Players characters evading direct questions

[KorvinStarmast]

What we've got here is failure to communicate

Happens at tables, happens on forums. We sometimes talk to each other, and we sometimes talk at each other. The latter makes it all more difficult. (I certainly do that sometimes; it rarely goes well).

Some anti-authority I can grok, but not to the point of unprovoked insults, murder, and outlawry. And like Tak I've seen players refuse to share info with NPCs for no apparent reason.

I still get that kind of stuff with our Wednesday group, and all of us are over 60. Some of this boils down to "why am I playing this game" and "what is fun for me tonight to do" and "how many drinks/tabs/joints have I consumed" and so on.
The reactions vary from "Uh , What?" or "that's nuts, I love it" or "wait, are you sure" by the other players and/or GM. I guess in summary, we aren't all 'serious' about our game and we use this one to blow off steam. Each table will have its own balance point on this.

It's a very good question to ask yourself. You might also ask your players why they participate in a game they don't enjoy.

I'm inclined to lean towards the answer that both sides can't do better and are settling for bad gaming rather than no gaming... Although the fact that -every- player you've ever had behaves like this does suggest the common denominator is more likely to be you than them.

But they all seem to be used to it, and keep on getting together for a game each week(or whatever interval RL allows) so the "good gaming" vs "no gaming" isn't a binary switch. It's like a dimmer on a light switch, or a rheostat that controls volume.