Marzooker: Can a video game hold the same importance to you as a film, or say your favourite album?
Yes, easily. I consider games to be a superior past time to movies, due to being interactive experiences.
There are many reasons why I play games, depending on the game in question:
1. Just to kill excessive time, even with casual (tablet) games.
2. Do or learn things I can't do in real life, e.g. flight simulators.
3. Experience a great interactive adventure and story, with majestic music and stuff.
4. Competitive nature of me, e.g. playing TeamFortress Classic against other human players. This feels a bit like playing football against other people. I prefer team games to deathmatch games. This competitive edge can come also with challenging single-player games, the reason I like RTS and tactical RPG games. I want to win!
With most games, many of these overlap.