I can kind of see your friend "Billy's" point. I have had GMs that were too lazy to learn the game they were running, so they made stuff up as they went, when you pointed out to them that there were rules for grappling or whatever the case was, they got mad and would say they are "role-playing" not "roll-playing", or that the rules made no sense, so they were doing it THEIR way. This kind of changing a game on the fly gets really old quick. I have also had GMs add monsters and change traps and things on the fly when the party blew through them too quickly. This also gets old quick, shouldn't you reward the party for doing well, not try and heap on extra crap to them?
I guess it depends on your view of GMing, I think good GMing is being a referee instead of the "bad-guy". By that, I mean the GM should arbitrate what happens between the NPCs/monsters and the party. The GM should NOT be the NPCs/monsters and make it a competition between the GM (who has all the power) and the PCs (who are at the whim of the GM); even an idiot GM can win that fight.
I would invite your friend to watch the game for a session or two and decide if the GM is someone he trusts to be neutral, or if the GM is biased against the players; then he can skip the game and stick to the games he is comfortable with or join in if it looks fun to him. I know when I GM, I like to see my players' characters develop and improve and do well. I think if Billy sees that a lot of GMs are like this, he will be comfortable playing RPGs and not just board games.
I guess it depends on your view of GMing, I think good GMing is being a referee instead of the "bad-guy". By that, I mean the GM should arbitrate what happens between the NPCs/monsters and the party. The GM should NOT be the NPCs/monsters and make it a competition between the GM (who has all the power) and the PCs (who are at the whim of the GM); even an idiot GM can win that fight.
I would invite your friend to watch the game for a session or two and decide if the GM is someone he trusts to be neutral, or if the GM is biased against the players; then he can skip the game and stick to the games he is comfortable with or join in if it looks fun to him. I know when I GM, I like to see my players' characters develop and improve and do well. I think if Billy sees that a lot of GMs are like this, he will be comfortable playing RPGs and not just board games.