@SD:

I thought BESM was female? Didn't (s)he play in that all ladies game with Ms. Bent a long time ago?

Thanks for letting me know though. I'll stop calling him a girl. :-)

@abgemacht - BTW the pause was requested because the player would be away for the weekend. Here in Florida it's Tuesday. It's already Wednesday in parts of the world. I guess we should have asked which weekend he would be away? ;)

Oh, BTW the player who requested the pause has voted unpause, but 5 others haven't.

I think he meant the 4th, Czech...

Then why did HE unpause? It's the other 5 who are dragging their feet now.

Russia was the one who requested (forced) the pause, and he hasn't voted unpause...

Not in my game. In my game it was England who asked for the pause. I'm Russia.

I only had one bad situation with pause. I was once center short of victory and I had to go for a few days. Everyone were nice and paused the game, but when I got back one player refused to unpause for a few weeks. Only after mods are mentioned he unpaused the game and in that turn I won.

I didnt had any other bad experience with pauses. I never use this tool without serious need, but when I am certain I will be without internet for few days I always ask for pause and people were always so kind to grant it. I agree with abgemacht that better is to prolong the game for week or two that to have NMR or CD.

@abge - following your logic, I or anyone else should just be able to pause a game for whatever reason as the alternatives, NMR CDing are worse and it doesn't really affect the other players, right?

@ Czech: I think you're talking about a different game then, since Manic has already confirmed that he's talking about the one I am. ;-)

I am just going to throw in my idea here. I think that if you have more then 1 or 2 CD's to your record you should be excluded in any pause/unpause votes. Those are the people who seem to be the most difficult to get to agree to a timely pause/unpause period. And yes I know this might be a pain to code but I do think something like this would be worth it. It might also be interesting to set an option up into the new game settings to allow anyone making a new game the choice of enabling or disabling the pause option. Then people could pick only "no pause" games if they have such a problem with being patient.

Change your idea to a percentage and... well. I still think it's a bad idea. But it's better. :-P

@Maniac

NMRing and CDing is worse, but it's still rude to demand pauses instead of asking. I've been know to almost not grant pauses because people felt entitled to them.

As for demanding and entitlement, while I know that happens, I also think that sometimes tone comes across badly on the internet. I mean, I can physically say, "Come on guys, can I get a pause?" and use tone to mean "I'm begging for a pause" or "You're idiots, give me the damn pause." And which we think a person is saying might be as simple as whether we've had our morning coffee yet or not and is not necessarily indicative of what they mean.

1 or 2?

:(

For me the main thing is - is the pause being used as a diplomatic tool?

If some guy begs for a pause but is the whole time diploming a complex strategy to say stop a solo-er, then if I found out about that I would force unpause.

By the same token if one person asks me to force unpause knowing that a player will CD if I do.... then I am reluctant, as the others have said.

I am somewhat with abge personally - unless you have a serious deadline to finish the game, it's not a huge deal, right? Clearly this guy is abusing it, but as has been said a CD is a worse option.

It is your decision to pause or not, you are right in that Maniac, but by the same token it is Russia's right not to unpause.

The exceptions to both of these is if they are being used for diplomatic gain, in which case I would overrule you as a mod. But I see no evidence of that with this dude running off to a music concert.

In terms of you getting screwed over before I don't know what you mean - I tend and/or try not to pay any attention to who it is I am modding, I just mod.

@Thucy - Are you for real?! It is *not* someone's right to unpause. I was told that I didn't have that right and a rule was made because of my actions. Now you are backing down from that claim? That's fucked up, dude.

Play games with five or ten-day phases. You ask for a pause, you get made fun of.

After Thucy's last statement I join Maniac in refusing to ever pause a game outside the Leagues and tournament's where it is part of the rules. Don't ask. I won't do it now that I know at least one mod thinks it is a player's right to not unpause when the agreed upon pause period has elapsed.

When did I say it was someone's right to pause?

If a game is paused all chat should be frozen. Because if you consider how a F2F game works, if a "pause" happened you're not standing around talking in that forum either.

Oh I misread you. It's your right not to vote unpause - but if your reason for doing so relates to the game in any way then you are out of line.

Also that's a really good idea kreilly I agree with you on that.

And if there was a programmed way to have a timed pause, well then that would be different.

Then it isn't a right. A right is unqualified. It is a priviledge that can be abused with possible consequences, but not a right.

And freezing global would be bad because the person requesting the pause may want to tell the other's when they are back. But private should definitely be frozen.

@Draug: I think you might be right that global doesn't need to be unfrozen. On the other hand wouldn't voting unpause be a signal that the person who wanted a pause is back?

Well it's also not your right to refuse to pause by that same logic because in some cases the mods force pauses for other reasons even over players' objections such as in instances with cheating.

We can debate the meaning of the word right but... that would be a waste of time, no? How about "right in normal circumstances" instead if it makes you happier lol

And yeah agreed global should stay unlocked. That's the best feature suggestion I've heard in a while though.

Kreilly yes it does signal that but all 7 have to vote unpause for a reason - to make sure everyone is ready. If I'm told a game will be paused cause some guy is out for a week, and I stop looking at the game, I can be confident it won't start up again during that week.

On a broader note - I know we love to talk about pauses on this site but do you think we could maybe just remember that this is a game? And a friendly game at that? I see my main job as preventing cheating. Pause bickering is something I'm not terribly interested in. If it gets to an egregious level though I'll use my best judgment, but I can honestly tell you that in my best judgment it wasn't worth it to mess up the game like that. From the Golden Rule standpoint I sure would be bummed if it turned out a mod *force unpaused* my game when I thought I was good for the week.