[quote name='greentiger' timestamp='1311975826' post='4842318']
no, not anyone can unpause the game (well maybe they can in starcraft II but not in starcraft or warcraft III). only the player that paused the game can unpause the game.
it is considered good gaming etiquette to warn BEFORE pausing and BEFORE unpausing.
This is incorrect. In Warcraft III you can unpause a paused state thrown by another player. This avoids having someone pause the game forcibly and make everyone leave or wait as much as that player wants.
So, summing up the way Warcraft III handles this:
Every player is allowed 3 pauses. If they have used their pause 3 times they can't pause anymore for the rest of the match.
Every pause halts everyone's game.
Every player is allowed to unpause any other player's paused state.
[/quote]
Perhaps it's just StarCraft 1 then where only the pausing player can unpause the game. Honestly, it would piss me off to no end if I paused the game because of a bathroom break or a phone call and someone else unpaused it. I think the solution of a pause with a timer is best (but 3 minutes is enough time to say call me back but probably not enough time for a bathroom break).
You could handle it like a game of online poker. Any player in an active game can hit the "sit out" button. They still have a seat at the table but their turn is skipped until they come back.
You could even go one step further and put a time limit on how long somebody can sit out before being booted from the game. Say 10 to 20 minutes.
No, it is not.
One player must not be allowed to impact everyone else's game like that.
So if after a 1hour game the UPS guy is at the door I'm supposed to instantly surrender? This obviously works in a FPS game where you often can join and leave games at will. But for example in an RTS it doesn't work out at all... I'd actually rather have to wait 1 minute while my opponent sorts out his stuff instead of him just randomly surrender whenever something happens. The SC2/Blizzard system works nicely in that regard. If someone needs a pause he will pause the game, announce why he paused (in 90% it's the phone) and shortly afterwards will come back and continue. If the opponent doesn't say anything about why he paused you ask and if he still doesn't answer you unpause...
In well over 1k SC2 ladder games I had only a single occurrence of someone going "wait a sec, phone" and then not coming back for 5 minutes, after which I unpaused.
EDIT: Wow, apparently everyone else has quoted from WC3 too. Sorry.
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Warcraft III implemented a system like this. Each player got 3 pauses, and every player can unpause the game even if they didn't pause it. It attracts trolls, yes, but they can't do a whole lot if you can just hit F10 then P (I think that's the hotkey...I still don't know after 8 years of playing WC3).
Defense of the Ancients has the worst gaming community of any online game, and this pause system is barely noticeable, even in the foul hands of those players (shudder). Sometimes it can screw you up, but very rarely, and you only get 3 pauses per player, so it can't be excessively abused. In some situations, players actually allow you to pause if you give them a reason in the start of the game.
That being said, Defense of the Ancients (which is a 'map' made with Warcraft III's map editor, using Warcraft III's graphics and engine) is a very competitive game and is being made into a "real" game called DotA 2. There was a tournament with a million dollar prize, played using the early stages of DotA2 (which might not have the pause system, but I think you get the point).
The worse, most horrible, not thought out at all system in WC3 was the save system. Any player can save a game, even in multiplayer, and everyone has to wait for it to finish saving, and it goes straight into their Saves folder. I'm not even sure how you would load a game that originally had 10 players in it at once...it's never happened. Instead, this system has delayed games, irritated lots of people, and put lots of save files named profane words in our save file that we, the players of WC3 and DotA, periodically delete. This is a system that could really use a "Player is requesting to save the game. Do you agree?" system...I think it has a cap to how many times you can save, though, because I've only seen about 2 in a row from the same player in the past, and certainly if there was no cap the ill hearts of the DotA community would've continued saving until everyone left the game.
I think a "Do you agree to pause the game for this player?" system would work, or one similar to WC3. Or both, so you have to agree to pause it and you can unpause it at any time, or have a vote that requires like, 20-70% of the players in the match to vote "Unpause" for it to unpause.
