Non-pausing auctions vs pausing auctions

Is that a bad thing though?

I like having that moment of pause look around, see what's going on. I guess if there's someone who uses the auction to check every single resource by buying it up then selling it down... that feels a little cheesy, worst case I think the market can be locked during the auction... Even then though, I don't feel that's necessary.

I think that it is a welcome unintended feature, even though its a little quirky.

I tend to agree that auction pauses are fine as they are. That said, I could be convinced that player-initiated auctions shouldn't pause the game, since those can really break up the flow of the game if a few happen in quick succession.

I don't have a problem with checking other players' resources, I was just wondering if there were other benefits or costs. The freeze takes about 20-30 seconds, and whenever an auction starts in a video, I immediately skip forward by 20 seconds. Auctions are pretty boring to watch.

If auctions were unpaused, there would be pressure for anyone who wanted to win it to resolve it quickly. This creates significant time pressure to win auctions quickly and think maybe a little too fast. Paused auctions are the opposite; players who want to win auctions delay bids until the last second, in order to deter spite bids from jacking the price up, by pretending that their own bids are spite bids.

I love the pauses from auctions. It gives me time to check resources, check profitability of buildings and rotate them, and check on opponents and review who the biggest threats are.

Sometimes you need a little breathing space in a fast paced game.

Agreed, the thing I like about the pause is there is time to check details that you would be too busy to check most of the time but you also need to make sure noone gets an auction for 8k because nobody was paying attention, an interesting split of your focus. It also causes tension when you're buying someone out or there is a stock race whilst you all pause for some arbitrary patent to be sold off.

How do you check other players resources, you mean their claims?

Look at their resource value. Buy some carbon. Do they have more resource value now? It's because they own carbon.