This came up today when someone asked a simple question about paid GMs in RPGs. Why do people pay for them? What’s the deal? It was a very easy question, one that apparently, there are no easy answers to.

Worse, of course, all of the paid GMs freaked the hell out and started screaming that they were being oppressed, because that’s always a thing these days.

But the question remains: why would anyone pay for such a thing? So let’s talk about it.

Now I’ve been playing RPGs since 1974 with the original Chainmail and the very first edition of D&D. That’d D&D, not Advanced anything. That’s pre-red-box. It’s as raw as it gets. I have never paid anyone to GM for me, nor have I ever even considered asking anyone to pay when I’ve GMed for them. It’s a hobby. It’s something done to have fun. So it’s a fair question to wonder why this has suddenly become a thing.

It might be okay if you were playing with Gary Gygax or Steve Jackson, both of whom I’ve actually played with. They didn’t ask for money either. It’s quite another to pay for some random stranger off of the Internet who has no demonstrable expertise. Just because they’ve got their hand out for money, that doesn’t mean they deserve it. That’s why, I think, the question got asked. We’re just looking for rationally defensible answers.

You know what though? There don’t seem to be any defensible answers. That seems to be incredibly common these days, if you ask young people why they do a thing, or better  yet, why they think they should do a thing, they are left grasping at straws. They don’t have a clue and, if I’m to be perfectly honest, I don’t think they even have the capacity to think about it rationally.

Keep in mind that the question was never intended to be confrontational. It was pure curiosity. What was it about gaming that made people willing to whip out their wallets and pay someone to run a game? Why can’t they just do it themselves? It’s a skill. Develop that skill! I think that’s perfectly fair. Nobody ever said that it was wrong that it happened, even though immediately, that’s where lots of people leapt because… well, I think they’re feeling threatened. Maybe someone might realize that they don’t need a credit card to play a tabletop role playing game. That’s probably a scary thought for some of these people.

So here’s where I’m going to get less charitable because I think a lot of this is really generational. Nobody from my generation would have ever done this. Games are hobbies. You sit down with your friends and you spend some time having fun. That’s it. Granted, this was before the era of “professional video game players” and the like, something I still think is absolutely idiotic, but I guess if you can scam people out of cash somehow, someone is going to do it. That seems all too common these days and I find it terribly sad.

There are a couple of reasons why I think this is done. First off, I acknowledge that during the pandemic, a lot of people were looking for something to do and they had money, given to them by the government, to do it. They weren’t really looking for an investment, they just wanted instant gratification and therefore, learning how to play a game or take up a hobby, that was far too difficult and  they just wanted people take their cash and dance a jig so they’re entertained!

Yes, I do find that absurdly ridiculous but it seems to be all too common these days. I can only speak for myself, but I find the current generation or two to be largely lazy and, sad to say, dumb. I mean, it’s not hard to find videos like this on YouTube and even if they’re not indicative of the majority (at least I hope not), these people are still out there.

We’re in a post-scarcity society where people expect to be given everything on a silver platter, just because they want it. They don’t have to work for anything, they just want it to be provided. This has become painfully obvious online, especially in RPG circles, where people have a distinct lack of creativity and motivation. They want games that are purpose-built for anything they want at the moment. A game that accurately depicts small-town life in the Middle Ages? Damn it, they need it right this second! Someone has to provide!

I also think there is a serious problem with the young being unable to socialize. How many young people have a wide variety of friends? I don’t mean people they talk to online, I mean actual human beings that they interact with face-to-face on a regular basis. That doesn’t seem to happen much anymore and maybe that explains some of it. I see a lot of people playing with what are essentially complete strangers online. I never did that back in the day, more so because there was no such thing as “online”, but I had tons of friends. We found our common interests, we sat down to play games and we had a good time. I’m not sure if this is a problem with the young today or not, but if it is, it’s a serious socializing issue that needs to be addressed.

Back when I was growing up, we had to be creative because there weren’t that many games available. If you wanted to play fantasy, you had D&D and Empire of the Petal Throne. That was it. If you wanted science fiction, you were pretty much stuck with Traveler. It took years until there were games for post-apocalyptic settings like Gamma World and cowboys and Indians like Boot Hill. You couldn’t just pick a different game if what was out there wasn’t perfect. That was all there was!

So, we made due. We were creative. If we couldn’t modify a game into what we wanted, we made our own. That’s the way it was. I don’t think anyone can do that these days. It’s really kind of sad.

The other part, as sad as it is, is that people have serious entitlement problems. They think people owe them things. They don’t have to work for it, it ought to just arrive on a silver platter. Yeah, that’s not how the real world works.

Honestly, the more that I learn about these people, the less I want anything to do with them. Not all young people are like this. My kids aren’t, but they were raised right. They are responsible and hard working and actually go above and beyond the call of duty. They know how to separate work and hobbies.

It’s really sad that so many people don’t.