It’s really no wonder that I dislike being around most people under the age of 40 these days. Over on the RPG subreddit, someone asked if you should have an open door policy, anyone can come and go in your game whenever they want with no explanation.

I said no and someone popped on and got mad at me. These people are real idiots. I’d never play with anyone like them.

Now granted, I don’t know the specifics under which they asked and that could, I suppose, alter how I might answer. In my mind, if I was playing in an ongoing RPG campaign, one that was set up to run at a certain time every week or other week or whatever, I’d be upset if there were players who just blew off the game at a whim and disrupted everyone else’s fun.

Yet the person who responded, they kept saying “it’s only a game!” Yes, it is a game, but it’s also a social activity that multiple people have arranged their schedules around. It often requires coordinating schedules in order to make it work. If you’re not willing to show up as you’ve committed to, then don’t play at all. I don’t get young people these days who think they have no obligation to think of anyone but themselves.

I therefore provided an example. Say you’re on a baseball team. I never said professional, let’s assume Little League. You’ve made a commitment to play in the games. Your team is counting on you. The people who come to watch the game are counting on you. They are taking time out of their busy day because they expect you to arrive on time and keep your word.

That’s not to say that, on rare occasion, things can’t arise. Shit happens, after all. If something happens and you can’t attend, then let everyone know as early as possible so that other arrangements can be made. You don’t just no-show and figure it’s just a game, who gives a damn?

Yet this seems to be all too common among the young these days. They don’t comprehend personal responsibility. They don’t care if anyone else is counting on them. They do what they want to do and screw everyone else! That’s one of the reasons why the actual situation here might matter, but even so, even if it’s an irregular game playing a single-night one-shot, it’s still rude to just bugger off and not even bother to explain  yourself. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an asshole. You committed to attend. Do it or have a damn good reason why you’re not.

In the instance that I was thinking, where you have an ongoing campaign, where every character is important to continuing the game, having people not show up isn’t acceptable. Sure, as I said, sometimes shit happens and it’s unavoidable, but that’s not an open-door policy, that’s life. Tell people as soon as you can so that the game can be completely rescheduled or other options can be exercised. Don’t just not show up and figure you’re accountable to no one else. That’s stupid and so is anyone who thinks they get to treat people that way.

Unfortunately, I see this constantly among the young. My youngest daughter’s gaming group has this problem constantly. “Half of the people just didn’t show up!” That’s not acceptable! She goes through a lot of prep time to put together a game and people don’t care enough about her, nor respect her time, to even mention that they’re not going to make it.

Because a lot of people are just assholes today.

If I’ve set aside time for a game, if I’ve put a lot of time and effort into preparing for it, if other people have done the same thing, you owe it to them to at least be considerate. The fact that an ever-increasing number of people these days don’t know what they’re doing wrong, that’s just proving that they don’t belong at my table. Absolutely no one that I play with would put up with it because they’re all decent adults with a moral compass. They’re also almost all over the age of 40, back when morals were something that was actually taught to the young.

I’m ever so sick of self-absorbed assholes. Can we get rid of them all please?