Thoughts on pay to play games?

I feel like ive seen more of these pop up and its got me thinking about them.  Some seem like the DM is over hyping and charging to much.  As a DM i get it its alot of work but some are charging what i feel would be way to much for myself to ever think about paying per session. But hey thats me.  Just looking to see other peoples thoughts in general about pay to play. 

Back in the 70's I ran some paid dungeon gigs, it really wasn't worth the time, I got $5 per person times six people thirty bucks for a three hour session with about 12 hours of prep time. Made it $2 per hour. Minimum wage at that time was about $3.35 per hour. These were pre-made characters, handouts for each player, I might have even brought sodas. Of course if you could get multiple groups and re-use all of the material, you might bring it up to about current minimum wage. I only tried to do this for a short time, I had a supply of recruits supplied by a contact in the Library in Philadelphia, all of my players were librarians, so not a real rowdy crowd.

Counterbob said: I feel like ive seen more of these pop up and its got me thinking about them.  Some seem like the DM is over hyping and charging to much.  As a DM i get it its alot of work but some are charging what i feel would be way to much for myself to ever think about paying per session. But hey thats me.  Just looking to see other peoples thoughts in general about pay to play.  When I talk to DMs, the main reason they do pay-to-play (up-front especially) is so that players will actually commit. $10 isn't going to force someone to commit 5 hours to prepping and running a session, but it may be enough to convince a player not to bail for no reason.

I only play with real-life friends.  But if I was DMing for online players I do not know, I'd charge the players a bit of money. It's not to cover my time.  It's to support a Pro subscription and buy a supplements like a Roll20 Monster Manual, new maps, etc, to make my job easier and the time I spend on the campaign more efficient.  Plus it acts like a cover charge.  Keeps the non-serious players from wasting my, and the other players', time. It's not like face-to-face play where it can be difficult to find new players.

Closing this as off-topic, as it isn't really about Roll20 (we're pretty strict about this). In terms of paid GMing on our site, the fact is there are folks who want it. Same as there are folks who want to play 2nd Edition Shadowrun... I don't understand it, but hey, good on them! Roll20 has gone so far as to make it so you need only check a box and then you won't see paid games if they aren't your thing. Similar to any approach to game play-- editions, payment, rules light vs heavy, etc.-- we ask you have those discussions offsite, where Roll20 doesn't have to be responsible for playing opinion referee. No matter what decision you make, we'll be here to help you play the game you and your group decide best fits you.