I found this story more sad than egregious.

I'm recruiting for a Vampire: The Masquerade game. My initial conversation with one player goes over well.

Unfortunately, I don't like their PC. The PC is a trenchcoat-wearing, claymore-wielding, "wickedly intelligent and incredibly seductive" nymphomaniac lesbian stripper assassin. This feels like a parody WoD character, but it's played completely seriously. The PC ignores requirements I've mandated, such as to be neonates (they're an elder), to have strong local ties (they're fresh off the boat from a distant country), and to belong to one of the city's factions (they're unaffiliated with any).

I reiterate these requirements and suggest revisions to the player.

I don't like their second draft appreciably more. I'm not a fan of their writing style (this is a pbp game) and feel like our personalities don't vibe.

Meanwhile, I'm contacted by another player. I love her PC, love her writing style, and feel like our personalities really click. I invite her to join the game. Three years later, she's one of my closest friends and her PC is one of my favorites that I've ever GM'd. Very happy with that choice.

I tell the other player that the open spot went to someone else.

The player tells me they're heartbroken and how they fell in love with the game. (I don't find this inappropriate--the game has a ridiculously large Obsidian Portal wiki and is a labor of love on my part, too.) They tell me how they were disowned by their family for unfair-sounding reasons, spent time homeless, and lost most of their friends while homeless. They don't tell me, but I'm pretty sure, that they belong to a minority group which could also be facing a pretty rough time of things (depending on where they live). They tell me they just want somewhere to belong with friends who care about them. They ask for my help finding another Masquerade game. They say they feel pathetic baring their soul like this, but are so desperate to find a game they're doing it anyway.

I do my best to write a compassionate response and give them as much advice and as many game-finding resources as I can think of. It comes out to several pages.

My help may also be useless. The player is looking for a Masquerade game played with Requiem rules, which my game was. I tell them there are very few such games (heck, my game later switched rulesets), and that they can significantly expand their options if they are willing to play with Masquerade rules. If that's a dealbreaker, I suggest GMing--finding players online is easy--and offer more advice there.

I don't hear back. Six months later, I get another message asking if there's an opening in my game. I tell them sorry, there's not. I don't hear back again.

I felt bad for the player. But for all their desire to find a game, they'd adopted criteria that made doing so almost impossible. Evidently, having Requiem rules was more important than having friends.

Maybe they changed their mind later. I hope so.