How do you define success?  I define it as being happy.  But the whole problem with success is that people seek it without ever thinking about what it means to be successful.  They all want to be successful, which is an end result.  Winning, or achieving that goal.  But any self-respecting self-helper will tell you that the real joy is in the path towards the goal!  Yet, people go around telling people why they want to be successful.  I do it too.  Instead, what you should want is nothing more than taking pleasure in the freedom to seek your goals.  There is nothing more that we can ask for.

Since one goal can be just as good as another in fulfilling our quest for happiness, why do we always talk so bad about video gamers?  I don’t think we should.  If they’re happily pursuing a goal, whatever that might be in the game they’re playing, then that’s fantastic.  They’re happy, and that’s all anyone can ever hope to achieve.  People say things like, “you’re not improving yourself” or “you’re lazy” etc… but constantly improving yourself is not necessarily the same as being happy, and laziness is just a B.S. concept invented by people who try to convince you to get a job and do lots of other stupid things.

Now if people are bored and playing video games for lack of better things to do, then that’s nothing good at all.  But if they’re really passionate about World of Warcraft or some other stupid game, there’s no need to constantly tell them to go outside into the “real world” or whatever.   They’ve already found happiness.  Your goals don’t have to be their goals.

No, you’re not being productive (i.e. producing things) by playing games or drinking or doing anything else pointless, but if that makes you happy then you are achieving a higher score in the game of life than most people who work 80 hour weeks and pile up money, or the people who are in the best of shape constantly working out but never satisfied, while looking down upon others with scorn.  If you define success as being happy, then you can literally do anything with your life.  You might not be successful in the common interpretation, monetarily, but that only matters to people who keep an outer scorecard.  People who judge themselves by what they perceive others to be judging them as.

If donating to charity really gets your rocks off, then go for it!  Likewise with playing video games or doing massive, head-swirling amounts of narcotics.  Let your inner emotions be the ultimate judge of your character.