I see! That's a fair criticism, but I feel like a lot of new games are distancing themselves from being mere time sinks. I would compare video games to books or movies: there are certainly countless examples of each type of media that are just time killers. However, every so often there are books, movies, and indeed, games (video or otherwise) that provide novel experiences, provoke thought, and titillate the player's intellect and creativity.

A few examples: Scribblenauts, a recent Nintendo DS game in which the player can invoke any object he can imagine to help solve the game's puzzles. Shadow of the Colossus, a Playstation 2 game from a few years back, has a unique mood and a compelling narrative that challenge many fine works of cinema.

Do you think those types of games change the playing field at all? 10 - 15 years ago, I would have agreed with you completely, but I think that, as a developing field, video games are coming into their own as a "proper" form of media. Also, you mention socialization and exercise as having value over video games, but see games like Wii Fit or Left4Dead which combine those things with gameplay.

EDIT: Also, communities can form around these video games. For example, I really enjoy one-on-one competitive sports & games. I fence three nights a week, and regularly travel anywhere from 30 to 300 miles for tournaments. However, I have also traveled similar distances for Street Fighter tournaments. I have found that the fighting game community is as tightly knit as the fencing community. A few times, I have come through a city where I know someone from a message board, but have never met. On those nights, I had a place to stay solely based on my connections through this video game-based community. Don't really know how that fits into the debate, but it seemed relevant.

Video games can potentially improve hand eye coordination, spacial reasoning, and reflex times. There have been experiments that have shown that doctors who played video games growing up, were more skilled in surgery. Perhaps just a correlation and not causation, but definitely something to consider.

I also think I'm a better driver because I play games, and better at understanding sports.