when I was a kid yeah, just to beat my brother to the Mega Drive. These days I'm lucky to have lots of free gaming time. I work shifts so I always have a few hours when nobodies in the house before or after work.

 

[Mifec]

I have unlimited free time so I just wake up whenever, sometimes I sleep before the game is about to come out so I can just marathon it.

 

[ChouGoku]

No I end up staying up late

 

[kromeo]

No, I get up the absolute latest possible to get ready for work

 

[Robiin]

I remember when I got my Gamecube and Melee. I think I was 11 or so at the time. It was in the middle of a refurbishing of the apartment so I shared room with my mother. Melee was so good and I had friends coming over every day to play.

Unfortunately me and my mother didn't grasp the concept of a memory card (I had a PS1 but my father bought everything and set it up), we only had cartridge systems like Gameboy and N64 until then so we simply forgot to get a memory card.

This meant that every day when my mother was still sleeping, I would get up and try to unlock as much stuff as I could to prepare for when my friends would show up. The TV was in our bedroom because of the refurbishing. I think my mother still has bad memories of waking up because of the click noises from the GameCube controller and trying to sleep through them.

 

[-duskdoll-]

Yeah, when i have an evening shift i make sure to wake up at 6 so i can play as much as possible before going to work. If i have the day off i just play whenever i wake up.

 

[Aarglefarg]

I woke up at 4am or something like that once since Rinse and Repeat told me to. That game has three appointments to attend based on the real world time.

I set my alarm to 5:50am today and tomorrow for the Splatoon 2 testfire but that's a rare event and not all that early.

 

[Zeel]

Mostly when a new PS4 game unlocks on tuesday morning GMT+1 time.

 

[syncyes]

Way back in like, elementary school/middle school when I was kind of addicted to Maple Story I used to sneak onto the computer early on weekends before my parents woke up/before school on weekdays.

Very embarrassing in hindsight.

 

[Voras]

I'm not a morning person so I generally don't wake up early to play games. Years ago back during the early days of WoW one of my buddies would wake up at like 5 am to play it before school to keep it secret because his parents didn't like that he played video games.

 

[ManeKast]

Weirdly. Blaster Master Zero I play pre dawn only, that retro vibe works in the dark before the sun comes up.....

 

[texhnolyze]

Umm.. I wake up at 5 every day.

Work is at 9, so I have like 2 hours to play in the morning.

 

[Tyaren]

Sometimes when I can't sleep I play a couple of hours and then go back to bed. Like today. Was wide awake at 3am. :/

 

[Jotakori]

More like I start playing at a reasonable, human hour and then just never go to bed....

 

[test_account]

I remember when i was a kid, i sometimes went up at like 5 AM to play NES hehe. I remember beating The Adventures of Bayou Billy before going to school. Also fondly remembering playing Ninja Gaiden (or Shadow Warriors that its named here in Europe).

Some years ago it also happened that i started playing as soon as i get up, maybe even for some hours before i ate breakfast. I've stopped doing that though.

 

[Jintor]

got up at 6am to play splatoon this morning, might do again tomorrow, probably won't... should actually get some sleep tomorrow considering my weeks are garbage.

i used not to wake up early but sneak downstairs at 1am to play videogames. dad caught me a bunch of times and was pretty pisseddddd

 

[Mathieran]

Yup 90% of my game time is between 5-7 am.

 

[Chaos17]

Yes, for XCX and Zelda BotW.

 

[Exquisik]

I'm nocturnal, so I usually play games late night and try to get as much sleep as possible in the morning...

I can't recall the last time I played a game early in the morning unless I stayed up all night.

 

[wighti]

Yeah, I work early mornings and even on the weekends wake up early. Get up around 7 on my days off and get to game all the way 'till noon before my wife wakes up

 

[Poster#1]

I don't feel like playing videogames when I wake up :/

 

[Javier23]

Last two times I woke up excitedly to play a game that just released were for Mass Effect 2 and MGSV. Both ultimately didn't live up to my expectations despite my totally uncontained excitement. Specially ME2.

 

[SuperÑ]

Hell no.... sleeping>>>>gaming

 

[Bananastand]

I started doing this recently and it has actually been really nice.

I have found that I am always more productive when it is dark out. Playing games out that time can sometimes feel like a waste when I have more important things to do.

Plus, it helps me get out of bed because you know, video games are actually fun.

 

[V1LÆM]

Of course! At weekends I often get up at 3,4, or 5am to play a game. During the week I am up at 3-4am for work so doesn't bother me getting up at that time. I like it because of the peace and quiet.

Been doing it for Horizon Zero Dawn and Zelda but it started way back when Pokemon Red/Blue came out. I wouldn't waste any time and would be playing it pretty much every waking moment.