Am I an outlier here? I absolutely do not care if my players want anything to do with me outside my campaign. I get enjoyment out of running it, they get enjoyment out of playing it. This comic seems to imply theyre using me, but it feels like im using them just as much. Is it not ok to just accept that you provide a service that people enjoy?
I’d say yes, you are an outlier. Most people have some measure of social anxiety – “do they actually like me or am I just convenient and useful to hang out with” etc. Seems to be very common sentiment.
I have a ton of social anxiety, i just dont see the differance between those. Wanting to hang out with you… seems to mean they like you. Even if its just a service you provide, thats still enough for them to want to be around you.
Enjoying someone’s company and their service is different though, especially when the service is free and you dont think about it as a service.
I had a couple of groups I ran games for, considered them close friends for years. But once I stopped because of IRL reasons, none of them wanted to spend time doing other stuff (minus one dude I still talk to). Its fine I’m over it, but back then it was a pretty big blow they were my only friends.
I mean, describing it as providing “a service that people enjoy” is probably the weirdest bit. We’ve got to remember that the outspoken ones, at least on areas outside of major social media, are nerdy introverts for the most part. There are people that are ‘chameleons,’ where they have a group of tennis friends (I probably need to update that description to the more popular pickleball, now…), a group of mall-shopping friends, a group of partying friends, and it’s possible that it isn’t always the case, but almost always ‘never the [thrain] shall meet.’ The various groups would probably not have much in common. The nerdy introverts, though? They’re the opposite, where their small, core group of friends are likely all similar and share a lot of activities together.
You can imagine that the majority of ttrpg groups fit the second group more than the first. Not all of them, but most.
You are an outlier but you shouldn’t be.
Oh man I feel this so hard.
