personal investment in games
I've played in and run more than a few games here, and one of the things that I see a lot of is games and players that quickly come and go.
Either the GM throws in the towel, or players come and go like a revolving door.
Am I alone in this observation?
I think part of the reason for that is that games sometimes seem impersonal. There is no connection beyond the character. I think this is also why I've seen a fair amount of drama between people, is that their only connection to a given game is a specific character, so if something negative happens to a character, the player is basically like "well screw it, I'm gone". Or in cases where a player loses interest and eventually just quits showing up, I think that sometimes it's because the player and the game weren't lined up correctly to begin with.
Take for instance a tabletop campaign recently with a group of long time gaming friends - they all wanted to play a certain sci-fi game that was not especially interesting to me, but I agreed to be in. Weeks later, I suddenly had all sorts of excuses for not showing up. The campaign and I just weren't a good fit. I'm still great friends with all those folks, and we can play other games, it was just that I didn't mesh well with that particular game.
I think that GMs and players should get to know each other a little better. We don't have to be best buds, but I think that people who have an inkling of the other players' situation tend to be better gamers in your group than the alternative.
My last point is on the topic of game style. And this may be somewhat genre specific - I'm running a Vampire the Masquerade game for a small number of players. I find that when I put out an ad, I get a good dozen or so people who express interest, and then I have to try to figure out how to narrow it down to a handful of people. Can you imagine showing up at a gaming table in real life to GM a game, and finding twelve people standing across from you, character sheets in hand, prepared to make their quick presentation to you, in the style of some sort of awful "reality tv" show like Trump's Fancy Firing People Show? (or whatever its called). Its awful really. Anyone can make a reasonably interesting Vampire character. But I promise you that only a few of those dozen people are going to end up being the type of person that I can run a game with for months on end. How the hell do you sort the wheat from the chaff?
Wow that was long and probably pointless. Food for thought, people.