I’m gonna go against the current here and say no. Videogames are not a good hobby and a poor investment of your time. If the alternative is deer hunting or anything shady then playing videogames is one of the less harmful things you can do on earth but among the thousand activities you can do and pick up as a hobby videogames are not free of issues.

First of all by specifically getting into video games you are looking at stare at a screen and sit for hours. Not a big deal if you can manage it but don’t limit yourself to just videogames, there are board games, social games, mind sports and many other games you can get into.

Videogames industry has become very rotten and has appropriated the whole community. Many of the titles being suggested here are “products” made by evil companies with mechanics built to mess up with people. Steam which many recommended you to download is a proprietary software launcher that belongs to a company that has no problem pushing loot boxes and abduct kids into gambling. That’s the sort of business you are getting your hands into.