This question was asked whenever young found a new way of amusing themselves. The same was told about penny-thrillers that came with an advent of literacy, and

This question was asked whenever young found a new way of amusing themselves. The same was told about penny-thrillers that came with an advent of literacy, and internet discussion groups. It may well be that when we amuse ourselves in new ways, the other activities get less attention. But ultimately our creativity will bring scientific papers about Factorio and Eve Online, just like there are interesting papers about number theory, optimal strategies in Chess, or AI for StarCraft.