The amount of people who demonstrate flakiness and inability-to-focus in tabletop games is outrageous.
1. I've never had it take two hours to start any other game because people wouldn't shut up. If starting an RPG game is something you're avoiding because it's too much work then don't agree to play it, for Chrestos' sake.
2. I've had people flake out on me for other occasions, but never so frequently and without apparent qualms as in RPGs.
It would be one thing if the people were not interested, or bored by the game. But a good number of these people never bothered to send me their character sheets, and many never messaged me back after specifically requesting to play in my game.
The first is more of a problem in-real-life, while the second is more common online (endemic, really). Why does it seem most people can't sit down and reliably play to save their lives? I suspect half of them have no idea what they're doing and aren't really interested. It doesn't seem like a big deal to blow it off like a game of Counter-Strike. On the other hand, people tend to do less - MMO players are a lot less flakey than PnP players.
Given how long it takes to set up any kind of campaign, to learn the rules and to develop a story and characters in most roleplaying games, these people are being total dicks. This is also probably a downside of Roll20 and ease-of-access: the more accessible something is, the more uncommitted dummies you get swimming around. I mean, how much effort does it take to reply to a fucking text message, even if it's to say 'FACK OFF DM! I FOUND A BETTAR GAYM!" Are people so illiterate that following up text messages is so time consuming? Or are they just too socially retarded to realise they're being serial dickbags?
This is probably compounded by the fact that I am interested (pretty much exclusively) in 'hardcore' roleplaying, 'screwing around' and killing shit for no reason is an irritating waste of time and a shitty replacement for a video game. I feel like a lot of people in RPGs are playing the wrong game.
The only time I have ever missed an RPG game I agreed to attend was when I unexpectedly lost internet, and I told the person about it before game time. I always fill out my sheets and read the rule books. However, it's such a pain in the ass to find a DM worth his salt who isn't already busy with IRL players that I'm pretty much always on the DM side of the screen.
I know that this issue with flakiness isn't just me, but it does seem to be more prevalent in RPGs than in most social scenes I've heard of.