I dunno, I hear what you're saying, and I too experience enjoyment from work, but I still play a lot of games on the side. The difference is effort vs reward, in that in my day job I spend hours hacking away for some reward, whereas in games there's (usually) enjoyment all throughout.

Finished another playthrough of Factorio again the other day, each time I learn of my mistakes and improve on things again. This time I made a proper train network and used premade blueprints for it, it was really neat and things went pretty smoothly. 70 hours or so until first launch.

I didn't mean to throw shade on gaming. I meant to say that my Dune II plays were so satisfying, my gaming void was filled.

I never enjoyed later games as much & eventually moved on from gaming.

sidebar: I ran a Minecraft server for 4 years but that wasn't gaming so much as it was responsibility.

We're not reaping the benefits of work anymore, it's mostly trickling upwards now so not really interesting. Makes sense to spend time on video games where you feel a bit more rewarded.