Great, now it’s an escort mission.
Here’s how I see it:
There are only three things in your life that should consume more than two hours a day of your time: work*, spouses/children and sleep. (And let’s be honest, it’s hard enough to fit all three of those into a day even without anything else.) *You can substitute volunteering, housework and/or school for work if you’re not traditionally employed.
If you’re spending more than two hours a day on anything else, especially any single recreational activity, you probably need to evaluate whether you’re spending that time wisely.
Survey/study results vary but the average age of today’s video game player is between 30 and 38. That’s an average so it’s not as though being 41 and playing is far outside the curve.
I’ll agree that games are more of a niche then generically “sports” or “television” but age is increasingly having little to do with it.
Are you categorizing “beer” under work or spouse?
Sometimes after a long night playing Minecraft, I just don’t have the energy to socialize on WoW, let alone perform my duties among my guild. So I’ll pop in Portal on the PS3 and find my mental acuity is low, eat some more Doritos and take a 12 hour nap.
Then, after another Mountain Dew: Halo Flavor, I find I have the strength to face the latest expansion pack or new season of the TWD game. At least until the diarrhea kicks in.
That said, I think it’s understood to be considered a hardcore gamer you have to put in a HELL of a lot of time and effort into each game to master it, thereby garnering a legit “gamer” title.
This translates into very little and/or rare payoff in life; glee’s success story being the exception.
If the average age is between 30 and 38, that reinforces my guess that the majority got into it when they were kids. The Nintendo Entertainment system came out 28 years ago. It would be more interesting to see the average number of years a person played video games ie when they started. I’m betting its the minority that were older than 25 when they first started playing video games. When you factor in that the baby boomers are the biggest age demographic in the US, that means that there are quite a few people that never really got into it then or now. But film and sports have existed longer than pretty much anyone has been alive, so it is much more likely the majority of people enjoy them in some form or another.
I say again… HOGWASH. There is no “gamer” title. A gamer is someone who plays games. Just as a collector is someone who collects things.
That applies both to the person with a house full of plates from the Franklin Mint and the person who has a handful of tchotchkes. And it’s equally true of the gamer who plays all day and the person who plays Angry Birds on their phone.
Gamers who play more than the average person are known as “hardcore gamers” to distinguish them from regular gamers as the majority of the US plays games including more than 97% of all people under 18 and more than 53% of those over 18.
That’s what I said: Hardcore gamers.
I don’t think anyone here is confusing the OP with casual gamers. Have to draw a line in reality somewhere.
While I’d suspect that many older gamers grew up with it, I’d also say there’s probably a significant number of people who got into it more recently with various mobile games. Then we can all start debating whether a Candy Crush, Temple Run, Where’s My Water or Angry Birds devotee counts as a “gamer”.
I find it stranger that the OP is 20 and getting flack from people I presume are peers. My general experience is that damn near everyone in that age bracket plays something – maybe he just acts generally obsessive about it.
It occurs to me that I wouldn’t even bother listing “video games” in a list of my hobbies because it seems as open-ended and pointless a description as saying “I like TV” or “I like music”. Oh, you enjoy music and movies? I’ll be sure the police include that in their description should you ever go missing. Should really help them track you down… “Look for the guy who likes television!”
So as long as I’m gaming with my spouses and children and not at work or in my sleep then I’m good to go? Right on.
Get a job. Volunteer some time. Make the world a better place. Do something productive instead of spending all your free time in front of a screen.
Holy crap… when did I get old…
Unless you’re brewing and selling it, let’s just put it under “other recreational activities” and limit it to two hours a day, OK? 
Devil’s advocate: why should we all feel obligated to go out, make the world a better place, and do something productive? Maybe it’s better for us, and it’s probably better for the world at large, but why is it something we all should feel we must do?
The mentioned two hour rule also feels a bit restrictive, but I don’t feel much like pondering reasons right now.
I dunno. Let’s say you got a job, and your new boss sends out a message to the team announcing the new employee. There may be a sentence about your personal interests, so the new co-workers can get to know you a little better. Which of the below would kinda be considered a “red flag” to your co-workers?:
“Today we welcome Bob Bobsworth to the team as our new analyst. Bob has extensive experience in the areas that are important to us, and has a great track record for getting things done. In his spare time, Bob is interested in photography, Thai cuisine, traveling, running, soccer, and playing video games.”
Hmm, which one does not quite fit? While “gaming” has become a more accepted type of hobby recently, it can also be seen as a face tattoo - not something you would really want to advertise if you want to be taken seriously.
Part of being a gamer is being too busy gaming to give a fuck what any else thinks I’m doing with my life.
Shower. Soap.
Make these things your friend and you too will have friends. And girls. Or boys, not that there is anything wrong with that.
And shampoo. Unless you are a 16th century time traveler your hair should not look like you just woke up under a car with a bad oil leak.
WHAT. A. LOAD. OF. BULLSHIT.
Did you look at the percentages of the population that play games that I listed above? Video games are more popular than all of the other activities you listed.
It’s alright to get old, I think there are some clouds for you to yell at over there.
I think of it like eating healthy foods. There’s nothing wrong with the occasional cheeseburger and chocolate cake, but if someone ate those things to the exclusion of all else, you’d be worried about their health.
As for my two-hour rule: It’s just a rule of thumb. And I see it as an average. If you want to splurge and spend all Saturday gaming, then I’d still see that as relatively healthy if you spend the rest of the week doing other things. But at some point, you have to achieve some variety and balance. You don’t want to become my brother who literally quit his job so that he could put 80+ hours a week into World of Warcraft. (Seriously… he was living with me for a while and one week, the only time I saw him was when he stormed out of his room to curse at me for the fact that my microwave was interrupting his Wifi signal.)
Anyway, getting out and making the world a better place is just good for you, in my opinion, even aside from any moral/religious benefits you might perceive. It’s the broccoli of mental health. It’s a good thing to spend a little time helping other people.
Your sexist assumptions preclude you from having an opinion on my friends, or my hair-do, that merits my concern. Fortunately for me, Path of Exile is there to occupy my thoughts.