You know, I have definitely not found this to be the case in the real world. It’s like any other hobby of course, where it depends on who you’re talking to whether or not it’s worth talking about at all, and if so to what extent and how you need to frame things. I’ve had some great conversations about League over the years, up to and including it being something to bond with one of my wife’s cousins over. She also has a friend from her doctorate program who doesn’t play video games herself, but who was endlessly fascinated by the web of interactions that went into running a raiding guild in Classic. On the other hand I obviously am not bringing it up ever around her 65-year-old parents.
True, but like Vision said, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts.” I had physical trophies and medals from various sports from my K-12 years and they’re all gone. Plenty of people have had their virtual WoW trophies for longer than I had any of my medals. The joy I derive from my own isn’t going to retroactively disappear when the servers go down, and I don’t need a physical trophy to discover common nostalgic ground with someone in the future.
And I’m going to keep bringing up the inherent contradiction in how emotionally invested you and yours are in something you are claiming is meaningless. You can’t have it both ways.