It's hard to play a 5-min pace game, especially with 4-6 players, because it means setting aside a long solid block of time, and unexpected interruptions could get you booted. On the other hand, 1-day turns are often hard too, since any one player can cause the whole thing to drag on for many many days, even weeks.

So, I have a suggestion, (maybe this has been mentioned before?): a Pause function.

Let people start 5-min games so that you can get some decent pace going, and then if it's running longer than expected, everyone can agree to pause, much like it takes everyone to agree to a draw, now.

That way, gamers can agree to restart at a specified time, and finish it out using the same 5-minute pace. Fast pace, but without the danger of getting booted if something comes up.

Thoughts?

I find 12 hour games to be a good pace, I have kids at home and a demanding job so I've never tried a 5minute game.

I find 12 hour games to be the least useful, personally, because it means there's always a chance that my turn will come when I'm asleep.

I like to wake up, make my turn then if possible play during work then again before bed.  No worries about taking more than my 12 hours.

I work 12 hour shifts, so its mostly 1 day games for me.

So I am clear that I understand the problem/solution... The desire is to get through a game quickly, then be able to take a break, then resume the game later, but to force players to stay-n-play while the game is being played quickly. The main problem being players that take too long, which is partially and mostly the problem of choosing the right players to play with.

Problems that are hard to identify until that first experience: The player is the type of player that is very into the game but then takes 3 day delays when he starts to lose sometimes hoping that the others will draw out of boredom. Players that don't understand the 5 minute time limit. Players who kick other after a few seconds of violation. and so on.

I'd suspect that the pause button fits your purposes and how you like to play the game. Then players will self select and there are back up processes in place (pause button) so one or more players doesn't get screwed by getting kicked.

I've thought about all this before and it is related to other problems that players have. Finding like minded players, but then that is what the preferred list is all about; easily keeping of them.

I've thought that players filling out a questionaire could be useful. They could say how often they play etc etc. But what is probably more useful is an automated system that tracks the number and times that players finish turns. So the first factor would be "When does this player finish their turns and list stats for day of the week and hour of the day. And the second factor is a bell curve of how many minutes does it take to finish their turn from the moment it is their turn in a list of groupings for under 5 minutes, upto 15 minutes, 16-30 minutes, 31-60 minutes, upto 3 hours, upto 6 hours, upto 12 hours, upto 1 day, more than 1 day. And break down both sets of stats for lifetime and for the past week or 3 so you can see overall what kind of player the person is and how often they play. The data collected would just be incremented counts per category.

If this data was searchable... i.e. find me a player like so and so who is also online when I am or when I will be... then it is easier to find people for the preferred list as well as finding the game when you aren't usually on or when no one else you usually play is online.

Great idea, Stirling! Even better than having timezone info in one's profile since people play at different times in the same timezone - at work, at night, at lunch, etc. A way to see when players finish their turns and all those stats would definitely help find players with like-minded schedules and playing habits/addictions.

+1 also for stirling's idea.  it's kinda like last.fm and scrobbling for games instead of songs

An industrious GM scripter could throw something together which pings to a central server.  Then anyone interested in such a system could install the GM script, and have their activity tracked/logged (scary as that sounds), then the central system could suggest/match players.

"then the central system could suggest/match players." - how would you suggest this part work?

how about when starting games, you have another drop-down list with time zones in it?

when pausing a five minute game, you probably won't find a time to resume it easily,