Are Video Games Worth the Time?

(First off, I feel very hypocritical as I write this...) Recently I have come to ponder, "Is investing my time in video games worth it?" I have yet to determine a full answer to my question. I enjoy playing them when I am bored, don't feel like doing anything else, or want to have some fun and be entertained. On the other hand, I am just wasting my life away at a screen playing in a fantasy world. I may gain some knowledge, but it really does no good or prepares yourself for the real world. Now you may want to ask me, "Um.. Are movies not the same?!" In a way "yes", but they are for shorter periods of time... The games I am talking about are the ones that are very time invested such as MMORPGs or RPGs including but not limited to: World of WarCraft, Runesape, Ryzom, Paradise Paintball, etc... which I have all played. Now I find it ridiculous to buy in-game material just for cosmetics of a character. Just to make them appeal better and show off to people what BA you think you are. Pointless waste of money. Also, (to online games) what happens when the servers go down due to an outage, ddos, or lack of support? All that hard work you put into the character and game overall is now gone! I feel it's best not to get attached and play games that do not require a persistent internet connection. Now if you're into that, fine. You are making the developers very happy. All they see you as is another wage in their pocket. Generally I will play Free-to-play games or obtain ROMs from the resources at my disposal and run them in emulators on my computer instead of buying a console.