(No offence but it's interesting that you have played in over 80 games and not had this question come up before)

I find that the game that spans over few months it would be logical to accept an occasional pause from a person. That is a courteous thing to do, but I guess in this day and age of ME ME ME nobody is willing to show some human decency.

This situation never arose in any of my games before.

Oh absolutely, in most cases the courteous, decent thing to do is to grant the pause.

Unfortunately there is no offical rule requiring people to be decent or courteous.

Unfortunately so. Usually, it is preferable to find a substitute rather than just miss your turns. Of course, this person shouldn't be playing in any of your current games!

Russia seems pretty dead anyway, you wouldn't need to miss many turns :-)

I think players should pause when asked. Some people are petty.

It is certainly not a good thing to do, but I guess he has the right not to pause...
Did he say directly that he wouldn't pause and why?

Lets get some background information.

1) Austria gave everyone plenty of notice beforehand about his impending trip.

2) Russia (Pantalone) has just been screwed over by Austria, he has all of 2 centres, he is about to eliminated.

3) What I assume Austria thought was everyone agreed to pause after we got a last phase in. Russia said nothing. Austria noted that he would be leaving soon after so please pause.

4) After Austria leaves Russia declares:
"I am in no mood to do Austria any favours by also voting a Pause; I will not do so and hope that Austria will be wiped off this Board right after me........"

5) Now Austria has missed his critical build and will go CD if the pause doesn't go through.

Frankly, if this game doesn't deserve a pause, thats bullshit. Is it really such a tenable harm to pause a game? At this point, I don't want to see the little shit Pantalone get away with it just because he is an idiot and let Austria stab him.

I think the critical part here is that Russia deliberately waited for Austria to leave before refusing to pause, rather than give him the option of getting a sitter, giving him the impression that a pause had been agreed on.

I'd also like to point out that his philosophical motivation isn't "I don't grant pauses ever" or "I think people need to commit to games". Its that he "isn't in the mood" mainly because he just lost three centres in one turn.

that's really despicable.

texasdeluxe also asked for a pause in our game and we all voted for it. is it really so hard to do?

i'll be sure to avoid pantalone in the future.

I've come to see that this game arises the miserable parts of some people...

I agree with everything and I'll also make sure I avoid the guy in my games.
But the thing is that I don't know if the mods can do anything... I think (and I can be wrong) that if someone doesn't want to pause (no matter the arguments) he has that right.

I really hope I'm wrong.

If someone doesn't want to pause because they don't believe in it, then I wouldn't have a problem with them telling the person in question as soon as possible that they best find a sitter. But trying to put someone into CD out of spite is different. There is a line that has been crossed here.

Oh and btw, BoG75, who is playing Germany in said game, went on a trip a week ago, and Russia voted for *that* pause.

@Centurian: "giving him the impression that a pause had been agreed on"

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but if Russia had, as you state, "said nothing" in response to the pause request, then why should Austria assume that everyone had agreed to pause?

(That is, if someone requests something from me, and I don't respond, why would they assume I am going to grant their request?)

I think on this site pauses are assumed to be accepted, not the other way around, because almost everyone does accept it. Thus a two centre power who isn't especially chatty not saying anything wouldn't throw up any red flags for me.

Name, shame, blacklist, kill at sight - simple and effective policy :)

People should be educated to behave normally without a Supreme Court decision on everything. Being a prick is not a constitutional right.

As said, there is no rule- its the option of the player involved.

HE should have got a sitter just to be certain. Advertising on the forum here would have found one quick for him.

Can you kill off Russia before Austria goes CD? If so then you can pause, possibly with the help of a mod at that point.

Well put Ivo.But I'm also on the fence here too, even if he is being a dink about it he has every right to refuse the pause vote, but at the same time, it would be the courteous thing to do.Manners aren't laws or rules and they don't have to be enforced or followed.Nobody ever gave me a hard time for not holding a door open for them, but it is a nice thing to do.But I suppose it's up to the mods, but any good mod will probably do nothing to remain neutral and unbiased.So to paraphrase, maybe he's a dick, but that's not against the rules.This game can hurt feelings and get ugly, it may be part of what makes it so great.I've seen fist-fights erupt while playing this game.

I wonder if anyone has ever taken the term "backstab" literaly in a F2F game...

Ivo +1

Admittedly, I'm not on the fence here at all. Sure, no one is obligated to pause, but I cannot think of a valid reason why one wouldn't. I'm not even sure why someone would have an "I never pause" policy. This site allows for everyone to play games (as many as each individual addict desires:) casually w/o time constraints (i.e. to complete the game, not phase-lengths).

What does the individual gain when he refuses other than bad will? Although personally I try not to ask for a pause, there's never been a time I haven't granted one.

Pauses can be abused. I was a participant in a pause abuse recently (yes, I'm guilty of it). Three players left in the game, two wanted to draw (me and one other). The pasue request went out and was granted, but we both refused to unpause. Instead we insisted the other player vote to draw. We got our draw.

that's ridiculous draugnar. if that's the only way to win, why play? pathetic.

How frequent is pause abuse though? So you held the game ransom once it was paused? I'm not sure exactly what to make of that particular scenario:P

so let me get this straight. draugnar, you defend the right to make a "dick move" of not pausing because other people, who are equal if not greater dicks, abuse pauses such as the example which you cite. you are one of the abusers in that example, making you a dick twice over.

i hereby pronounce you a dick to the nth degree, and tho you're a charming fellow, will be sure to avoid games with you in the future =P