What can ruin a Game more; Poor GMing or a Bad Player

[jtolman3]

What is more likely to ruin a Game for you,


Could you Work with a Mediocre Gm running the game as long as the players base is good? Bad calls and all?
Or is Poor Gming going to ruin it for you
Vs

A Bad player making the game Frustrating, Can you over look such a player being disruptive to the group and eating up game time as long as the game itself is good?

 

[Morrus]

A game is more than the sum if it's parts. So either, both, or neither. There's no single answer.

 

[gamerprinter]

Its a matter of degree. How bad is the GM vs. how bad is the player? Your comparison is between a mediocre GM and a disruptive player. By your adjectives the mediocre is not as bad as disruptive. If indeed the GM is mediocre, a good group can work with that. However, if it is a problematic GM, I'd say that is worse than any bad player. Also some disruptive players can be managed and some can't. So without knowing how really bad either is - it's difficult to measure. I would lean to a bad GM is a worse thing, however.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

A game is more than the sum if its parts. So either, both, or neither. There's no single answer.

I think this is right.

I think - emphasis on think - that the lion's share of the responsibility for a good game rests on the DM's shoulders as he holds the bulk of the power and I am a firm believer in the basic philosophy that responsibility is the price you pay for power. (I realise this sounds a bit Spiderman-ish. But I'm not a comics guy and it's something I learnt in business well and truly before I saw the movies. )

 

[jtolman3]

I have found that, as Long as the GM isn't being a dick, I can put up with a lot in a poor GM. But I have found the One player can ruin the game for everyone.
And even then that one player doesn't have to be being a dick to do it.

We had a Player in our game at one point where every Session we seemed to be explaining the rules over and over again to him. Explaining what his character could do or should be doing.

At one point I told him he was going to be out of the game if he didn't start showing that he wanted to be there enough to actualy READ THE RULES and learn his character.

Things got better for a few sessions and then we returned to the piont to where he seemed like he wasn't caring enough to pay attention to the game again and were having to tell him again what was going on to catch him back up to speed every 10 minutes....
He is no longer in the group.

Had another Player in another game that kept trying to show others youtube videos during game... and was constantly web browsing during game (was an online game)

Nothing More annoying and disruptive in a game than to have a Url Link pop into the chat window amidst rolls for combat every couple rounds.

So for me at least. I find a "poor" Player Worse than a "Poor" GM

 

[was]

IME a mediocre GM can improve over time with good, and patient, players. On the other hand, disruptive players never seem to change

 

[saskganesh]

I think it's rather easy to get rid of a disruptive player. Similarly, a bad DM is also replaceable.

Bad gaming, on the whole, is not worth the time.

 

[Morrus]

It's a social environment and a social context. Group dynamics (whether in the form of a game or not) are never a binary system.

 

[jtolman3]

I think it's rather easy to get rid of a disruptive player. Similarly, a bad DM is also replaceable.

Bad gaming, on the whole, is not worth the time.

Though in it's basic sense the bolded is true. It can be complicated by other issues, such as being a friend of yours, being a friend of the GM or one of the other players who you don't want to lose.

In the first case I mentioned, We all gave him a chance, every chance we could, In the end his Character ended up getting killed by his own choices/actions (not the GM out to get him) and he so far has never chosen to make another character to rejoin.

In the other case, the player found another local group and stopped playing.

 

[Crothian]

It is easier for a game to survive without a particular player then it is without the GM so I say the GM can ruin a game more.