Yes, that is the moral. No one is required to pause. It would be nice if they did, but not everyone will. (Pauses are a relatively new feature on this site, so luckily you didn't join 6 months ago.)

What I would recommend is joining games with 72 hour phases only, which will limit your exposure.

You don't have any recourse because pauses are entirely voluntary, although as you know, I share your frustrations!

I think your last sentence sums it up. Surely requesting a pause depends on the goodwill of others. There is no moral reason why anyone should accept a pause simply because someone else has requested it.

The whole situation is similar to people who complain when others don't finalize their orders at the first opportunity.

If you sign up to a slow game then expect it to be slow - if you sign up to a game where you have to enter orders at a certain interval then don't complain if other people want to stick to this original bargain.

Of course if you have helped another player out by agreeing to a pause then the situation is different because then you could argue that they owe you a moral duty to reciprocate.

i think people should pause if someone requests it. why not pause? it's true that no one is forced to pause, but to not do it when someone is asking for it is simply being a jerk, and i would make a mental note to never play with that person again if possible.

but waiting to unpause can really slow a game and lose momentum, which is almost worse than missing a phase at times.

I know in one of my games someone decided they couldn't come back for a week instead of the two days they had claimed. Now of course real-life concerns cause trouble, (and i am now looking for a two week pause, as i had thought the game would be over before then) But that is not ideal... Basically pausing sucks, it would be nice to be able to hand of control of a game to another player. (perhaps only someone not in the game)... sitting might help. (with the option for you to take back the game when you return from vacation.

There are a few ways to help yourself here:

Tournaments: There will be four tournaments next year:

GFDT:
Round 1: 2 games, top 21 qualify for Round 2
Round 2: 2 games, top 7 qualify for Final
Final: Single game final.

Rounds 1 and 2 are scored as: 36 for a win, 34/n for an n-way draw, n points for an n SC survival.

All games are 36 hrs phase, WTA, 5 point bet

Leagues:
4 game seasons, then promotions and relegations at the end, for a second season. 2 seasons per year. WTA scoring with SC count as a tie-breaker.

All games are 25 hrs phase, WTA, 5 point bet. They begin staggered by 2-3 weeks.

TMG Masters:
49 players, you play each player in exactly one game, so 8 games each, starting at the beginning of every month. Begins in September. 1 point for a solo, 0 points for anything else. Ties are broken by solos conceded, followed by the points won by the opposition.

All Games are 50 hrs, WTA, 5 point bet.

If there are more than 98 entrants a Masters2 competition will be run with players who failed to break into the first half.

TGM Champions' Trophy:
Invitation only, two game match between: Top two in GFDT, top two in Php Premier League and top two in The TMG Masters, plus last year's champion. This year, because there wasn't as full a tournament calendar, the selection is somewhat different. There is WTA scoring, phase length and pot are decided by those playing.

I run all bar the GFDT, and if a week or less pause is wanted, it should be given. For more than a week, or if the Leagues are running late, sitters will be necessary (see below)


Forum organised games:
You can organise games on the forum. This will give you better players and players who are unlikely be be so ill-mannered.

Sitting: Get somebody to babysit your account- change your password, give them the new password and instructions, and they can play in your absence. When you return, change the password back and thank them. To find a sitter, post on the forum, or contact players who you know some other way (via games or other cause of contact)

I'm with dj on this. We all try to sign up for games that for our preferred timescales, but sometimes Real Life (TM) gets in the way.

Certain members take advantage of paused games by refusing to un-pause. I refer to those who did not request the pause to begin with. They happily play on in other games, and ignore repeated requests to un-pause.

In League games, this is done to delay the timely finish of earlier games in a feeble attempt to cover up the obvious meta-game alliances that do crop up.

It is an utterly transparent ploy, and quite despicable.

Play with me, I am the perfect gentleman. I mean, even in Diplomacy, some things are just not cricket.

if someone is refusing to unpause, then get a mod to force it. that's an equally jerk move as refusing to pause in the first place, and completely agree that it's despicable.

There's a mod in our bloody games. It makes no difference at all.

actually i'd prefer a faster game which doesn't lose momentum.

face-to-face games are a lot of work to organise, but i think i'll try for some, and maybe some live games.

i'd almost prefer a 2 hour phase with automatic night pauses. (limits to one timezone, but you'll get around two years, 4-6 phases done per day, and hopefully finish a game in around one week, most games being done by 1914)

I'd also prefer to play one game per week which i knew would finish than 8 games at a time which were likely to finish in 8 weeks.

I prefer not to start games with someone who will be pausing for business all the time. The games lose their flow and I lose my interest. If its an emergency, fine, but for frequent business travel, I'd rather not.

@Jester - "Surely requesting a pause depends on the goodwill of others. There is no moral reason why anyone should accept a pause simply because someone else has requested it."

Actually, there is a moral reason - because forcing other players to miss turns isn't in the flow of the game.

There's no LEGAL reason to pause - the rules of the game (except in the leagues) don't require players to pause. But it is immoral and out of the spirit of the game to refuse to pause to gain advantage. And when I'm in a game where someone refuses to pause, I refuse to ally with that person.

I do think the mods need to look into anyone who refuses to unpause even though they log in.

The mods have all that information. A complaint against a player for refusing to unpause, if they find that the person logged in, should result in an immediate unpause.

I'm in a game where someone requested a weekend pause and never returned. A mod intervened and unpaused, because we specifically set a date for return before pausing.