I was wondering if I let my each of families to die off, So that there is no one living in the house anymore, would there be any long term problem? I just want a break from the whole game. But If I know I have families to get to I will of course keep going back. I would like to keep all my families cause I have about 7 generations in each and I don't want to start over.

pause the games by pressing space bar

I've been told the pause doesn't work that good.

Pause works just fine. I've paused my game for up to 5 days with no problem. The only thing you might want to do is unpause it at around the same time that you paused it. The peeps seem to get more tired if you unpause at a different time.

I posted that I had gotten one red ball. Well this morning when I logged on to VF around 6:30 this morning I have two families with a red ball. That seem rather strange.

I have never paused my games, but just a reminder that I understand you have to pause each of the 5 games individually. Pausing only one pauses just that family, not the others.

Pausing the game works fine for me too, if you're really wanting to keep your families but not tend them for a longish period of time. Wouldn't do any harm though just to check occasionally during your break gthat everything is still paused. Failing that, if you really want a complete break for a while, why not just click 'delete' next to your families player name? You can then always start afresh comletely when you feel you're ready to begin again.

My husband "paused" a couple of his families by waiting until the parents both passed away. He just didn't click the next generation button on the my family screen for a couple of weeks. When he was ready to move on, he picked the next child and everything was fine.

I've heard about the "pause bug" as well, and avoid pausing mine for several days unless they are between generations. I'm a little paranoid because I have lost all my games before and had to start over. So, my advice is just wait until the end of a gen and pause before you hit the new gen button. Then even if it doesn't pause for some reason, nobody will die and nothing will change. Make backup copes of your saved game folder too, of course.

Edit: Yeah, what knk said. lol Sorry knk, I didn't see your post.

Just wait until your current generation is over. Elderly parents will die, all the kids will be off to college. House will be empty. Pause then (or don't even bother pausing) and take your break. You can start a new generation when you decide to come back.

I paused one of my families for over a month with no ill effects. Pause seems to work as intended.

Make a backup if you're really worried.