AFK

A lot of games have pause buttons.

Others just keep running without the player.

The presence or absence of a pause button in your game design may seem trivial, but it's highly dependent on the nature of your game. Immersive MMO worlds keep running while players are away. Short, fast-paced online PVP games typically can't be paused. Games without a pause feature are varied, but typically have one thing in common:

Multiplayer.

You can make whatever decisions you want as a player, but if your decisions disrupt the experience for other players, that's bad design. Pause disrupts game flow.

Blockchains are inherently multiplayer and they can't be paused. Blockchain nodes may disconnect from the network for a time, but the network is going to keep running. Your blockchain game is going to keep running too, but this doesn't kill the possibility of pause-like features. People need to step away sometimes, and your game should plan for the times when players are AFK.

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-Luke

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P.S. I'm going to be AFK until July 18th. I'll be back with the daily newsletter and weekly podcast then. I hope you're able to take some time to rest and recharge this summer. I appreciate you.