Originally Posted by
melodramocracy
Chess and football at local levels are awful games, with absolutely no reward for a win. (sarcasm). Actually, video games in general, especially consoles, have had a much bigger impact on such activities over decades than just WoW itself. So that isn't it either. And getting good, progressing, or accomplishing anything (whatever you want to call it) in either of your example activities requires a lot of time and effort, and doing a lot of un-fun, often repetitive stuff. Studying and memorizing chess strats likely isn't considered 'fun' in and of itself, nor is football practice. They are means to a hopefully gratifying end.