Since I didn't mean eSports, I only refer to this. It got better in the last decade, but there are still enough people who don't view video games as a normal entertainment type like music, movies or books. Just recently a colleague of mine asked "People are still playing video games?" - and I work in the IT sector. It also seems to be more accepted when kids/teens are gamers, but not adults. The image gets even worse regarding MMOs.

Well that kind of sucks. It's not like that here. Video games are part of accepted culture, at least on the casual level as I said. eSports, while it has gained ground over the past decade is still largely a different story though. As far as MMOs go there is a reason why I generally stay away from them. They tend to be time consuming and have been known to suck your life away =P

Out of curiosity: would you mention gaming as main or one of your main hobbies on a first date (ofc without foreknowledge of their opinion)?

I wouldn't say it's my main hobby as I have other interests, but I have before when it has happened to come up during conversation. It's part of who I am and if you start dating someone they are going to find out anyway so I see no point in hiding it. Either they accept you for what you are or they don't.

At which age? Here stamp collection is only mentioned when it comes to jokes (referred as bourgeois/square (?), traditional and boring).

I'm not exactly sure. I would imagine many young people wouldn't think much of it or might consider it uninteresting, but at the same time I think most people would regard it as a legit hobby given it's traditional nature, even if not many of them actually did it themselves (this is where I fall). On a side note, it's possible for a rare stamp to actually be worth something to a serious collector or even have some sort of historical significance attached to it.

Not in the traditional way. But have you looked at least once into the "rate the steam profile of the user above" thread? People use the profile to express their favourite games and their character. And some are really creative with that (don't look up mine, it's just a mash up ^^).

No, I haven't looked at it. It just doesn't interest me, and I say that as someone who went so far as to compete is a little bit of eSports years ago before it grew into what it is today. I don't necessarily begrudge people if that's how they want to spend their time and/or money, but at same time I can't ignore that the kind of people that you can show that sort of thing off to are going to be those in a very specific niche group. The average person or most people in your life are probably not going to really care about or think much of your virtual profile on some gaming site. Maybe an exception could be South Korea because I get the impression that they are gaming crazy over there. If I am to be honest this entire site and community is very much niche in and of itself. Sometimes people here like to forget that it is or pretend that it isn't, often because they want their shared perspectives or views to have more weight in the world than they actually do, but they are just fooling themselves.

I didn't mean by that I'd like bragging. But what's the difference between the "e-penis" and a "real life" "penis length substitution" or the midlife crisis (like expensive cars, any collectibles, kois etc)?

Oh I know you didn't mean that. To me the difference is that one is just some virtual thing and the other is actually physical and 'real life'. I just can't see most people being interested in the former or somehow being impressed by it. Not that I'm saying that that should be anyone's mission or objective because I think you should have a hobby or interest because you enjoy it and just for yourself first and foremost. Anyway, on a philosophical note, while it's okay as an escape, I would dread the idea of somehow allowing myself to get lost in the virtual world and forgetting how to actually 'live'. Sometimes the best thing in life are simpler ones.