Can anyone explain the logic behind the silent treatment?

[catsclaw227]

Probably not, and that's the bummer about trusting your fellow humans. They often disappoint you.

A wise man once said that it is not human beings, but the veil of expectations we drape over them, that disappoint us.

It sounds like you expected him to be courteous and respectful, and therefore call you back about the game, and he is neither courteous, nor respectful. Your expectations failed you.

Now... I am also curious about the 8 phone calls. If I was somewhere important, or stuck when I couldn't respond, and when later checking my voicemail saw 5 calls from some guy I hardly know, I would likely ignore the following 3 calls because I was freaked out by the first 5. Really a call or two is all it takes, then the ball's in his court.

So many just can't take the responsibility of doing it the "right" way anymore. Someone mentioned a fear of conflict, that's part of it. As a society we propogate it though. Breakups via email, laying off employees via text message.

Basically in the end though, some would rather try to act like it never happened than have to deal with the reality of disappointing someone in person. They still know they let someone down, and would be terribly embarrassed if they saw the person they disappointed again. Stammering and hurrying away, or hoping they weren't seen.

It is a sad day when good character is some thing that we are suprised to see when it exists. Bad character is generally bad parenting. And it takes a few bruises for some people to get the idea that being social responsible, ethical, honest and tolerant of others is what it takes to get ahead in the world.

Character isn't something that just fixes itself. It's grown and nurtured in people over time. And the opposite is true too. Bad behavior that is accepted, coddled, ignored or encouraged is nurtured over time too. These people aren't my friends, nor are they allowed to be in my game.

/rant

Eight times over the course of a day is about twice as many times as I would have called...but far from creepy. In the cell phone era, that's just become more and more common a way for people to communicate.

I must humbly disagree with you here. Everyone I know has cell phones and eight times is creepy. Unless you are playing phone tag, more than twice is creepy in business, and I would say that 4 times would be creepy in a social situation. And, especially from someone I don't really even know. Sorry, that's my opinion.

 

[Hussar]

I think I'm going to go with the 8 times in one day as creepy camp.

This got me to thinking about the players I've gone through in my WLD campaign. We just had our 61st session, so, I was ruminating down memory lane.

I started the game with 5 players. Two are still with me today. Player 3 had been with me for about a year but had school issues, let me know and dropped. Player 4 had a baby (err, his wife did anyway), informed me a dropped. Player 5 was friends with player 4 and decided to drop as well. All let me know.

In come players 6 and 7 - high school friends who are still with me now after 50 sessions despite player 7 moving. Players 8 and 9 joined as well, swelling our ranks to 6 players. Player 9, the elf ninja, flaked out, showed up consistently late, got his two warnings and the boot. Player 8 had school issues, said he would return, and promptly vanished into the ether despite being a solid player for about 6 months.

We added a few more over time. Player 10, also a friend of player 6, has turned out to be rock solid. Player 11, a forgettable fellow, played twice and vanished. Player 12 also rather forgettable, played twice and vanished. Player 13 played once, decided it wasn't for him and left me a very nice note saying he was leaving.

So, out of the 13 players in the last year or so, about a third have vanished into the ether without a word.

The fact that I've kept a very solid core of players for better than a year has made for a really great game. Despite the PC's changing fairly often (I believe everyone is on at least their third PC in 12 levels), the players have been great.

Sorry about this, just wanted to errr pontificate.