Games are a Waste of Time?

I had an interesting conversation recently, with a person who knows someone who says that playing video games is a waste of time.

Now, if this is true, then that means that any pursuit that is undertaken as a hobby, is a waste of time.

Lets look at it this way, if someone reads a book, or watches a film, is that a waste of time? Most people would say no, it's good, wholesome brain food, however, when the medium is question is video games, it's a waste of time, or it's brain rotting.

There are a few arguments to support them, in that the games that make it onto the news are usually the violent ones (Any sort of first person shooter), or soul destroying, stereotypical ones (WoW). However, it's not true of a vast majority of video games, especially in the booming 90's, when adventure games where a hefty portion of the gaming world.

To me, and to many other people, games posess as much merit as an artistic medium as any other, for when you're playing a game, you're a part of the narrative, you're advancing the story, so not only are you often getting your mind taxed with puzzles, or being told an epic story, you feel accomplishment that you've advanced the story, that it's something you've done, rather than something that has been scripted beforehand.

With games becoming more complex, so do storylines, take the witcher for example, based on choices the player makes, the game can change competely, this is something that just isn't possible with movies, books or music.

Granted, i'm not saying for everyone to drop their books or stop going to the cinema, I just wish for video games to be seen in a less contempt light, so just try it out once in a while if you haven't already, you never know, you might enjoy it.