This is apparent especially in dating circles, where more often than not, listing video games as hobby for a males is a negative signal to the opposite sex.
This is almost certainly because of the small portion of men who see "video games" as a personality rather than a hobby and are probably quite strongly responsible for society's view on "gamers" too.
One loud and toxic apple spoils the batch etc
If you aren't obsessing and are otherwise stable (no debt, bills are paid, job, housing), then it doesn't matter what others say about them. We could be doing something more productive than arguing on HackerNews, yet here we are. Life isn't about being productive 100% of our lives since nothing really does matter anyway.
In a thousand, million or billion years, most (if not all of us) will be forgotten.
FF VII teaches you real values. LoL teaches you absolutely nothing besides resilience when getting bashed for going 0/1
Maybe those girls make own observations on the behavioral difference between a guy who takes gaming as an identity and lists it as important vs guy who sometimes plays games.
People look for matches.
I have nothing against games, it's no better or worse than any other hobby or time-killing activity. It's just stunning that so many people are so busy and yet have so much free time.
(Unless you have a realistic plan to change it.)
Sign up to a MOOC, geez.
I never seen office and it never mattered. Majority of people I know never seen Game of Thrones and would not liked it. Some people do like Game of thrones. So no, it is definitely not a requirement by "society". It may be requirement in your own bubble of society, just as some other bubbles treat dota or Witcher III as requirement.
I also cant recall people defending TV watching as not-a-wasted-of-time. There seems to be consensus that it is waste of time. That if you spent whole weekend by watching tv or watched tv till late hours, you should get a grip and self control.
Being a “TV watcher” as in spending several hours a day doing it as your main hobby is not any better than being a “gamer” for dating purposes.