I'm developing a puzzle game where players take turns to make their moves. The game features a multiplayer mode over the net, and I've there put a time limit of 45 seconds per turn so games dont last forever.
My question is: is it a good idea to enable the players to pause the game when they need to do so? Imagine you're playing the game and you are being called on the phone or you need to go to the toilet or something else which prevents you from playing for a while - it would be annoying to lose a turn or even the game just because of that.
The pause would be limited to 5 mins and one player would be able to pause the game only two times so it doesnt get abused, but still that is likely to annoy the other players and attract internet trolls.
The chat will still be available when the game is paused.
So what do you think, do the advantages of implementing a pause make up for the possible drawbacks?

A player could ask for a pause, if the others agree, fine, otherwise too bad for him/her.

I don't know if this is valid, but what about a "pause request" ?
You click a Pause Request button and get an input box where you can type the reason for the pause (or you can tell your friends via voice chat). Upon the request, the game could be paused for a brief moment while your friends decide whether or not to accept. Then each of them can click a button to accept/deny the request.
In theory, this sounds good to me, but in practice it may be a bad idea. Not sure.

EDIT: I must have just missed 6510's comment. Good idea 6510! ;)

There's a few ways you can go about this.

1) Allow the player to pause the game, but limit the pause duration for 1 or so minutes per game. Allow the player to signify in the pause screen that they will forfeit if they don't return in time.
2) Allow the player to prompt the opponent(s) with a request for pause. If the opponent(s) do not agree then the person requesting a pause should have the option to forfeit or resume playing.

I think the second option is more polite and well rounded, personally. Sometimes people have to get up and forbidding such a necessity is really just cruel as there is a number of reasons why they may not be able to wait. It's better to just wash your hands of it and leave the choice in the hands of the players rather than yourself.

[quote name='Tom Sloper' timestamp='1311866650' post='4841648']
[quote name='Plusekwal' timestamp='1311856907' post='4841551']is it a good idea to enable the players to pause the game when they need to do so?

No, it is not.
One player must not be allowed to impact everyone else's game like that.[/quote]

I don't entirely agree with this, at least not as a general principle.

In my opinion, it depends - certainly as the number of players grows the potential for abuse or irritation grows. Also for serious, competitive games, it should not be allowed.

However for more casual games, with a reasonably small number of players (no more than four, perhaps) it seems quite reasonable to allow a player to pause the game, subject to certain limitations: a certain number of pauses per player, a time limit beyond which the remaining players can kick the pausing player, or otherwise unpause it, or a voting system to allow the pause in the first place.

I would only implement it as an optional rule however. Some players may not mind, others may prefer not to have the irritation. And in the world of game development, optional features like this tend to have low priority.
[/quote]

I agree on the optional rule. For some servers, it's just nice to have an unpausable guarantee.
-Although pausing can also be implemented as a voted option so everyone needs to agree on it (maybe in a complex RTS or if people happen to eat/sleep at the same time)
Pause could also be allowed by "team leaders" of some kind, -and it could have a timeout and be unavailable to players on the same team / everyone for some time afterwards.

So a couple of ideas on how to make pausing an MP game less annoying.


EDIT: Oh well, Flimflam beat me to it! -some of it, at least.