These people are passionate about something. Sometimes that passion manifests itself a bit too negatively (see: Death/suicide threats about Bayonetta 2 on Wii U as an exclusive), but the fact that what they happen to be passionate about is a computer game is sorta irrelevant. Replace "computer game" with "sports team" or "fly fishing" or "obscure pagan folklore" or whatever else, and you can get the same kind of passionate reactions.
You have to care a lot about something to get upset about it. The fact that they happen to be passionate about SWTOR, doesn't make their lives "empty", it just means that they happen to have a passion different than someone else.