My wife is a teacher and, like most people, she sometimes complain about her work. The most common complaint I hear is that students don't pay attention or do

My wife is a teacher and, like most people, she sometimes complain about her work. The most common complaint I hear is that students don't pay attention or do their assigned work, then turn around and complain that they haven't learned something or panic at the end of a semester and pester her for ways to improve their grade. Some of them exclaim that they are just too dumb to pass, so they wont even bother trying. When my wife advises these kids, she usually discovers that they have no (or very limited) career or academic aspirations. I bring this up because I think a person's ability (intellectual or otherwise) is usually nurtured by a passion. People with a passion put extra effort into developing the skills required to fulfill that passion. People with no passion simply don't invest the same level of effort and so are sometimes perceived as "dumb" in comparison. One of the ways in which my wife tries to help her students is by helping them find something to be passionate about. She talks to parents/guardians to help discover their passions and often references the Occupational Outlook Handbook to help the students and their guardians figure out what they can do with that passion economically and what to invest the most in academically. I think a person's "intellectual potential" is linked to their passion for a particular academic subject. I also think that intelligence is not a finite resource, but passion is. So when analyzing the opportunity cost of games like Factorio or Eve Online, I think you must consider their effect on a person's passion. If I stopped playing games like Factorio altogether and forced myself to invest all that time into improving my software development skills, I'm confident I would quickly "burn out" - or exhaust my passion for the subject. Rather than "sapping my intellectual potential", I think relaxing with games such as Factorio from time to time allows me to replenish my passion which fuels my intellectual potential. Everything should be enjoyed in moderation of course, but I certainly don't think the existence of games like those is a net negative for humanity.