Larísa has a beautiful post on her justification for playing WoW, Happily building my sandcastle. Her argument is that WoW is a hobby much like any other. It’s not about economic gain, or self-improvement, or getting a hot date, or any other extrinsic reward, it’s for its own sake. People don’t build sandcastles for the rewards, they build sandcastles because it’s fun.
My primary hobby is always something I’m obsessed with. I’ve changed hobbies a number of times: reading, computer games, board games, martial arts, and so on. In every case the hobby has consumed most of my free time (and some of my non-free time). My dad and my brother are the same way.
It is in my hobbies that I manage to truly live in the moment and that is worth a lot to me.