An option where players may "vote to pause" would be nice. 

Sometimes you're in a real-time game and someone has to go somewhere for a short while ---  gentlemen/gentlewomen of the game can "vote to pause" the timer. 

Or perhaps you're playing a real-time game, you hit "pause" and and state a message in the box.  Only your opponent can unpause the game (not you).  If you take too long they can unpause, or they wait for you to type a message about unpausing. 

There are other ways this can be useful, say I want to play 1-minute go M57, but one of us has to leave --- we can pause the play and resume later.  Resuming may be tricky trying to time up again but at least we don't need to vote to end.  I know you can play a game with longer boots and SAY take 1-minute terms but it's not the same urgency to get a move out ;)

There would have to be a Resume toggle.  And the game would resume only when both players have hit it.  The problem is, what if bother players never end up doing this at the same time?  Does the game sit in perpetual limbo? Does it time out?

The Fisher Clock solution is simply to let excess time accrue, and that's good for breaks to the refrigerator or the bathroom, but it doesn't work when you want to put things off for a few hours.

Hmm.. How about if one player could propose a "Resume Time"?  If the other player accepts, the game and clock is automatically paused, and no play is allowed until that time.

I don't know about the details, but I would love to have something like this.    I have a cool idea for a map, but it would probably lead to long games, so to make it playable it would need some sort of lightning game with pauses.

To be clear, the "Resume Time" clock would automatically un-pause the game at the appointed time.   Woe to the player whose turn it is if they aren't ready and waiting.

You could limit the pause to a set of standard times, like a 1-hour pause, a 2-hour pause, a 5-hour pause, a 12-hour pause, and a 24-hour pause or something like that.

I think being able to select an exact time is just as easy to implement, and is way more flexible.

..let's pick this game up at 7:30 after dinner..

+1 to the concept.  We need to avoid a scenario where someone will pause without any intention of finishing the game.

SquintGnome wrote:

+1 to the concept.  We need to avoid a scenario where someone will pause without any intention of finishing the game.

Not really possible.  Just like the  way the "terminate game" feature works (with both players agreeing to the terms), the only way players could attempt a non-finish would be if every time the clock un-paused the game, both players agreed to another game pause.  But even then, the time they take to re-pause the game would tick away on the clock. Bottom line: if there's a limit on the delay of game, the game must eventually end.  It doesn't matter what the limit is.  Besides, it would take a lot of coordinated effort to stall a game this way.

That said, I think a limit of 8 days  (~190 hours) would be nice.  That way, weekend players could start a game on a Saturday, and pause it until any time the following weekend.

Remember, a game can only be paused if all players (I see no reason it couldn't be more than two) agree to the exact terms, so there's nothing wrong with a longish delay.  The exception would be tournaments, where I don't think you can have a Fisher clock anyways, so it's a non-issue.

I think that in a two player game giving the opponent the power to resume the game takes away any chance for abuse by the user doing the pausing. 

Pausing would be a risk you would take on the honor (patience?) of your opponent, but better than losing outright because say the boss walks in or something.

Andernut wrote:

I think that in a two player game giving the opponent the power to resume the game takes away any chance for abuse by the user doing the pausing. 

Pausing would be a risk you would take on the honor (patience?) of your opponent, but better than losing outright because say the boss walks in or something.

But s variable pause system puts the power to abuse in the hands of the opponent who is accepting the pause:

"We said 6:00 tonight, but I thought you meant PST."

"Oops, I forgot my clock runs fast, and I made my move 5 minutes too early."

I think a set time is the only way to go.  Such a system would also enable games with more than two to fairly pause and then resume a game.

There could even be an "i'm Back" or "Vote to Un-pause" toggle in case players want to resume the game before the appointed time.

Essentially what I'm describing here is kind of a Convert to Daily (1), Quick (2), Regular (3), or Extended (7) button or toggle.  It's important that there is always a clock or deadline in play.

> Convert to Daily (1), Quick (2), Regular (3), or Extended (7) button

Yeah maybe some sort of vote to convert timer button would be simplest.  If it supported any type of timer, players could start a lightning game, then convert to extended, then when everyone is back convert back to lightning, etc.

I love the idea of changing to 1/2/3/7 day boots in any game (with vote).  But in my opinion vote to pause would be applicable mostly in fischer/lightning games.  It shouldn't really be all that complex, and ultimately rely on the graciousness of your opponent.