Nothing frustrates me more than not being able to pause for no seemingly good reason. I'm playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason. To simulate pausing, I can turn off the xbox and the quick resume feature makes it look like the game was paused when I turn the console back on.
Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.
Obviously all of these games have an online component. Not allowing pausing when this component is activated makes sense. But if I am playing completely online why cannot I pause? In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad? When stuff comes up in the middle crucial moments it frustrates me a lot.
people are literally in here complaining about games that don't allow pausing, saying that they should all allow it with no exceptions regardless of artistic intent or ludic effect.
this thread would not have happened if "they can exist just fine" was the premise.
ableism is inherent to challenging participants on the basis of ability. a challenge for some will be impossible for others, and some people will be unable no matter how easy the easy mode is or how low you put the basketball hoop. We have to reckon with that, inventing wheelchair basketball, or having a lower hoop for kids, or games that have no time pressure, but we don't get rid of the NBA because I can't dunk and we shouldn't force every game to have pausing just because somebody might need to walk away.