Oh, and I assume your take over of Turkey in the 2011 SoW Undergrad 1 game may have lead to this thread. But I could be wrong.

Yeah, when I say communicate I guess I should clarify to game-related communication. Also with new players it makes sense to catch up, so I agree with you. Note: This isn't really about the SoW game, I've just had it happen many times and I feel people handle it very differently.

I'd especially like to hear from someone who does communicate during paused games, and their rationale.

The SoW game just made me think of the issue again.

What is SoW?
(sorry if this is a question for another thread)
I've never been in a game where the players pushed through a pause, but i've been in one where a pause was requested. What's the etiquette for voting through a pause vs not allowing it?
The one game in particular was a live game and a player had to go to dinner.

SoW = School of War. Basically a game for beginners to build their skills with the help of more experienced players

Basically you vote pause if you believe the situation merits a pause. Its entirely up to you. Granted you will likely not make too many friends if you refuse to pause if there is a good reason.

SoW = School of War (look for the threads on here for more information)

Some people outright refuse to ever pause. It's there perogative.

Some will grant pauses for valid reasons: the game is running longer than expected and a trip came up or the holidays have approached or a personal issue (wife went in labor, sudden illness or injury) or a regional disaster occured...

Generally, if a person's request is reasonable, I'll grant it. Now, if you start a new game (not something special like SoW or Leagues or something) and you immediately go on vacation, I'll refuse it unless it was agreed upon in advance. You should have the courtesy of not joining a game just before you plan to go on a trip.

Most of the leagues and torunaments have rules regarding pauses that require players to grant one per player for up to a week or some such. Beyond that is up to the others in the game.

Live games are another beast. Most of them end up cancelled or drawn if they have run really long and someone needs a pause because getting everyone back together again is nigh on impossible. If you do enter live games, however, make certain you give it 3 hours or more available time per 5 minutes of phase length. So plan all day (or all night) for a 15 minute phase game.

yeah, i did, the game ended up going pretty long because germany and i made a strong center power alliance, and we were at 16 centers each when he stabbed me, but because of dmzs, the stab only let him get one extra center and so it ground on for a bit before England had to leave.

I think strategizing through a pause is ok in some cases, and not in others. player gets banned and you are waiting on a replacement, that is ok, because the replacement may act totally different, so you have to plan accordingly with allies... an emergency or something like that, shouldn't strategize, because that puts the other player at an unfair advantage and it's not their fault they can't be there to play and talk right than... a pause for Vacation or something, depends on how much notice they give... 3 or 4 days, you have time to talk before they go... day before, no, I keep talking...
and I always grant a pause unless it is like, I don't FEEL LIKE getting online for a couple days, so lets pause...