I was doing my usual brain dead web surfing the other day and I stumbled across this article and it got me thinking. D&D isn’t for everybody. That’s OK.
Alright, maybe I should say RPG’s in general but the big marketing push right now is that D&D is cool and for everybody. Let’s face it. It’s just not everybody’s thing. Old timers know what’s it like to recruit players. We’d talk and invite just about anybody. And some folks just didn’t enjoy the game.
Some folks don’t like Monopoly, Risk, poker, bridge, or what have you. It doesn’t mean that the games are bad or the people are bad. It’s just not their thing. Some people will throw themselves into a career that may not pay the best but they have a passion for it. Rather than taking whatever pays the best but they don’t enjoy. Like I said, it’s the big marketing push is to make the game for everybody. Remember, when they were calling World of Warcraft “the new golf”? Yeah, how’s that going now? Just like video games or other games as I’ve said. Not all people enjoy the same things which is perfectly fine.
If you’re not having fun as player or a GM. Think about it. Is it the people? It’s magical thing when a group just clicks. It always doesn’t happen. Or is it that the game just isn’t your thing but you’re doing because it’s supposed to cool. Do it because you enjoy it.
They Might Be Gazebos! 
I am one of those folks who started playing D&D when it was new (original white box). I quickly came to dislike its mechanics and moved on to other games. A few years ago I returned to RPGs and spent a couple of years playing Pathfinder (because that is what folks around me were playing). I eventually walked away from it from the same reasons that I stopped D&D back in the day. I won’t be giving the D20 any more of my time, though I did buy, out a sense of nostalgia for those early days, the core books for each subsequent iteration of D&D. I was hoping to find something in them that might call me back into it. There are so many other games and other ways to play, so many other ways to play.
You are correct that D&D is not for everyone. Neither is any other game. Folks who come together to play any game, but especially a RPG, need to be clear with each other about their expectations and desires….before play begins. If they aren’t all “on the same page”, they won’t be playing the same game. That will doom the endeavor from the outset.
But that isn’t what the linked article is about. He didn’t have problems with D&D. He had problems being the GM and took a long time to figure that out and admit it to himself. We all need to be honest with ourselves and each other about what we do and do not want to do.
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