Gaming Idiocy

A thread on the SJ Games forums reminded me of [a] gaming group [I was involved with].

The thread had a GM complaining about tardy and absentee players. I posted that I resented having to clock-in when I was playing with Jon's group. My position was that once you start treating the players like employees, you had better start paying them.

I am now someone who doesn't value a social contract, and other mean things.

I keep forgetting that some people thing gaming is the most important thing they do.

I did it as a pass-time. Something that was fun and inexpensive and consumed many otherwise boring hours.

Getting to a place 40 miles away in the midwest winter by noon on Sunday was iffy. It could take two hours. It could take 45 minutes. You have no way of knowing until you start driving. To be certain I was there to "honor the social contract" I would have to leave at ten AM. If I was late, and my excuse was "the roads" I was told, "You should have left earlier then." Tell me again, [GM], what's this job pay? What time did you leave? Oh wait, you live here. What time did you have to get up to get here on time? Oh wait, you live here. What time did you get to bed last night? Oh wait, you get a minimum of two more hours of sleep than I do because you live here.

Others made it on time? Your wife lives here. [Two players] have no lives outside of gaming. [The wife of one] is dragged here by [them], and gee she looks as thrilled about the hours as I am. [Another] is wholly your sycophant, he'd be here at nine AM if commanded. [The final member of the group] doesn't do anything late on Sat night, and thinks getting up at nine AM is sleeping in. Did I miss anyone?

All that really adds up to is that I am not a good fit with this group. The really fun thing about the stringent rules is they were aimed at [the low dog of the pack], who needed someone from Ames to give him a ride. I still don't understand why six people from Ames had to drive to Des Moines because two people lived there.

In contrast, the Sat gaming group met, "noonish" and nobody got bent out of shape if we didn't get started until two. And since we had the good sense to play on Saturday, we could play until the wee hours without worrying about what time we needed to be at work Sunday, unless we played in Jon's group.