32 thoughts on “Pausing in Video Games – Access-Ability”
Speaking mostly from Nintendo systems, but since the Wii pausing in single player games is a simple as hitting the home button. There were a few Wii games that would block it during certain moments, but that's how I've always paused my Wii, Wii U, 3DS and now Switch games.
I have enough trouble with pausing just having a dog, a partner and a phone. so I couldnt imagine how difficult this is for someone with a disability or kids. Have had to give up on MH World like you said, and also Dragon Age which lets you pause combat but not cutscenes. With souls games you can sometimes quit as the next best thing, but that requires memorizing and entering quick button sequences that not everyone can do.
Very good video, and pausing is important in games. That said : Monster hunter always had a pause option while playing single player. World is the only game in the serie (maybe Tri? I haven't played that one) that doesn't have one.
A bunch of folks have pointed out to me that prior to World, Monster Hunter games did feature pausing, and that World's lack of any pausing was a serious outlier.. Sorry about that. I've played the series for years, clearly just had a moment of incorrect memory. I knew World didn't allow pausing and in my head the same was true of prior entries.
My overall point stands, World is an example of a game that doesn't have any pause functions at all, and Rise is technically better but could be improved etc.
I hate it when games don't let you pause during cutscenes or worse pressing start skips them, found that out the hard way while playing Silent Hill Homecoming and I got a phone call during a cutscene that I ended up accidentally skipping so I had to watch the cutscene on Youtube.
One game that has hidden pause functionality is that old Xbox game Steel Battalion as unplugging the controller will pause it, that's also possible for the Guitar Hero games(which do have a regular pause function, but if you're going for Bladder of Steel you aren't allowed to use it, but fortunately unplugging the controller does not count as a regular pause).
it was something i didn't think about at all until i became a mom. now i can't really play games without pausing because game time can be usurped by daughter time any time she needs something
Thank you for this! I'm autistic, and I deal with migraines, so I need to be able to pause my games sometimes if I'm overwhelmed or struggling with pain. I also get pain in my wrists during long playing sessions (especially on PC), so I would really appreciate being able to take a break and stretch.
As someone who does literal graduate level work while playing video games, I NEED pause functions to take notes. I do audiobook reading of one kind or another due to my ADHD and I also play video games to give my brain another thing to do. I NEED to pause it while I’m taking notes on what I’m reading and without it I cannot play the game.
idk deep in my heart i don't think dark souls should have a pause, i think it would make it worse game, but of course people should be able to do whatever they need to do, so idk and i don't think it's a 'git gud' mentality really, i think it makes sense, they don't want you managing your inventory in a fight, or hanging around in unsafe areas as it makes the feeling of safety while at a bonfire or home-base less real. i think a pause where you can't mess with your inventory but the game is just stopped would be the thing for souls games, and exiting automatically saves your spot, so it's not like they didn't think of it at all, it's just not quite as convenient.
pausing during cutscenes is spot on, who in the whole world doesn't need to pee during a cutscene after ssome combat or w/e
As a disabled parent, I completely walk away from a game I can't pause. Even in games where technically you can just stand still it doesn't feel the same.
A huge thing I've loved about nintendo systems like the 3DS or the Switch is you can almost always suspend the game no matter what
I love the Soulsborne games, I played it all of them, following all of the "true gamer rules" like no summon allies, not using Magic, etc, because I love to punch my head against a wall over and over again, and even i think that not being able to pause the game is just pure bullshit.
I couldn’t get too far into mhw cause I couldn’t pause during long hunts and take care of my mom. Warframe let’s you pause when playing single player (when I last played 2 years ago) and going from that to mhw was jarring.
being able to pause during boss fights or gameplay and let the seizure aura pass was the only reason i was able to beat The Surge ( and the surge 2 ) When i feel that terrible lightning up my spine, i need to take a break, and it sucks
i related to the thing abt how important pausing games can be for autistic ppl who get overstimmed easily. it reminds me of another accessibility feature i've seen neglected recently, which is volume settings, specifically, being able to adjust music separate from sound effects or, (and this is rarely done but really helpful), being able to adjust volume for different categories of sound effects.
because of the sensory difficulties associated w/ autism, i get easily overwhelmed by sounds or music, especially when there's alot happening. additionally, i have synesthesia, which partially manifests as "tasting" music or sounds, & often times this makes it hard to play a game if the music has a very bitter taste and i cant turn it off without turning off the sound effects too, or vice versa.
some particularly notable examples of it being neglected include in pokemon swsh, where you couldnt adjust the volume sliders until you got an in-game item to do so [which led to me just turning off the sound because the wild pokemon battle music was often too intense for me], animal crossing new horizons, where there's no volume settings at all, and i've heard you cant change smash ultimate volume settings until you complete a long and arduous story mode campaign (i might have misunderstood what someone was saying on this last one. regardless, smash is a game i have alot of trouble playing unless the music is turned off because its just TOO much stimulation w/ it on)
a really great example of volume sliders done really well is in minecraft java edition, where you can adjust a wide variety of categories of sounds, like, hostile creatures separately from passive creatures, weather, block sound effects, & even note blocks & jukeboxes separate from music. [minecraft je's captions are also really great]
i really wish that more first person shooter type games would let you adjust gunshot sounds as a separate slider, because those in particular can be extremely intense & overwhelming for me, & i can imagine being able to reduce the volume of them or turn them off would help certain people with ptsd as well.
anyways sorry for the long comment! it would be cool to see an access-ability episode on the topic of volume setttings. your videos are so good & i really appreciate them & love watching them. have a lovely day!!
Souls games didn't have pause because they were meant to play online (back then they didn't even have the offline option in the main menu) Sekiro which is a full singleplayer game featured pause right away.
Not having pause in single player game should be a crime! Looking at your souls series! I understand why multiplayer and always online are an exception.
Well done as always ma'am. I know I'll have moments when I become anxious or upset out of the blue. Being able to pause and step away from something is helpful.
I just realized when you mentioned pausing during cutscenes that pause plus rewind during cutscenes would be absolutely terrific for me. It is very easy for me to be distracted for a few seconds (or, in the case of Night in the Woods, take a chance to zone out for a second) and only realize afterwards that I may have missed some dialogue.
(…although in retrospect that might be completely appropriate for the scene in Night in the Woods where that happened to me.)
One reason I see for games not wanting a pause is "they'll spam healing items". Fortunately there's a fix for that: healing over time items. Probably not ideal for every game, but in the witcher 3 they seem to work pretty well. And I'm sure game developers can come up with something here, I just mentioned this one because it's the game I'm currently playing.
make the pause an experience itself too , with calming music dynamically adjust , to nice animation or even a pause screen game , there is so much can do with the pause screen
Gotta put my two cents in here, you talk a lot of shit about the fact dark souls "cant pause" and that its an accessibility issue… But you miss the point of the dark souls games if thats how you think. Dark souls is a think on your feet kind of game, its a harsh and unforgiving game series, and the game world keeps moving at a steady pace, enemies move, they patrol, the GAME doesnt care about the player. The GAME will keep moving regardless of player input, if the player could pause the game they could simply stop enemies in a specific spot advantageous to them and effectively cheat the gaming experience.
Also, and I may sound like one of those "git gud" players you brought up but uh… not every game is for everyone. Dark souls HAS a functional pause, its called a bonfire, while at a bonfire enemies can't hurt you, in fact im pretty sure the game stops completely at bonfires, and theres one every 20 yards, some are hidden away, but it HAS the ability to stop the game, plus dark souls enemies tend to stay within a set boundry, if you clear all the enemies in a room and the door is closed enemies arent going to come kick the door in you get you, and you've effectively created a safe area for a short time. And most enemies once killed are gone until you, the player, visit a bonfire. So yeah, maybe you cant pause during an intense fight, but consider this: If you pause mid fight and the enemy is attacking and you HAVE to dodge, are you going to be able to pick up the controller 5 minutes later and instantly pull off a dodge?
Yes, pausing is important, but some games are specifically built to accommodate breaks WITHOUT pausing or even stopping the game itself, and its VERY disingenuous to claim you can't take a break or pause in those games, and the games are bad because of it, when the devs clearly DID think of that.
Also being able to pause at any given moment can create situations where players just get to cheat, see skyrim, you ALWAYS pause when you open a menu, so you can be at 1 HP, stop the game, fully heal in the middle of a lost battle and then turn around and instantly win the fight you should have already lost.
So, yes, pausing is important, but not for EVERY game, sorry to say this but if you NEED to be able to pause then simply don't play games that disallow it. I'm horrendous at FPS games, you don't see me demanding all FPS games cater to my inability to aim do you?
Darksouls keeps u in suspense, you never know when u'll be invaded. The game also doesn't tell you when you're in offline or online mode. The 2 modes feel the same. There's also NPC invasions in offline mode. It also makes it so that players will remember all the safe spots so they can park their character and go afk. In boss fights it's prbly pretty damn infuriating for some when there's no pause. Personally I like that the game imposes itself as a none pauseable experience. You can't start a boss unless you're ready to get in the zone and give 120%. It just makes the whole thing feel more hardcore, and not to be taken lightly. What's more important, to see who's at the door, or to finish off the Lord of Cinders himself? ;D People will understand xD
Speaking mostly from Nintendo systems, but since the Wii pausing in single player games is a simple as hitting the home button. There were a few Wii games that would block it during certain moments, but that's how I've always paused my Wii, Wii U, 3DS and now Switch games.
I have enough trouble with pausing just having a dog, a partner and a phone. so I couldnt imagine how difficult this is for someone with a disability or kids. Have had to give up on MH World like you said, and also Dragon Age which lets you pause combat but not cutscenes. With souls games you can sometimes quit as the next best thing, but that requires memorizing and entering quick button sequences that not everyone can do.
Very good video, and pausing is important in games.
That said : Monster hunter always had a pause option while playing single player. World is the only game in the serie (maybe Tri? I haven't played that one) that doesn't have one.
A bunch of folks have pointed out to me that prior to World, Monster Hunter games did feature pausing, and that World's lack of any pausing was a serious outlier.. Sorry about that. I've played the series for years, clearly just had a moment of incorrect memory. I knew World didn't allow pausing and in my head the same was true of prior entries.
My overall point stands, World is an example of a game that doesn't have any pause functions at all, and Rise is technically better but could be improved etc.
This. Every 1P game should have a pause option. It's basic courtesy.
I hate it when games don't let you pause during cutscenes or worse pressing start skips them, found that out the hard way while playing Silent Hill Homecoming and I got a phone call during a cutscene that I ended up accidentally skipping so I had to watch the cutscene on Youtube.
I love the Souls games but I never understood why you can't pause in them. I don't think it really adds anything to the game it's just annoying.
One game that has hidden pause functionality is that old Xbox game Steel Battalion as unplugging the controller will pause it, that's also possible for the Guitar Hero games(which do have a regular pause function, but if you're going for Bladder of Steel you aren't allowed to use it, but fortunately unplugging the controller does not count as a regular pause).
it was something i didn't think about at all until i became a mom. now i can't really play games without pausing because game time can be usurped by daughter time any time she needs something
Monster Hunter’s modern lack of pausing really sticks in my side. Because they used to have it back in the day.
The lack of cutscene pausing in games is completely absurd and unjustifiable!
Thank you for this! I'm autistic, and I deal with migraines, so I need to be able to pause my games sometimes if I'm overwhelmed or struggling with pain. I also get pain in my wrists during long playing sessions (especially on PC), so I would really appreciate being able to take a break and stretch.
As someone who does literal graduate level work while playing video games, I NEED pause functions to take notes. I do audiobook reading of one kind or another due to my ADHD and I also play video games to give my brain another thing to do. I NEED to pause it while I’m taking notes on what I’m reading and without it I cannot play the game.
Ever since I became a dad? If a single player game won't let me pause? I'll typically just pass on it.
idk deep in my heart i don't think dark souls should have a pause, i think it would make it worse game, but of course people should be able to do whatever they need to do, so idk
and i don't think it's a 'git gud' mentality really, i think it makes sense, they don't want you managing your inventory in a fight, or hanging around in unsafe areas as it makes the feeling of safety while at a bonfire or home-base less real.
i think a pause where you can't mess with your inventory but the game is just stopped would be the thing for souls games, and exiting automatically saves your spot, so it's not like they didn't think of it at all, it's just not quite as convenient.
pausing during cutscenes is spot on, who in the whole world doesn't need to pee during a cutscene after ssome combat or w/e
As a disabled parent, I completely walk away from a game I can't pause. Even in games where technically you can just stand still it doesn't feel the same.
A huge thing I've loved about nintendo systems like the 3DS or the Switch is you can almost always suspend the game no matter what
I love the Soulsborne games, I played it all of them, following all of the "true gamer rules" like no summon allies, not using Magic, etc, because I love to punch my head against a wall over and over again, and even i think that not being able to pause the game is just pure bullshit.
I couldn’t get too far into mhw cause I couldn’t pause during long hunts and take care of my mom. Warframe let’s you pause when playing single player (when I last played 2 years ago) and going from that to mhw was jarring.
being able to pause during boss fights or gameplay and let the seizure aura pass was the only reason i was able to beat The Surge ( and the surge 2 )
When i feel that terrible lightning up my spine, i need to take a break, and it sucks
We can argue about pause in game, but why pausing and skipping cut scenes is still not a standard is beyond me.
i related to the thing abt how important pausing games can be for autistic ppl who get overstimmed easily. it reminds me of another accessibility feature i've seen neglected recently, which is volume settings, specifically, being able to adjust music separate from sound effects or, (and this is rarely done but really helpful), being able to adjust volume for different categories of sound effects.
because of the sensory difficulties associated w/ autism, i get easily overwhelmed by sounds or music, especially when there's alot happening. additionally, i have synesthesia, which partially manifests as "tasting" music or sounds, & often times this makes it hard to play a game if the music has a very bitter taste and i cant turn it off without turning off the sound effects too, or vice versa.
some particularly notable examples of it being neglected include in pokemon swsh, where you couldnt adjust the volume sliders until you got an in-game item to do so [which led to me just turning off the sound because the wild pokemon battle music was often too intense for me], animal crossing new horizons, where there's no volume settings at all, and i've heard you cant change smash ultimate volume settings until you complete a long and arduous story mode campaign (i might have misunderstood what someone was saying on this last one. regardless, smash is a game i have alot of trouble playing unless the music is turned off because its just TOO much stimulation w/ it on)
a really great example of volume sliders done really well is in minecraft java edition, where you can adjust a wide variety of categories of sounds, like, hostile creatures separately from passive creatures, weather, block sound effects, & even note blocks & jukeboxes separate from music. [minecraft je's captions are also really great]
i really wish that more first person shooter type games would let you adjust gunshot sounds as a separate slider, because those in particular can be extremely intense & overwhelming for me, & i can imagine being able to reduce the volume of them or turn them off would help certain people with ptsd as well.
anyways sorry for the long comment! it would be cool to see an access-ability episode on the topic of volume setttings. your videos are so good & i really appreciate them & love watching them. have a lovely day!!
Souls games didn't have pause because they were meant to play online (back then they didn't even have the offline option in the main menu) Sekiro which is a full singleplayer game featured pause right away.
Even Dota 2 lets any player pause at any time!
Not having pause in single player game should be a crime! Looking at your souls series! I understand why multiplayer and always online are an exception.
Well done as always ma'am. I know I'll have moments when I become anxious or upset out of the blue. Being able to pause and step away from something is helpful.
I just realized when you mentioned pausing during cutscenes that pause plus rewind during cutscenes would be absolutely terrific for me. It is very easy for me to be distracted for a few seconds (or, in the case of Night in the Woods, take a chance to zone out for a second) and only realize afterwards that I may have missed some dialogue.
(…although in retrospect that might be completely appropriate for the scene in Night in the Woods where that happened to me.)
One reason I see for games not wanting a pause is "they'll spam healing items". Fortunately there's a fix for that: healing over time items. Probably not ideal for every game, but in the witcher 3 they seem to work pretty well.
And I'm sure game developers can come up with something here, I just mentioned this one because it's the game I'm currently playing.
make the pause an experience itself too , with calming music dynamically adjust , to nice animation or even a pause screen game , there is so much can do with the pause screen
Gotta put my two cents in here, you talk a lot of shit about the fact dark souls "cant pause" and that its an accessibility issue… But you miss the point of the dark souls games if thats how you think. Dark souls is a think on your feet kind of game, its a harsh and unforgiving game series, and the game world keeps moving at a steady pace, enemies move, they patrol, the GAME doesnt care about the player. The GAME will keep moving regardless of player input, if the player could pause the game they could simply stop enemies in a specific spot advantageous to them and effectively cheat the gaming experience.
Also, and I may sound like one of those "git gud" players you brought up but uh… not every game is for everyone. Dark souls HAS a functional pause, its called a bonfire, while at a bonfire enemies can't hurt you, in fact im pretty sure the game stops completely at bonfires, and theres one every 20 yards, some are hidden away, but it HAS the ability to stop the game, plus dark souls enemies tend to stay within a set boundry, if you clear all the enemies in a room and the door is closed enemies arent going to come kick the door in you get you, and you've effectively created a safe area for a short time. And most enemies once killed are gone until you, the player, visit a bonfire. So yeah, maybe you cant pause during an intense fight, but consider this: If you pause mid fight and the enemy is attacking and you HAVE to dodge, are you going to be able to pick up the controller 5 minutes later and instantly pull off a dodge?
Yes, pausing is important, but some games are specifically built to accommodate breaks WITHOUT pausing or even stopping the game itself, and its VERY disingenuous to claim you can't take a break or pause in those games, and the games are bad because of it, when the devs clearly DID think of that.
Also being able to pause at any given moment can create situations where players just get to cheat, see skyrim, you ALWAYS pause when you open a menu, so you can be at 1 HP, stop the game, fully heal in the middle of a lost battle and then turn around and instantly win the fight you should have already lost.
So, yes, pausing is important, but not for EVERY game, sorry to say this but if you NEED to be able to pause then simply don't play games that disallow it. I'm horrendous at FPS games, you don't see me demanding all FPS games cater to my inability to aim do you?
YES! This one drives me up the wall!
Darksouls keeps u in suspense, you never know when u'll be invaded.
The game also doesn't tell you when you're in offline or online mode. The 2 modes feel the same. There's also NPC invasions in offline mode.
It also makes it so that players will remember all the safe spots so they can park their character and go afk.
In boss fights it's prbly pretty damn infuriating for some when there's no pause.
Personally I like that the game imposes itself as a none pauseable experience. You can't start a boss unless you're ready to get in the zone and give 120%. It just makes the whole thing feel more hardcore, and not to be taken lightly. What's more important, to see who's at the door, or to finish off the Lord of Cinders himself? ;D
People will understand xD
Playing on the switch is great because I can hit the home screen and it pauses, at least for single player games