Games

I don't play games that don't have a pause button. I'm an adult with adult shit to deal with. That might be as simple as cooking dinner. I don't have long for leisure in the evenings but if I can pause a game in between e.g. cooking, I can play it. If I can't pause, I can't play.

If devs want to say 'fuck you, user, we aren't making our game accessible,' then fuck them, too. Just another symbol of the shit hole that is game development. I don't really care what their justifications are. Online games could be made with a pause button as well if the devs cared about accessibility. It's an industry that takes itself far too seriously, as if games aren't supposed to be a bit of fun. That's what happens when games are commodities, I guess.

It's another factor in gamers being so reactionary; so much of it is de facto the reserve of people without responsibilities or people who don't care about their responsibilities. Down with inaccessible games.

In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad

in that case they can implement a pause screen that's only a pause screen, not allowing the user to do anything but unpause 😐

it's understandable if you're using a game engine that doesn't support it (e.g. your own engine), but I can't think of it as anything other than a design flaw

More often than not is a design choice. Dark Souls does it to increase tension: you can't pause to consider your options, you have to do it, and do it fast. It gives an even greater importance to your quick item slots since rummaging through your inventory for an item, while possible, can be cumbersome and kill you.

in Minecraft

But comrade... MINECRAFT is one of those games that doesn't have pausing...! 😨 (In Bedrock anyway, Java Edition is thankfully safe)

Star Craft even supports pausing in multiplayer games.

This is one of the few things I hate in Baldur's Gate 3. Sure, the game is round based, but I still can't pause cutscenes. So if my mother barges in while I'm getting it on with Astarion I loose valuable dialogue.

I’m playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason.

Funny to see this happen in a Monster Hunter-like. The recent Monster Hunter game (MHRise) allows you to pause in "offline mode"/singleplayer.

As always, the OG Monster Hunter keeps winning 🫡 🫡

I agree, and even in online games if I am playing in a solo context I should be able to pause. That should be a benefit to playing solo, by design. As an example, if I am playing Warframe in a non-public solo game, I should be able to pause.
The souls games are a pretty egregious example as they are, by and large, solo experiences first. I understand there are online elements, though I do not think I got far enough in any of them to even see those elements. Plenty of people do not engage with those elements, and a benefit to that should be the ability to pause something.

I would argue it should also be a feature in multiplayer games where it makes sense. Starcraft is a great example. The solo campaign obviously allows pausing, but so does online competitive play.

I accept that something like a MMO isn't going to allow you to pause, but there's not much that can be done about that. Unless you are engaged in dedicated group content, you can still usually pretty reasonably afk in those games honestly.

I have a friend whose first question when I suggest a game to him is "can I pause it?". He just became a father and while he still enjoys playing games, he isn't going to play anything that he can not pause when his child suddenly needs attention.

Uhh you shouldn't have mentioned a fromsoft game. How many skeletons do you have telling you that not having pause is actually cool and great? Lol you're not allowed to not like anything a souls game does online. I mean you can try not to like it, but hoooooo boy are you gonna hear about it.

Btw i think there might be a pause mod for one of the souls games on Nexusmods, have a look!

counterpoint: not being able to pause creates tension and puts pressure on the player. that wii U zombie game didn't pause while you were digging around in your inventory and that game would be way less interesting if it did. i probably wouldn't even remember it exists.

if you don't like that tension and pressure that's fine but there's no shortage of games that don't restrict you like that and no-pause is a legitimate design tool.

Yeah, all they would need to really do is unqueue you when you pause and disable pausing while someone is trying to connect. These are functions that already exist in these games, so there should be effort put into making a pause button.

I think it is only this way in Dark Souls because Demon's Souls was very messy and allowed for multiplayer to start even during one specific boss battle. So to keep the whole thing seamless (considering how otherwise janky the game was) they just went with "no pause" and it somehow became a tradition. Sekiro which is offline-only has a pause button AFAIK and you can "pause" Bloodborne by pressing the home button.

I'm not sure if there is ever a design benefit to not allowing pausing, it's mostly from technical difficulties. Monster Hunter is identical to Dark Souls and always had a pause button since at least the Wii version.

you would be surprised how hard a pause feature can be to implement.

What's the point of pause function if you can just hit Escape and the game will remained paused that way, while showing you menu.

Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.

I missed this part. A workaround this could be exiting to the main menu when you gotta go afk, as the game will resume where you left it off with enemies dead and all (if you killed them).

Granted, this technique is useless against Boss Fights, where it'll kick you out of the boss fight and make you do it all over again, so...

I disagree on Souls games, it makes them harder.