Video games can provide challenge, storytelling, competition, creativity and social contact in a way few other forms of entertainment combine. They can also become the automatic answer to every free hour because consoles, phones and online games are designed to make returning easy. The useful distinction is not between gaming and supposedly better hobbies. It is between leisure you choose and leisure you fall into without noticing. A three-hour gaming session with friends can be a satisfying evening. Three hours of repeatedly starting another match while wishing you had gone to bed can feel very different. Keeping games enjoyable is therefore less about strict time limits and more about noticing what role they are playing in the rest of your week.
