I do think, say, acquiring the skill to play piano or guitar tolerably well gains one more general social standing (not just with a subset of gamers) than "I'm fairly good at Rocket League" and also builds a better understanding of music generally, which can be useful and/or pleasant, and gardening produces good food and also carries more social benefits than "I caught all the Pokemon".

I'd agree they're not wildly better. Though if I put as much time into one of those activities as I have into games I'd probably be really really good at them, which I bet would open up some doors if I went looking for them, rather than just being alright at games and knowing some stuff about them, for whatever that's worth (nothing at all).

I think pursuing leisure for some end goal loses the point of leisure itself and is an unfortunate side effect of the times we live in.

That said I'm a workaholic with my job and 2 active projects outside of that who likes to lift and go outside so I can't really take fault with that mode of thinking since I've never quite captured my own idea of how I should be doing leisure.

> That said I'm a workaholic with my job and 2 active projects

I kind of dont see how you could play The Witcher while working overtime and having two side projects and going outside.

You've never taken a week off?

We use weeks off when there is no school to go together somewhere as a family. Around half time with friends too.

I don't have that much time off that I could take week off for the game.

Yeah, that's totally fair, I believe I'm just in an earlier stage of my life where I don't have a family yet so I can sometimes burn the time like that versus prioritizing my social relationships.