I have a wife and dog with special needs where I'll need to pause immediately. I've basically had to stop playing all MMORPGs and most online gaming because of this and the lack of any real pause in almost all of these kinds of games. I haven't played Dark Souls yet, but I understand that it is another series with the only real way to pause being to exit their games. I now avoid multiplayer games mostly for these reasons, but it's been very rare, exclusive to Larian that I can recall, where I've had entire single player campaigns that have no real pause available.

Aside from needing to step away from the computer, though, having a real pause available for any game with real time elements is very nice for the ability of better controlling actions. Area effect damage is one of the main Larian features in any games made with this engine. Having a full pause available, where I can, possibly, queue actions, is critical for any game with real time elements. For me, at least. Playing the "mini-game" of targeting a rat or chicken in DOS wasn't fun for me at all. Likewise, constantly struggling to manage NPCs that do stupid things...in real time, with no pause...will be no fun for me. I guess that it has a certain appeal for a lot of people, though, seeing how popular the DOS games were. Just not my thing and I hope that modders, at least, will be able to add a workable pause.