I wanted to play some 5E the other day and since the world is still full of deadly disease, I decided it would be nice to try and find a group online. I kept my options as broad open as possible. I have a flexible schedule. I can play on any night of the week. I got like 3 level 1 character sheets already rolled up. I'm willing to join in any campaign that tolerates players who might not know exactly what they're doing. I thought finding a game wouldn't take any time at all
Then when I actually tried doing it, I learned that this whole experience is like job hunting except even worse because your employer/GM doesn't even bother trying to maintain a degree of professionalism and there's fucking hordes of people applying to every fucking game that looks interesting. I found a posting on Roll20 the other day that looked great, and I would have applied until I noticed that fifty other applicants had gone already. Even when I do find a posting that isn't already flooded with other people it's extremely unlikely I ever get a reply. One guy was interested and responding until I mentioned I was watching Jeopardy, responded with "Jeopardy huh? lol" and fucking ghosted me. Apparently watching Jeopardy outside of the game is a deal breaker???
I don't know enough about 5E or DMing to host my own game, and I didn't really want to anyway because I wanted to be a player in 5E so I could learn how to DM it. Is this a normal experience for trying to find a group online? Because I still really want to play but I'm already burnt out from how much effort it takes to find a game. Anyone have any advice? Better ways to look? Games that they are running soon and looking for players?
Sadly, looking for games with randos online is a horrible experience for all the reasons you pointed out. There are always, always more players than GMs, so you'd just have to get lucky. There's a subr*ddit for finding games, which is mostly for 5e and fairly active that you could try.
The only other advice I can give is that if you're planning on DMing for a group of friends you already know, there's nothing wrong with just jumping in without prior experience. You'll make mistakes, but so will everyone else, and you'll figure it out as you go; that's what my group did 10 years ago, and we're all still playing.
I second just jumping in as a group of newbies, I remember my first Pathfinder game I made a gunslinger who shot a zombie and then continued slipping in the zombie guts and falling down until he died, while my friend cut his leg off with his own scythe. It was crazy, dumb, and in no way properly followed the rules but it was still fun as hell. Then I made my second character, a monk who eventually became a god of war and was killed by being turned into a rock. good times