"What I Miss About Counterstrike" - Blog authored by CSS legend JonMumm
I spent a fair amount of my youth playing counterstrike and still have fond memories of it. I also learned to program roughly around the same time and found the later far more fulfilling in the long run. I learned skills in programming in those years that I still use today, but whenever I even touch a public counter strike (source) server these days I get hopelessly owned by a new generation.<p>I now see video games as pure downtime in the same way as watching a movie or something, I used to be very competitive and my scores in public servers and clan matches deeply mattered, despite all of this I really wish I had spent more of my CS time learning programming or taking up a completely different hobby (e.g real sport or music). I sometimes wonder where I would be now if I had spent that time doing something else. 
The problem with video games is that you are spending your time perfecting something that is useful only in a very specific virtual world which can be radically changed or even destroyed at any time.
A very small minority of people may become "professional gamers" but for the most part it feels like almost completely wasted time in hindsight.<p>Will it make you money? No
Will it get you laid?  No
Will it help you express yourself? No
Will it make you healthy and fit? No
Will it better mankind in some manner? No<p>I'm not hating on video games, just if you are going to spend that amount of time becoming <i>awesome</i> at something it does seem like a very poor choice.