Ah the famous pause debate....
I think most players will let you pause if you give them a reason, but of course there will always be those dweebs who will stay paused for 30 seconds, enough time for you to get up and leave the room, then unpause for some free shots... just gotta live with them I guess, but they are the minority.
If my opponent just pauses the game and doesn't say anything, I'm unpausing right away. If they can't be bothered to give me a reason then I can't be bothered to wait for them. But if they give me a reason I have no problem whatsoever giving them the time they need, because if I needed to pause a game I'd appreciate the same kind of treatment.
That being said, I try really hard to not pause it, and i haven't had to pause a single game yet. Phone ringing? Bah, probably just a solicitor anyway, I'll let my machine get it. I play late at night so phone calls are rarely a problem anyway. Someone at my door? Ok, for this i have to pause, but if I see that I'm having some surprise company or something else that will take up some considerable time then I'll just come back and resign. Same goes if I have to take a dump and can't hold it, that can easily take 20-30 minutes and there's no way I'm going to ask someone to wait that long. I certainly wouldn't wait. I've heard stories of people wanting to pause for an hour so they could go eat... yeah right!
And there are some times where pausing for any reason at all is just unacceptable, imho, like pausing in the first 5 minutes of the game, I mean if you can't go the first 5 minutes without having to take a pee or something then you have some problems Plus some peeps pause just to get a look around their starting area, which is totally against the concept of RTS games in the first place. Or they do it just as you attack, hoping to throw your concentration off. The first time someone did that I was nice and let them pause, thinking they had to go do something. Like a sucker I sat there for about 10 minutes before I decided to be a jerk and unpause. But I was a noob then, and now I realize that unpausing isn't being as jerky as I first thought.So..in a nutshell, if you play vs me and you need to pause, just tell me why, and I'll have no problem whatsoever with waiting, so long as it's reasonable (don't tell me you need to pause to chat with your g/f on the phone, ain't happenin). And if it's one of those 1 1/2 hour long games, heck I'll let you pause for 10-20 minutes if you need it. I wouldn't want to throw a game that's been going on for that long simply because I have the dumps and can't hold it in any longer. I wouldn't expect anyone else too either.
Wow, sorry for the long post, guess I got a bit carried away.
You know, here's a thought.. I'm getting paid to post this Hah! I love doing this stuff at work, esp. when my boss is on a 2 week vacation.